Heaven and Earth - live at Timisoara Early Music Festival
The Grand Tour Ensemble Masques & Julien Campani, comédien
Olivier Fortin, un portrait - le cosmopolite baroque
Ensemble Masques au Festival Sinfonia en Périgord : Extraits des Suites de Bach
Sophie Gent & Tuomo Suni - violins
Kathleen Kajioka - viola
Mélisande Corriveau - violoncello/viola da gamba
Benoît Vanden Bemden- - violone
Olivier Fortin - harpsichord/organ
Composed of a core of 6 instrumentalists specialized in baroque music, Ensemble Masques
is renowned for its expressiveness, eloquence and the depth of its interpretations.
The name of the group is inspired by the masques of Elizabethan England — dramatic entertainments
that incorporated music, dance and poetry.
Renowned as much for its expressiveness and vitality as for its integrity and precision, Ensemble Masques fully embodies the multiplicity of the Baroque spirit. The core members of the ensemble each have careers as soloists and performers with prestigious international early music ensembles. They are regularly joined by other instrumentalists who share the same desire to bring out the full expressive potential of the repertoire they perform.
Since its creation, Ensemble Masques has deliberately chosen to explore different repertoires from the 17th and 18th centuries, rather than confine itself to one style or genre. This curiosity, which is inseparable from its identity, reflects the reality of composition in the Baroque period, in which different influences intersected and blended. It has led the Ensemble to take an in-depth look at Germanic music of the 17th century, to reveal Telemann's universalism and humanism, and to take an interest in the initiatory journey of the ‘Grand Tour’, all artistic choices underpinned by a taste for exchange, mixing, borrowing and mixing, as the variety of nationalities of the musicians who make up the Ensemble bears witness.
Ensemble Masques is a regular guest at concert series and festivals in Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium. It also tours most major centres in Canada and the United States, including New York, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Los Angeles. Past and future projects include concerts as part of the Folles Journées de Nantes and Tokyo at the Cité de la Voix in Vézelay at the Festival de Saintes, at the Heidelberger Frühling at the Festival de Wallonie and on tour in the UK and Finland.
An exclusive artist for the ALPHA label, his many recordings have been unanimously acclaimed by the critics, receiving the Diapason d'Or, the ffff from Telerama, ‘Chocs’ from Classica and the ‘Editor's Choice’ and ‘Gramophone Award’ from Gramophone Magazine. In 2022 they released a recording of J.S. Bach's Overture-Suites played by one musician per part. The Ensemble's next recording will be released in 2025 with Bach's violin concerti performed by violinist Sophie Gent.
The Ensemble is supported by the DRAC Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, the région Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, the département de Saône et Loire, the CNM, the SPEDIDAM and the ADAMI. Ensemble Masques is a member of FEVIS and PROFEDIM.
SEP 2024
ENSEMBLE MASQUES - FR
Réputé tant pour son expressivité et sa vitalité que pour son intégrité et sa précision, l’Ensemble Masques incarne pleinement la multiplicité de l’esprit du baroque. Les membres formant le noyau de l’ensemble mènent chacun des carrières de solistes et d’interprètes au sein de prestigieux ensembles internationaux de musique ancienne. Régulièrement se joignent à eux d’autres instrumentistes partageant le même désir de rendre au répertoire joué tout son potentiel expressif.
SEP 2024
Olivier Fortin
Olivier Fortin graduated with distinction from the Québec Conservatory in 1995. He continued his training with Dom André Laberge, obtained a Master Degree from University of Montreal under the direction of Réjean Poirier, and received several scholarships for studies in Paris with Pierre Hantai and in Amsterdam with Bob van Asperen. In 1997 he was awarded top prizes at the Montreal Bach Competition and the Bruges Festival. He is in demand as a soloist and chamber musician, touring and recording throughout Europe, China and South Korea, the United States and Canada with Masques, Capriccio Stravagante and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.
He also performs with Skip Sempé and Pierre Hantaï in programs of music for two and three harpsichords. Olivier Fortin has appeared in the Festivals of Berkeley, La Roque d’Antheron, Utrecht, Aldeburgh, Regensburg, Zermatt, Montreal Baroque; Music Before 1800 and the Frick Collection in New York, the Cite de Musique in Paris, the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, BOZAR Music in Brussels, the Folle Journée in Nantes, Bilbao and Lisbon and the Festival Bach de Lausanne. As both solo harpsichordist and featured collaborative artist, he has recorded more than twenty CDs for Alpha, ZZT, Analekta, Atma, Paradizo, Teldec and Alpha Classics – the latest release being an album dedicated to Fr Couperin’s “l’Art de toucher le Clavecin”.
Olivier Fortin is the founder and director of the Montreal-based ensemble Masques. Since 1998, the ensemble has become a strategic meeting point for young Canadian and European musicians. From 2004-2008 he taught harpsichord and chamber music at the Conservatoire de Musique de Quebec, and he currently teaches at the Tafelmusik Summer Institute in Toronto.
2024
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