
THE ORCHESTRA | Galileo | Artistic Direction and Musicians | Board of Directors
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.
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).

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.
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.
Artistic direction

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.
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.
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 2021-2022 season.
VIOLINS
Guillaume Villeneuve | solo and soloist
Olivier Brault | solo
Diane Bayard | first chair
Simon Alexandre
Marie-Claire Cardinal
Karin Cuellar
Mélanie De Bonville
Jimin Dobson
Jessy Dubé
William Foy
Noémy Gagnon-Lafrenais
Samuel Hogue
Judy Hung
Laurène Patard-Moreau
Lise-Marie Riberdy
Aliza Thibodeau
VIOLAS
Jacques-André Houle | first chair
Thierry Lavoie-Ladouceur | first chair
Clément Bufferne
Pemi Paull
CELLO
Marie-Michel Beauparlant | first chair
François Leclerc | first chair
Elinor Frey | soloist
Agnès Langlois
DOUBLE BASS / VIOLONE
Francis Palma-Pelletier | first chair
FLUTES, TRAVERSOS
Grégoire Jeay | soloist
Viviane Lafrance
Joanna Mardsen
OBOES
Matthew Jennejohn
Lindsay Jean Roberts
Mélissa Tremblay
Joël Verkaïk
CLARINETS
Mark Simons
Ludovik Lesage-Hinse
Jean-François Normand
BASSOONS
Michel Bettez
Karine Breton
Mary Chalk
Alex Eastly
François Viault
HORNS
Simon Bourget
Jessica Duranleau
Xavier Fortin
Marjolaine Goulet
Alice Lane-Lépine
Laurence Latreille-Gagné
Guillaume Roy
TRUMPETS
Alexis Basque
Félix Gauthier
Vincent Pigeon
Graham Lumsden
Charles-Antoine Solis
TROMBONES
Madeleine Doyon-Robitaille
Simon Jolicœur-Côté
Matthieu Bourget
TIMPANIS
Matthias Soly-Letarte
CLASSICAL HARP
Antoine Mallette-Chénier | soloist
PIANOFORTE
Olivier Godin | soloist
Office
Daniel Constantineau, MMEC HEC Montreal, Executive and Artistic director
Board of Directors
Denis Ellefsen, Engineer MBA – President
Jean-Pierre Gaboury, Lawyer – Vice president
Martin Leboeuf, Ph.D, Vice president PrimaMedic Group – Treasurer
Marie Trudeau, Music Librarian, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – Secretary
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
Danielle Vaillancourt, Marketing Associate, RCB Dominion Securities – Trustee
Volunteers
Marie-Josée Bellemare
Marthe Saint-Louis
René Saint-Cyr