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Bernard Labadie, conductor

b i o g r a p h y...........back to roster....up June 2012 Bernard Labadie has established himself worldwide as one of the leading conductors of the Baroque and Classical repertoire, a reputation that is closely tied with Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec which he founded and continues to lead as music director to this day. With these two ensembles he regularly tours Canada, the US and Europe, in major venues and festivals such as Carnegie Hall (most recently in March 2012) and Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Kennedy Center, Barbican, Concertgebouw, and the Salzburg Festival, among others. Passionate about opera, Labadie has also been artistic director of L’Opéra de Québec and L’Opéra de Montréal. As a guest he conducted Handel’s Orlando with Glimmerglass Opera, Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Mozart’s Lucio Silla with Santa Fe Opera, to highlight a few. September 2009 marked his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, a work he conducted again at Cincinnati Opera in 2011.Ever since his triumphant debut with the Minnesota Orchestra in 1999, Labadie has become a regular presence on the podiums of the major North American orchestras, including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, St. Louis, Houston, Atlanta, Detroit, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, most of them on a regular basis. His debut with the Cleveland Orchestra occurred in early 2010. Testament to Labadie’s appeal with audiences around the world is the long list of re-engagements during the 2012/13 season. In the US, his itinerary takes him to the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Toronto Symphony and Handel & Haydn Society. Overseas he goes on his third Australian journey to conduct the Melbourne Symphony and leads various European orchestras like the Academy of Ancient Music, WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne, Hamburger Symphoniker, Northern Sinfonia, BBC Scottish Symphony, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Brussels Philharmonic. His 2011/12 calendar was filled with such engagements as his debut at Tanglewood and returns to the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Utah Symphony, Vancouver Symphony among other orchestras. Season 2010/11 brought another wide array of return engagements, including the New York Philharmonic and the symphonies of Toronto, San Francisco, St. Louis, Colorado, as well as Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society. In Europe he made debuts with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music, and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.Other recent highlights point to appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Collegium Vocale Ghent, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow, the NDR Orchestra in Hannover, and the Melbourne ABC Orchestra. Labadie’s extensive discography includes many critically acclaimed recordings on the Dorian, ATMA and Virgin Classics labels, including Handel’s Apollo e Dafne and his collaboration with Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec of Mozart’s Requiem, both winning Canada’s Juno Award. A complete recording of C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concertos with Truls Mørk and Les Violons du Roy was released in 2011, as was a recording of J.S. Bach Piano Concertos with Alexandre Tharaud, both for Virgin Classics. For his achievements, the Canadian government honored him with the appointment as "Officer of the Order of Canada" in 2005 and Quebec made him a "Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Québec" in 2006. b i o......r e v i e w s..... back to roster...up . . . .

. r e v i e w s...........back to roster....up Toronto Symphony Labadie made Mozart’s too-many-notes swing and dance whenever possible. Melodies were carefully defined, their dynamics gracefully shaped. The players were encouraged to sharpen their attacks, bringing a high degree of verve to their performances. - The Star, 1/23/11 Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (debut) If we galloped from number to number, at least the pace was being set by Bernard Labadie. This was the French-Canadian conductor’s debut with the OAE, and they gave the score all the fizz you could want. - London Times, 11/25/10 Cleveland Orchestra (debut) Under his care, the orchestra becomes beguilingly fluent in the festive, graceful languages of Handel and Rameau. Labadie's influence becomes quickly and readily apparent. All of a sudden, the orchestra adopts the nimbleness and stylistic conventions of 18th-century French opera, imbuing each segment with distinct attributes. Seizing on the unique character of each of its 15 movements, Labadie and the orchestra ward off any hint of tedium. - The Plain Dealer, 4/30/10 Metropolitan Opera (debut) "The Magic Flute” returned to the Met on Wednesday for its first performance of the season, with Bernard Labadie, a Baroque specialist who founded the chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy, making a commendable house debut in the pit. Mr. Labadie, who has been music director of opera companies in Canada, sensitively accompanied the singers and elicited crisp, lithe playing, carefully shaped phrases and measured tempos from the orchestra." - The New York Times, 9/24/09 "Labadie triumphs in Metropolitan Opera debut. [...] Mozart is right up his alley, and his Magic Flute bore the stamp of his historically informed sense of style. From the overture to the final chord, tempos were generally brisk, textures were transparent, and the score's architectural structure was strongly emphasized." - The Globe and Mail, 9/24/09 Chicago Symphony (debut) "In both Haydn's Symphony No. 94 ("Surprise") and Mozart's Symphony No. 39 ("Prague"), Labadie elicited from a reduced orchestra the crisp articulations, buoyant rhythms and sparing vibrato one associates with the historical brigade. But the man is nothing if not flexible, so his readings also boasted an elasticity of phrasing and dynamics that suggested he is completely at ease working with modern orchestras." - Chicago Tribune, 5/29/09 San Francisco Symphony "In a suave and shapely performance by the San Francisco Symphony under guest conductor Bernard Labadie, this piece revealed a wealth of technical bravura as well as the combination of wit and expressiveness so characteristic of Haydn's late work. [...] Yet Labadie and his forces dodged every risk of heavy-handedness, bringing out the lyrical fluency of the exquisite slow movements and delivering the two minuets with brisk ebullience. The theme-and-variations that comes just before the finale is always a high point of this piece, and Labadie ensured that its variety and unpredictability came through. - San Francisco Chronicle, 5/9/09 Los Angeles Philharmonic "But Labadie and the orchestra still had to sustain interest in what amounted to an hour-long series of slow movements. The miracle is that they succeeded brilliantly in walking a fine line between contemplative and sluggish, inviting the audience to react in either a mood of prayer or meditation. [...] In Labadie’s hands, the “Seven Words” were full of lively emotional variety, by turns plaintive, resigned and hopeful. They were even supernatural." - Los Angeles Times, 4/5/09 Toronto Symphony "Guest conductor Bernard Labadie, best known for his work with his own orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, had total control over a pared-down TSO. He led an expertly shaped reading of the score and helped the orchestra glow with light – the very force that Mozart and his librettist Emanuel Schikaneder harness to promote the power of reason over superstition. Labadie has been asked by the Metropolitan Opera to conduct The Magic Flute for them next season, and it's easy to see why." - The Toronto Star, 1/23/09 Boston Symphony (debut) "The Boston Symphony Orchestra returned from its winter break last night with a program led by Canadian conductor Bernard Labadie, making his BSO debut. Labadie is an early music specialist and the founder of the Quebec City-based ensemble Les Violons du Roy. As a guest conductor, he likes to come to a modern orchestra and help it find its inner period instrument band. You may not need an actual baroque bow, he suggests, if you understand how one works and can play the violin with the right spirit and approach to phrasing and articulation. His is a fresh and invigorating approach, at least as evidenced last night in Symphony Hall by the opening bars of the Chaconne from the ballet music of Mozart's opera "Idomeneo." That Allegro seemed to dance right off the stage with buoyant phrasing full of air and light." - The Boston Globe, 1/26/09 b i o.......r e v i e w s back to roster...up .

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