L’Ensemble d’Ondes de Montréal
Orchestra Hall
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| One of a kind chamber music group, The Montreal Ondes Martenot Ensemble has a mandate to perform music originally composed for the ondes Martenot and to introduce this beautiful and rarely heard instrument to new audiences. Founded in 1976, at the Montreal Conservatory of Music by Jean Laurendeau, the Montreal Ondes Martenot Ensemble continues today mostly as an ondes Martenot quartet with the following musicians, Marie Bernard, Suzanne Binet-Audet, Geneviève Grenier and Estelle Lemire, each of these ondists also being soloists themselves and all working to preserve the Martenot heritage in Canada through the Society for Diffusion of the Ondes Martenot. Renowned Jean Laurendeau and Louise Larose join them to complete the sextet required to play Messiaen’s Fête des Belles Eaux.
The “Ensemble d’Ondes” does not only present ondes Martenot quartets, quintets or sextets but also programs and commissions works for a wide variety of instrumentations always including at least one ondes. The Ensemble has premiered numerous new works from Canadian composers among which, Raynald Arseneault, Walter Boudreau, Richard G. Boucher, Brian Cherney, Micheline-Coulombe Saint-Marcoux, José Evangelista, Michel Gonneville, Jean Lesage, Michel Longtin, Bruce Mather, André Prévost, Serge Provost, Petros Shoujounian. In addition to these commissions the Ensemble also plays the existing repertoire written for ondes Martenot quartet like Charpentier, Messiaen, Murail, Wyshnegradsky’s music and realizes transcriptions from the classical repertoire, for example works by Bach, Ravel or Barber. Recently, the quartet has been working towards developing an improvisation section that is now integrated to their concerts. The Montreal Ondes Martenot Ensemble has signed a few recordings with the Société Radio-Canada/CBC and SNE label and has performed in |