About | Voces Boreales

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2006
2019
Present

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Foundation

Founded in 2006, Voces Boreales chamber choir has carved out an enviable position in the classical music world. By combining the abundance of past and present-day repertoire, Voces Boreales offers listeners with original, accessible, and captivating concert experiences.

Shortly after founding Voces Boreales, Michael Zaugg created the Montreal Choral Institute, a registered non-profit organization that produces and supports Voces Boreales’ concerts and educational activities: this has allowed Voces Boreales to grow and expand its activities of high musical and educational value, tailored to meet the needs of the local and national scene. All donations made to the Institute go towards Voces Boreales.
Creation of VB8

In 2019, Voces Boreales launched a new vocal octet, VB8, made up of 8 handpicked Voces Boreales choristers. VB8 explores new repertoire and thanks to its smaller, more flexible format, gives outreach performances in different and original venues.

In almost twenty years of existence, Voces Boreales has fostered a number of distinguished collaborations, like Karen Young, Hélène Dorion, Quatuor Bozzini, Quasar, and BradyWorks. In addition, it has been featured at Festival de Lanaudière and Festival Bach Montréal and was nominated twice for an Opus Prize by the Conseil Québécois de la musique.
Voces Boreales today

Both Voces Boreales and VB8 champion contemporary choral music and commissions new music – whilst performing this new repertoire in a historical context, alongside older repertoire. The choir prides itself on contributing to the careers of, among others, Benjamin Sigerson, Ian Chan, Louis Desjarlais, Avery Gietz, and Christopher Hossfeld, performing their works locally and internationally. Since 2014, Voces Boreales has performed over 50 pieces by Canadian artists, a true testament to its commitment to Canadian art.

Andrew Gray

Artistic Director

Originally from the United Kingdom, Andrew Gray has made a name for himself in Montreal as a choral conductor and arranger. Starting out as a chorister at Durham Cathedral, United Kingdom, he went on to join the internationally acclaimed a cappella group The Swingle Singers, with whom he travelled around the world. He worked with Luciano Berio for performances of his opera Outis at La Scala in Milan and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. As a contemporary repertoire performer and soloist, he has sung for many distinguished conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Yan-Pascal Tortelier, David Robertson, David Zinman, and Arturo Tamayo. As a chorister, he has toured with a number of top choral ensembles, including Tenebrae, Ensemble vocal de Lausanne, the Theatre of Early Music, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, and VivaVoce.

Board Members

Diane Ellison

President

Diane has extensive experience in corporate and non-profit sector management positions. Additionally, leadership roles within the volunteer milieu (board positions) have contributed to positive change management and sound fiscal project delivery within diverse organisations. These successful outcomes have resulted from clearly grasping the vision, establishing positive relationships with collaborators, and solid teams while ensuring that the environment reflects passion, enthusiasm and joy.

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Pierre Thibaudeau

Vice President

Originally, Pierre Thibaudeau was musically trained as a pianist. While doing his undergrad degree in maths and physics, however, he discovered his passion for choral singing, first as a singer and soon as a choral conductor. During his doctoral studies in mathematics at the University of Cambridge, not only was he exposed to and took part in the English choral and organ traditions but, in contact with the late Dr Mary Berry, discovered another passion, Gregorian Chant, which he practised as a cantor, capellmeister and teacher. Since 2016, he puts his organising skills to use as Returning Officer of the provincial electoral district of Acadie and, since 2020, of the federal district of Saint-Laurent. He has been a member of the board since 2018.

Philip Raphals

Treasurer

Philip Raphals is executive director of the Helios Centre, a non-profit energy research group, and president of NovoPower International, a start-up developing waste-heat-to-power systems for the data centre industry. A cellist, he was a founding member of the Orquesta Sinfónica Municipal de Caracas, and was for several years a frequent substitute on the Montreal Symphony. Philip has sung with Voces Boreales since 2018.

David Cronkite

Member

David Cronkite is a pianist/keyboardist, chorister and composer. As pianist/keyboardist, he has appeared with several groups: l’Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, la Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, Codes d’Accès and BradyWorks. As chorister, he has sung with chamber choirs Voces Boreales and Viva Voce as well as with the choirs of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and l’Orchestre Métropolitain. David is also member of the experimental ensemble Phth, the noise-choir Joker and the percussive-dance collective Migration Dance Film Project. David holds a doctorate of music from l’Université de Montréal. Since 2016, he teaches rhythm to the dancers of l’École de danse contemporaine de Montréal. He has taught Tai-Chi for 15 years and is a licensed massage-therapist. David was member of the board of directors of Groupe Le Vivier for two years and was president-director-general of the Montreal Choral Institute from 2016 until 2022.

Miriam Paknys

Member

Miriam Paknys has been a member since 2015.

Martin Thiboutot

Director

Martin Thiboutot is a counsel lawyer with McMillan. He practices mainly environmental law and is interested in sustainable development and green transition. Martin is a lover of art in all its forms. He has served on various boards of directors for over ten years and has developed significant governance experience.

Team

Alexia Jensen

Marketing and Communications

Alexia Jensen has worked in communications and marketing, specializing in classical music, for over 10 years. She received her masters in musicology from Université de Montréal and studied psychology from McGill University, and has been working with Voces Boreales and the Montreal Choral Institute since 2022.
alexia [at] vocesboreales [dot] org

Marilou Pagé

Administrative coordinator

Marilou is working on her Masters in Art History and has worked in advertising as well as project management. She joined the Voces Boreales team in August 2023.

marilou [at] vocesboreales [dot] org

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