Olivier Thouin is a Canadian

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist. He has performed as a soloist with several leading symphony orchestras in Canada, including the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal,

Les Violons du Roy Les Violons du Roy is a French-Canadian chamber orchestra based in Quebec City, Quebec. The orchestra's principal venue is the Palais Montcalm in Québec City. The orchestra also performs concerts in Montréal at the Place des Arts, the Montreal ...

, and the

Montreal Symphony Orchestra The Montreal Symphony Orchestra (french: Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, or OSM) is a Canadian symphony orchestra based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The orchestra’s home is the Montreal Symphony House at Place des Arts. It is the only orche ...

. A highly active

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

ian, he has performed several times at the

Caramoor International Music Festival The Caramoor Summer Music Festival is a music festival founded in 1945 that is held on the estate of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, which includes a Mediterranean-style stucco villa and is located about north of New York City in Ka ...

, the

Marlboro Festival The Marlboro Music School and Festival is a retreat for advanced classical training and musicianship held for seven weeks each summer in Marlboro, Vermont, in the United States. Public performances are held each weekend while the school is in ses ...

, and the Toronto International Music Festival among others. He is a founding member of Trio Contrastes with whom he actively performed from 1998 to 2003. He can be heard on recordings made for Amberola Records and ATMA Records. Born in

Joliette Joliette is a city in southwest Quebec, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Montreal, on the L'Assomption River and is the seat of the Regional County Municipality of Joliette. It is considered to be a part of the North Shore of Greate ...

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 ...

, Thouin began studying the violin at the age of four with Hratchia Sevadjian. He is a graduate of the

Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal The Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal (CMQM) is a music conservatory located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In addition to the Montreal region, the school takes in students from nearby cities, including Granby, Joliette, St-Jean, S ...

where he studied with Sonia Jelinkova and was awarded the Prix avec Grande Distinction in 1995. After winning the

Prix d’Europe The Prix d'Europe is a Canadian study grant that is funded by the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec of the Government of Quebec. Established in 1911, the award has been distributed annually to a single individual through competition wit ...

and the

Canadian Music Centre The Canadian Music Centre was founded in 1959 by a group of Canadian composers who saw a need to create a repository for Canadian music. It now holds Canada's largest collection of Canadian concert music, and works to promote the music of its As ...

’s Prize in 1997, he pursued further studies at the

Academy of Performing Arts in Prague The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague ( cs, Akademie múzických umění v Praze, AMU) is a university in the centre of Prague, Czech Republic, specialising in the study of music, dance, drama, film, television and multi-media. It is the larg ...

with Ivan Straus. He has also attended

masterclass Yanka Industries, Inc., doing business as MasterClass, is an American online education subscription platform on which students can access tutorials and lectures pre-recorded by experts in various fields. The concept for MasterClass was conceiv ...

es taught by

Igor Ozim Igor Ozim (born 9 May 1931) is a Slovenian classical violinist and pedagogue, based in Salzburg, Austria. Career Igor Ozim was born in 1931 in Ljubljana. He came from a musical family: both parents played the piano and his brother the violin. At ...

in Switzerland. Thouin is the former

concertmaster The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most signifi ...

of the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra with whom he toured Asia, Europe and Israel. For his work with that ensemble he received the Cécile-Mesnard-Pomerleau Prize. In 1998 he won the Jules C. Reiner Violin Award at the

Tanglewood Music Festival The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Stockbridge and Lenox in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. The festival consists of a series of concerts, including symphonic music, ch ...

and in 2002 he received the Young Canadian Musicians’ Award. He served as the concertmaster of the

National Arts Centre Orchestra The National Arts Centre Orchestra (NAC Orchestra) is a Canadian orchestra based in Ottawa, Ontario led by music director Alexander Shelley. The NAC Orchestra's primary concert venue is Southam Hall at the National Arts Centre. Since its inceptio ...

in the 2004–2005 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thouin, Olivier Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alumni Canadian classical violinists Male classical violinists Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal alumni People from Joliette Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century classical violinists 21st-century Canadian male musicians 20th-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers 21st-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers Canadian male violinists and fiddlers French Quebecers