After his classical studies, Jean Claude Picard began a career teaching music in several schools in the Quebec region while continuing his musical studies at the School of Music of Laval University where he became a lecturer and then was appointed proessor. A tenor, Jean Claude Picard is a soloist with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, sings at the Lanaudière Festival and with various orchestras in Ottawa and Montreal. He is also choirmaster at the Saint-François d’Assise church and then at the Notre-Dame Basilica-Cathedral in Quebec.

He left Quebec when he won the selection competition and was appointed Director General of Jeunesses Musicales du Canada where he spent the next eleven years and became President of the International Federation of Jeunesses Musicales.

Jean Claude Picard left the world of the arts for the business world where he held various management positions before founding his own consulting firm which he sold to his partner to once again devote himself to musical direction. During his long career, he wrote several arrangements for mixed voice choirs and especially for equal voices, some of which are included in this recording.

Photo : Jean-Philippe Rivard

Photo : Jean-Philippe Rivard

Richard Duguay has been a professional tenor for over 30 years. He holds degrees in voice from Université Laval and the Royal Conservatory of La Haye in the Netherlands. He has had a career all over the world with, among others, the baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants in France. He is a professional chorister at the Opéra de Québec and with La Chapelle de Québec.

Richard Duguay taught singing in the Music Department of Cegep de Sainte-Foy and at the Faculty of Music of Université Laval. He has directed the Ensemble de musique sacrée de Québec since 2002.

Frédéric comes from a family that is very involved in music, including classical singing, opera, operettas and contemporary musical compositions. Having followed an instrumental program at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in Saguenay in his youth and holding a bachelor’s degree in agronomy, Frédéric has remained a fervent amateur and chorister involved in various heritage religious music choirs throughout his career.

Frédéric has been a member of the Chœur d’hommes à voix égales du chapitre Metropolitain de Québec since 2017, the Chœur de l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec since 2019 and the Grand chœur Notre dame de Québec since its founding in 2024.

Photo : Jean-Philippe Rivard

Photo : Jean-Philippe Rivard

For over thirty years, tenor Dominique Gagné has sung as a soloist with several renowned Quebec ensembles such as the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Opéra de Québec, the Festival d’opéra de Québec, Le Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Les Idées heureuses, the Société d’art lyrique du Royaume, the Opéra de Rimouski, the Ensemble Polyphonia and many others.

Since 2019, Dominique Gagné has had great success with a concert in tribute to Tino Rossi and Luis Mariano and in 2022 developed a recital-conference around the notebooks of the Bonne Chanson by Abbé Gadbois which has aroused real enthusiasm among the public.

Committed to making operatic singing accessible, Gabriel joins various vocal ensembles each year as a soloist and professional chorister and contributes to various projects: the Petits chanteurs de Charlesbourg, Dal Segno, the Chœur de l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec.

He regularly takes part in productions at the Opéra de Québec and made his solo debut there as Giuseppe, in La traviata (Verdi, 2019).

Photo : Jean-Philippe Rivard

Photo : Jean-Philippe Rivard

Well known in his native town of Quebec City, bass-baritone Robert Huard had performed many times, since more than forty years, as a soloist with different musical organizations is this area, like Les Violons du Roy, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, and many musical ensembles with whom he had performed in Canada and the United States.

He works also in early music. He had received deux scholarships from the Ministère de la Culture du Québec for masterclasses in medieval music with Sequentia Ensemble, from Köln (Germany). He was also invited to participate in a stage of contaporary music Under the direction of famous French musical director Rachid Safir.

But that’s in the Opéra de Québec we had appreciate his talent of singer and comedian. His predilection roles were Calchas in the opérette La Belle Hélène by Jacques Offenbach, Frank in Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus, Popov in Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow. On may 2013, his role of the Baron of Gondremarck in Offenbach’s La Vie parisienne, earned him the Price of Opéra de Québec Foundation in the Award of excellence in arts and culture of Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches region in next november.

Robert Huard is also active as a voice and music teacher.

Coming from a third generation of singers, Michel Légaré received his singing training at Université Laval. To his credit: choir of the Opéra de Québec and choir of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec as a professional. During his career, he assumed the roles of soloist in his own right and in several Quebec ensembles, director of choirs, liturgical animator, and palmiste.

Michel is particularly fond of sacred song, French song, folklore, musical comedy and gospel. Furthermore, he believes that music heals the soul and does good to the world.

Photo : Jean-Philippe Rivard

Photo : Jean-Philippe Rivard

Manuel Provençal is a highlyversatile artist. He has several operatic roles to his credit, including Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème, Leporello and the Commander in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, and Don Marco in Menotti’s The Saint of Bleecker Streets. He completed a master’s degree in classicalsinging atthe Conservatoire de musique de Québec in 2017. He regularly hosts corporate and liturgical events. He has been perfecting his camera acting skills at lnis since 2023.

A communications coach since 2020, he actively seeks to improve his skills bytraining with renowned coaches such as Ross Campbell forvoice, Rich Litvin for coaching, and Greg Warburton for performance stress management.

Holder of two bachelor’s degrees from Université Laval, one in Vocal Performance and the other in Music Education, baritone Michel Cervant, appreciated for the power of his voice and his wide range, « a plus d’une corde a son arc »: music and history teacher, choir director, producer and member of various vocal ensembles.

He has been singing since the age of 15 and has directed several choirs: Les Loriots, La belle époque, Le Choeur de la Colline (co-conductor) and since 2015, he has assumed the direction of the Nomades de Québec and the Choeur St-Félix-de-Cap-Rouge. As a soloist at the Opéra de Québec, he has been heard in, among others, Madame Butterfly, Macbeth, The Merry Widow, Rigoletto and The Magic Flute.

Michel Cervant is a professional member of the OSQ Choir, the Quebec Opera Choir and one of the founders of the vocal ensemble La Chasse Galerie.

Photo : Jean-Philippe Rivard

Photo : Fond – Daniel Abel

Marc D’Anjou received a first prize from the Rimouski Conservatory in 1986. He was appointed organist at the St-Jean-Baptiste Church in Quebec City in 1986 and organist at the Basilique-cathédrale Notre-Dame de Québec in 1993.

After a 2-year stay in Vancouver, he was again appointed by acclamation organist at the Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica in Quebec City in 2012. Mr. D’Anjou accompanies several choirs in Quebec City: the Choir of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the Maîtrise des Petits Chanteurs de Québec, the Les Rhapsodes choir, to name a few. He founded the Choeur de Chambre Notre-Dame (a variable geometry ensemble composed of young professional singers from Quebec City) in 2016 and the Grand Choeur Notre-Dame de Québec with David Rompré in 2024.