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Galileo

Galileo

 

Directed by Daniel Constantineau, Galileo (formerly Orchester symphonique de la Vallée-du-Haut-Saint-Laurent) is the only professional classical music company in Montérégie-Ouest, on the southwestern outskirts of Greater Montreal.

 

Chamber formation composed of 15 to 55 instrumentalists depending on the repertoire it tackles, its main objective is to produce living symphonic music in a territory which is generally deprived of it. It does this on period instruments, which harmonizes wonderfully with the historical character of the region.Moreover, Galileo is an NPO registered as a charitable organization and as such promotes training and musical development. of its public in general and young people in particular.

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Since the beginning of its activities in October 2010, the Orchestra has performed 23 times in various agglomerations of Montérégie-Ouest, as well as in Dorval and Saint-Jérôme. His productions testify to the quality of his artistic work and his regional roots in that they respectively led him to the recording of baroque works by André Gagnon by the prestigious ATMA label in July 2015, to the obtaining of his first grants from Musicaction, Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Conseil des arts et de la culture de Vaudreuil-Soulanges and MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges since 2015, to his participation in the Seigneuriales of Vaudreuil-Dorion since from 2016 to 2021, nominations at the Gala de l'ADISQ 2016, Prix Opus 2017, 2020 and 2021 and at the reception of a first Prix Opus in January 2020 (Best concert - Multiple repertoire), for “Operas!”, produced in collaboration with the Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal (photo).

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A PERIOD ORCHESTRA UNIQUE IN CANADA

 

The idea of interpreting baroque, classical and romantic repertoires on instruments and according to qualified “period” games was born about 60 years ago and has helped to dust off the way symphonic music is performed. The most striking characteristics of this "new" way correspond to a generally softer, more velvety but also more expressive playing, as well as to the use of instruments whose construction respects that of past centuries. This facilitates the balance of the sound masses of the various sections of an orchestra.

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In this way, Galileo is positioned as a symphonic phalanx at the cutting edge of global trends in terms of classical music interpretation and is the only Canadian formation to approach all the repertoires that can lend itself to it, it is to say from the late Baroque (1730-1750) to the Roaring Twenties (1930), according to parameters and approaches qualified as historically informed.

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Chef et musiciens

Music director

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Conductor making respect for the intentions of the composers he plays and the intelligibility of musical discourse his priorities, Daniel Constantineau delivers captivating and elevated interpretations of the works he conducts.

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In addition to regularly attracting good words from critics, Daniel Constantineau proves to be a precise and attentive interpreter, sensitive to the many nuances that emerge from the symphonic repertoires he approaches.

 

In this, he is of course guided by the interpretations of the best leaders of the movement of so-called historically informed performance — the Harnoncourts, Norringtons, Gardiners, Herreweghes, to name but a few — and by the many treatises on early music that he has studied over the years, but above all, through the teachings of composer Gilles Tremblay, spiritual son of Olivier Messiaen, whose approaches at the chapters of medieval music and the agogics of Mozart's works will have had a profound effect on him.

Instrumentistes

Musicians

 

Since its foundation, in 2010, many talented musicians have lent their artistry to Galileo. Listed below are those who collaborated with Galileo during the 2022-2023 season.
 

VIOLINS

Tanya Laperrière | solo

Guillaume Villeneuve | solo

Sallynee Amawat
Simon Alexandre
Mélanie De Bonville
Matthieu Deveau
William Foy

Judy Hung
Marie Nadeau-Tremblay

Leo Purich
Lucie Ringuette
Aliza Thibodeau

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VIOLAS

Clément Bufferne
Jacques-André Houle
Pemi Paull

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CELLO
Marie-Michel Beauparlant
Jessica Korotkin
François Leclerc

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DOUBLE BASS / VIOLONE

Francis Palma-Pelletier

FLUTES, TRAVERSOS

Grégoire Jeay

Joanna Mardsen

 

OBOES

Matthew Jennejohn
Joël Verkaïk

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CLARINETS

Mark Simons

Ludovic Lesage-Hinse
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BASSOONS

Michel Bettez

Aaron Goler

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HORNS

Simon Bourget
Étienne Coulombe
 

TRUMPETS

Alexis Basque

Henri Ferland

 

TROMBONES

Bruno-Laurence Joyal
Simon Jolicoeur-Côté​
Trevor Dix

TIMPANIS

Matthias Soly-Letarte
 

KEYBOARDS

Anne-Marie Bernard | fortepiano

CONTRACTORS

Diane Bayard/François Leclerc - strings
Ludovik Lesage-Hinse - winds & percussions
Daniel Constantineau - keyboards

PCB

Office

 

Daniel Constantineau, MMEC HÉC Montréal, Executive and Music Director
 

Board of Directors


Denis Ellefsen, Engineer MBA – President
Martin Leboeuf, Ph.D, Vice president PrimaMedic Group – Treasurer
Marie Trudeau, Music Librarian, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – Secretary
Éric Chouinard, CTEQ manager – administrateur– Trustee

Michael Clermont, IT specialist, Banque National  – Trustee
Daniel Constantineau, MMEC, General manager and Artistic director of Galileo – Trustee
Charlotte Montminy, MBA, Manager CRM, The Cirque du Soleil Group – Trustee
 

Volunteers


Marie-Josée Bellemare
Marthe Saint-Louis
René Saint-Cyr

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