Biographical Notes

Marie-Hélène da Silva

Artistic Director, Actress, Musician

Co-founder of Le Moulin à Musique, Marie-Hélène da Silva graduated in music and education at Université du Québec. She grew up in a family where theatre and music lay at the heart of education. She is a pioneer in the development of musical theatre productions for young audiences. Peers, critics and audiences recognize her as an innovator in encouraging children to discover music.

As a violinist, an actress and a teacher, she was involved in creating and performing numerous works produced by Le Moulin à Musique such as Un violon sur l`épaule (Winner, Opus Prize 1997), La Maîtresse rouge and L’aube. With her company she toured extensively throughout Canada, and also in France and Belgium. In 2004 she added to her list of achievements the writing and directing of Bonnes Nouvelles. In 2006, she produced Garde-Robe, in close co-operation with artistic director of Les Boréades de Montreal Francis Colpron and artistic director of Théâtre Magasin Joël da Silva.  Her latest creation is Pierres blanches (21010). Since the foundation of Le Moulin à Musique, Marie-Hélène da Silva’s work has focused exclusively on young audiences.

Joël da Silva

Playwright, Director, Composer, Sound Designer

Joël da Silva is a well known artist in the children’s theatre community. As a playwright, a director, an actor and a musician, he has been exploring the playful relationships between words, music and acting for close to 30 years. His essentially poetic style draws readily from the sources of myths and fairy tales, which are rich and universal material that Joël da Silva makes his own with a great deal of freedom. His unique humour always comes hand in hand with the way he looks at cruelty, fear and solitude, recurrent themes in his body of work. Many of his plays were produced by various well established companies: Théâtre de Quartier (Le Pain de la bouche, Bluebeard’s Long Sleepless Night), Théâtre de l’Avant-Pays (À nous deux!, Château sans roi) and Le Moulin à Musique (Garde-robe, L’Aube, The Red Teacher, Violin on a string). In 1990, he founded his own company, Théâtre Magasin (Le Cabaret des mystères, Le petit matériau rouge).

Francis Colpron

Musical Director, Musician, Composer

For the past few years, he has been recognized as one of the most talented instrumentalists of his generation. His qualities and his capacity to innovate both in the artistic and interpretative fields have been acclaimed by audiences, critics and cultural authorities alike. In 1991, he founded his own ensemble, of which he is the artistic director: Les Boréades de Montréal. He ran a successful series in Montreal, toured North America and Europe and recorded many CDs on the ATMA label.

Besides teaching at Université de Montréal, he is a regular guest of prestigious summer music camps such as Amherst in the United States as well as Cammac and Lanaudière in Quebec. He is first flautist of the Portland Trinity Consort and a regular guest of other ensembles such as the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Opera Atelier, Les Violons du Roy and the Nova Scotia Orchestra. Les Boréades de Montréal and Le Moulin à Musique co-produce Garde-robe in 2006.

Jean-Luc Éthier

Composer, Musician

Co-founder of Le Moulin à Musique in 1980, Jean-Luc Éthier contributed to more than ten creations of the company as a composer, a designer, a musical director, a programmer and a stage musician. From 1999 to 2003, he also toured with Joël da Silva in Magasin des mystères produced by Théâtre Magasin. More recently he worked with Marc Drouin and Robert Léger in the musical Muguette Nucléaire as an arranger and a keyboard player.

Composer of instrumental works and songwriter for the past 26 years, he accompanied on piano or keyboard numerous young singers, writers and composers. Since 1983, he has been teaching in various music schools such as the École nationale de la chanson in Granby and works as accompanist for workshop sessions at Festival en chansons in Petite-Vallée. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree at University of Montréal and studied composition and programming with Bruno Fecteau and Jimmy Tanaka.

Véronique Lacroix

Musical Coach, Artistic Director of l’Ensemble contemporain de Montréal

Véronique Lacroix completed her musical studies in 1988 at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, where she was honored with numerous distinctions. Between 1987 and 1996 she founded Ensemble contemporain de Montréal+ to work closely with composers and was artistic director for several ensembles in Quebec and Ontario. Winner of several conducting prizes at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal as well as from the Ontario and Canada Arts Councils, in 2007 she received the Prix Opus for Artistic Direction of the Year. For 20 years, as the director of ECM+, she has presented audacious multi-disciplinary programs and discovered emerging Canadian composers. Passionate about the creation of new work, she has actively shared her vision by bringing this music to the public. Since 1995, Véronique Lacroix has enjoyed directing the contemporary music apprenticeship of young virtuosos at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. She is regularly invited to conduct in Canada and abroad. She is also musical coach for The Red Teacher, a Moulin à Musique production.

Michael Oesterle

Composer

Michael Oesterle has been living in Montreal since 1996. His works are performed in North America and Europe by orchestras such as Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, Percussions de Strasbourg, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Moderne, Quatuor Bozzini and the Chicago Civic Orchestra. His works have garnered him many awards, including the Gaudeamus Prize, the CBC/Radio-Canada National Composition Prize and the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music. In 1997, he  founded Ensemble Kore with pianist Marc Couroux. From 2001 to 2004, he is composer in residence with Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal. In 2004, he composed part of the Bonnes Nouvelles music. Recently, he composed the music of the last Moulin à Musique creation: Pierres blanches.

Alain Dauphinais

Composer

Alain Dauphinais was involved in rock and folk music in the 70s, then in guitar, electric base and cello before beginning studies in composition with Michel Longtin from 1983 to 1989. He graduated in composition from Université de Montréal and music teaching at Université du Québec à Montréal in 1994. In 1987, he took part in workshop-courses on sound environment with R. Murray Schafer and began to question the traditional concert form. From that point on, his development steers definitely towards space and the movement of sound that become parameters as important as pitch, length and tone. He is a founding member of Espaces sonores illimités. His music has been heard in Montreal, Toronto and Bulgaria. In 1998, he designed and produced the Airs libres event as part of Symphonies portuaires. In 2000, he was involved in the Symphonie du millénaire event. He also creates the music of The Red Teacher for le Moulin à Musique the same year. Since 2001, he has worked on several theatre productions with director René-Richard Cyr (Élizabeth, roi d’Angleterre) and opera productions (Don Giovanni, Macbeth).

Martine Laliberté

Director

Director and actress Martine Laliberté has been working with the Mise au jeu interactive company for several years. With the collective La cellule lumière rouge, she created the Femmes à coudre production presented in a textile mill in September 2007. With the same collective, she designed the ambulatory production Je sais pas si vous êtes comme moi presented in 2004 and restaged in 2005 as part of the Festival du théâtre des Amériques. Again with La cellule lumière rouge, she is currently designing the ambulatory production Marcher libre that will open in the fall of 2010. As a performer, she was part of the creative team of the Tout comme elle choral production directed by Brigitte Haentjens. She was featured in films such as Les 14 définitions de la pluie by Louis Bélanger and Denis Chouinard and Latex by Pierre Lapointe. Whether as a teacher or a performer, she is interested in the evocative nature of corporal work. She has been teaching acting, directing and developing dramatic creation at the Cegep level for over 10 years. In 2010, she directed Pierres blanches, the latest music, dance and theatre production of Le Moulin à Musique in collaboration with artistic director of Le Moulin à Musique Marie-Hélène da Silva and choreographer and performer Karina Iraola.

Karina Iraola

Choreographer and performer

Karina Iraola trained professionally at the Ateliers de Danse Moderne de Montréal from 1994 to 1997. She then continued her training in various contemporary dance, flamenco and drama (Ateliers Danielle Fichaud) sessions. Among others, she danced for Rae Bowhay, Pierre Lecours, Patricial Iraola, Manon Oligny, David Pressault, Lynda Gaudreau, the BBT collective and Sophie Castonguay. For several years, she has been developing her own approach as a choreographer. She presented her creations at Studio 303, Tangente, Festivalissimo and the Maisons de la culture. She was acknowledged her creation Les sœurs Papin presented in 2007 during the Vue sur la relève festival. She was also the assistant of choreographer Manon Oligny in the Deux par deux rassemblés video clip for Pierre Lapointe and for the play La Cagnotte directed by Vincent Bilodeau. In 2010, she joined artistic director of Le Moulin à Musique Marie-Hélène da Silva and director Martine Laliberté to create Pierres blanches, the latest Le Moulin à Musique production. In March 2010, she recently presented her new creation Le Bleu du ciel at the MAI venue.