Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix is an international
Music Festival
A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...
as well as a music and dance Academy located in
Saint-Irénée,
Charlevoix
Charlevoix ( , ) is a cultural and natural region in Quebec, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River as well as in the Laurentian Mountains area of the Canadian Shield. This dramatic landscape includes rolling terrain, fjords, headlands ...
, in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. This domain is a operated by a non-profit organization occupying a large set of land and buildings located in
Saint-Irénée, near
La Malbaie
La Malbaie is a municipality in the Charlevoix-Est Regional County Municipality in the Province of Quebec, Canada, situated on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River at the mouth of the Malbaie River. It was formerly known as Murray Bay. La Ma ...
. Concerts take place in the Concert Hall. Since the concert hall opened in 1996, it has also hosted a variety program.
A meeting place for great musical traditions from all over the world, it welcomes more than 400 artists to its various activities each year. Its International Festival presents each summer more than seventy events including more than thirty concerts focused mainly on classical music, but also relating to jazz and dance, a dozen brunches-music and twenty activities free awareness. The International Academy, at the heart of Domaine Forget's activities, welcomes some 120 pedagogues and nearly 500 students each year to its professional development sessions. Affecting different families of instruments or disciplines, these sessions include: Brass, Composition, Piano, Wood, Chamber music, Vocals and vocal accompaniment, Guitar, Dance, Strings, Conducting, String ensemble and Choir, Variety programming is devoted to popular music, song, humor, theater, cinema and much more.
History
At the turn of the twentieth century, Domaine Forget was three separate estates owned by three eminent Canadians. Les Sablons was owned by
Joseph Lavergne, a judge and colleague of
Sir Wilfrid Laurier
Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, ( ; ; November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime minist ...
; Hauterive was the property of
Adolphe-Basile Routhier
Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier (May 8, 1839 – June 27, 1920) was a Canadian judge, author, and lyricist. He wrote the lyrics of the original French version of the Canadian national anthem "O Canada". He was born in Saint-Placide, Quebec, to Ch ...
, a judge and the lyricist of the
French language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
version of ''
O Canada
"O Canada" (french: Ô Canada, italic=no) is the national anthem of Canada. The song was originally commissioned by Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Théodore Robitaille for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony; Calixa Lavallée composed the mus ...
''. Gil'Mont, which forms the major part of the property, was the estate of
Rodolphe Forget
Colonel Sir Joseph David Rodolphe Forget (December 10, 1861 – February 19, 1919) was a Canadian business investor, stockbroker, and politician. He held national directorships and had major investments in energy companies, as well as indust ...
, a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
and investor and entrepreneur in the
Charlevoix
Charlevoix ( , ) is a cultural and natural region in Quebec, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River as well as in the Laurentian Mountains area of the Canadian Shield. This dramatic landscape includes rolling terrain, fjords, headlands ...
region.
In 1945,
Les Petites Franciscaines de Marie, a religious order, first purchased Gil'Mont as the school "Institut Familial" (Family Institute), and a year later bought the properties belonging to Judges Laverge and Routhier in order to protect the privacy of the educational institution. In 1977, the school was converted into what is now known as Le Domaine Forget, a non-profit corporation with a mission of promoting music and dance.
International Festival
The festival features
dance
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
, and, most prominently,
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
. Concerts run from June to September and feature well-known artists from all over the world.
The festival concerts take place almost exclusively in the Concert Hall, a 600-seat concert hall constructed in 1996 by Le Domaine Forget and known for its remarkable acoustics.
International Music and Dance Academy
The Academy plays host to a number of different masterclass sessions: Brass. Composition, Piano, Chamber Music, Voice & Vocal Accompaniment, Guitar, Dance, Strings, Conducting, String Ensemble and Choir. All occur at different times of the summer and fall and feature faculty from around Quebec, Canada, and the world. Domaine features the Paul-Lafleur Pavilion, a complex of double-occupancy rooms with 1 shared bathroom per 4 people and a recently renovated dormitory. At the end of each session, a public concert is offered featuring student performances.
Notable International Festival performers
* Violinist
Martin Beaver
Martin Beaver (born 10 November 1967) is a Canadian violinist best known as first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet. Beaver joined the Tokyo String Quartet as its first violinist in 2002 and remained until they disbanded in 2013. As a part ...
* Clarinetist
Jonathan Cohler
Jonathan Cohler (born June 19, 1959) is an American classical clarinetist, conductor, music educator and record producer.
Early career
Jonathan Cohler graduated from Harvard University in 1980 with a degree in physics. He studied clarinet with P ...
* Oboist
Hansjörg Schellenberger
Hansjörg Schellenberger is a German oboist and conductor born in 1948.
He won the first prize at the German Jugend musiziert Competition with seventeen, which led to a scholarship enabling him to further his education at Interlochen (Michigan, ...
* Pianist
Oliver Jones
* Pianist
Gabriela Montero
Gabriela Montero (born May 10, 1970) is a Venezuelan pianist, known in particular for her real-time improvisation of complex musical pieces on themes suggested by her audience and other sources, as well as for performances of standard classical r ...
* Jazz Guitarist and Vocalist
John Pizzarelli
John Paul Pizzarelli Jr. (born April 6, 1960, in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American jazz guitarist and vocalist. He has recorded over twenty solo albums and has appeared on more than forty albums by other recording artists, including Paul McCa ...
* Bassist
François Rabbath
François Rabbath (born 1931 in Aleppo, Syria) is a contemporary French double-bass virtuoso, soloist, and composer.
Career
He was born into a Syrian family of musicians but his only instruction came from a book written by a Parisian bassist Ed ...
* Hornist
James Sommerville
* Conductor
Benjamin Zander
Benjamin Zander (born 9 March 1939 in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England) is an English conductor, who is currently the musical director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.
Biography
Benja ...
* Violinist, Violist, and Conductor
Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman ( he, פנחס צוקרמן, born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor.
Life and career
Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv, to Jewish parents and Holocaust survivors Yehuda and Miriam Lieberman Zuk ...
*
National Youth Orchestra of Canada
The National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYO Canada, or NYOC, french: Orchestre national des jeunes du Canada) is a Canadian youth orchestra headquartered in Toronto. The orchestra has given concert tours in every major Canadian city as well as tri ...
*
Orchestre Symphonique de Québec
*
Youth Orchestra of the Americas
The Orchestra of the Americas (OA) is a Latin Grammy Award winning symphony orchestra of musical leaders, ages 18 to 30, representing more than 25 countries of the Western Hemisphere.
Leadership
The orchestra is guided by Artistic Advisor Plácido ...
Notable International Music and Dance Academy teachers
* Violist
Atar Arad
Atar Arad (Hebrew: עתר ארד; born 8 March 1945) is an Israeli American violist, professor of music, essayist and composer. Biography
Arad and his brother, architect Ron Arad, were born in Tel Aviv, Israel. Arad began his training on the vio ...
* Tubist
Roger Bobo
Roger Bobo (born June 8, 1938) is an American tuba virtuoso and brass pedagogue. He retired from active tuba performance in 2001 in order to devote his time to conducting and teaching. He gave what is reputed to be the first solo tuba recital i ...
* Trombonist James Box
* Clarinetist
Jonathan Cohler
Jonathan Cohler (born June 19, 1959) is an American classical clarinetist, conductor, music educator and record producer.
Early career
Jonathan Cohler graduated from Harvard University in 1980 with a degree in physics. He studied clarinet with P ...
* Clarinetist
Larry Combs
Larry Combs (born December 31, 1939) is an American clarinetist and educator.
Early life and education
Combs was born in South Charleston, West Virginia. He received a bachelor of music degree with distinction as well as the Performer's Certifi ...
* Bassoonist Daniele Damiano
* Oboist
Elaine Douvas
Elaine Douvas (born 1952) has been Principal Oboe of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York City since 1977. She is also Instructor of Oboe and Chairman of the Woodwind Department at The Juilliard School. She also serves on the faculty of Man ...
* Jazz Trumpeter
Tiger Okoshi
Toru "Tiger" Okoshi (born March 21, 1950) is an American jazz fusion trumpeter born in Ashiya, Japan.
After studying at Kwansei Gakuin University, Okoshi moved to the U.S. in 1972. In 1975 he completed studies at the Berklee College of Music. ...
* Violist James Dunham
* Bassist
Paul Ellison
Paul Ellison (born October 17, 1941) is co-principal bass at the Grand Teton Festivals, and is Professor of Double Bass at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. He was also on the faculty of The Colburn School Conservatory of Music in Los A ...
* Cellist
Matt Haimovitz
Matt Haimovitz (born December 3, 1970) is a cellist based in the United States and Canada. Born in Israel, he grew up in the US from the age of five. He plays mainly a cello made by Matteo Goffriller in 1710.
Family, musical education and ear ...
* Flutist
Jeffrey Khaner
Jeffrey Khaner (born December 22, 1958) is the principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also served as principal flutist with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony. Khaner teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music, ...
* Cellist Hans Jorgen Jensen
* Trumpeter
Jens Lindemann
* Violinist Darren Lowe
* Clarinetist Jean-François Normand
* Flutist
Emmanuel Pahud
Emmanuel Pahud (born 27 January 1970) is a Franco-Swiss flautist.
He was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His father is of French and Swiss background and his mother is French. The Berlin-based flutistPatrick LamEmmanuel Pahud – The showcase behi ...
* Violinist
Régis Pasquier
Régis Pasquier (born 12 October 1945) is a French violinist from a family of musicians. His father Pierre Pasquier (1902–1986), a violist and his uncles Jean (1903), a violinist, and Étienne (1905–1997), a cellist, had founded a string trio, ...
* Bassist
François Rabbath
François Rabbath (born 1931 in Aleppo, Syria) is a contemporary French double-bass virtuoso, soloist, and composer.
Career
He was born into a Syrian family of musicians but his only instruction came from a book written by a Parisian bassist Ed ...
* Oboist
Hansjörg Schellenberger
Hansjörg Schellenberger is a German oboist and conductor born in 1948.
He won the first prize at the German Jugend musiziert Competition with seventeen, which led to a scholarship enabling him to further his education at Interlochen (Michigan, ...
* Hornist
James Sommerville
* Trombonist Peter Sullivan
* Hornist
Barry Tuckwell
Barry Emmanuel Tuckwell, (5 March 1931 – 16 January 2020) was an Australian French horn player who spent most of his professional life in the UK and the United States. He is generally considered to have been one of the world's leading horn p ...
* Hornist
Radovan Vlatkovic
Radovan ( sr-cyr, Радован) is a Slavic male given name, derived from the passive adjective ''radovati'' ("rejoice"), itself from root ''rad-'' meaning "care, joy". It is found in Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, M ...
* Trumpeter
James Watson
James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick and ...
* Hornist
Gail Williams
* Hornist
Froydis Ree Wekre
* Guitarist Fabio Zanon
References
External links
Official Website*
See also
*
Saint-Irénée, a municipality
{{coord, 47.5637, N, 70.2081, W, source:wikidata, display=title
Classical music festivals in Canada
Festivals in Quebec
Music festivals in Quebec
Recurring events established in 1982