ANGÈLE DUBEAU & La Pieta

Biography

One of Canada's most prominent virtuoso violinists, Angèle Dubeau has performed on the world's greatest stages in a spectacular career that has spanned more than thirty years and over thirty countries.  While her talent, virtuosity and musicality have been recognized with many awards over the years, audiences have adopted her above all for her captivating performances, her generosity, her passion, her unparalleled communications skills, and her exceptional ability to connect with them. In fact, Dubeau is the only Canadian classical musician to have achieved two Gold Records for sales of 50,000 copies of a classical recording. Over her career, she has sold 400,000 discs. Angèle Dubeau's path as a musician is an exceptional one. She obtained a First Prize from the Montreal Conservatory of Music at the age of 15, studying with Raymond Dessaints. She continued her studies in New York with the renowned teacher Dorothy Delay at the Juilliard School of Music, and, from 1981 to 1984, further honed her art with Stefan Gheorghiu in Romania. Her talent has been recognized with many national and international awards, and she has performed the great concertos of the repertoire as a guest soloist with numerous international orchestras.

Convinced of the need to introduce classical music to a wider audience, Dubeau has been a pioneer in programming and hosting gala concerts and weekly music television programs such as the popular Radio-Canada show Faites vos gammes. From 1995 to 2006, she hosted and directed the popular Fête de la musique music festival in Mont-Tremblant, which attracts over 50,000 music lovers annually.

Transformed by this same desire to innovate, she founded La Pietà in 1997, an all female string ensemble that varies in size, featuring some of Canada's best musicians. What she could not have known at the time was that this experiment, originally conceived of for periodic recordings, would gradually occupy all of her time. From early on, the ensemble gained a solid reputation, playing Canada's most prestigious venues as well as making television appearances. “Precise attacks, excellent ensemble playing and energy… One would think oneself magically transported to the blessed era of the Solisti di Zagreb… passion, presence… The musicians' smiles are contagious, even more so because they are conveyed by way of both mouth and ears,” noted Le Devoir in July 1998.

Known for their exceptional virtuosity and impeccable precision, their rich interpretations, but above all the contagious happiness that enlivens their stage presence, Angèle Dubeau and La Pietà have crisscrossed the Americas and Asia for the last ten years. The Los Angeles Times noted that “Dubeau is an exciting, dynamic fiddler…The performances were consistently robust and inquiring, taking nothing for granted… Dubeau's well-drilled band played with agility, power, a nicely weighted sound and a fierce joy in the doing.”

Besides playing numerous pieces of contemporary music, Angèle Dubeau has dedicated her talent and pleasure by interpreting original pieces created especially for her and La Pietà from great composers such as:  Serge Arcuri, Marc Beaulieu, Linda Bouchard, Dave Brubeck, Loraine Desmarais, Denis Dion, François Dompierre, José Évangélista, Christos Hatzis, Joe Hisaishi, Oliver Jones, Romulo Larrea, Simon Leclerc, Gilles Ouellet, Anthony Rozankovic, Gabriel Thibodeau, and Vic Vogel.

Angèle Dubeau plays on the “Des Rosiers” Stradivarius violin (1733).

Website: http://www.angeledubeau.com
Video: La Belle & la Bete(Beauty and the Beast)
Video: Les Beautes du Diable
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBtj8miT8ng&feature=related