RUSHES AND REVERIES

Carlo Cormier, an Acadian tenor from Moncton, recently completed his Master’s degree in Opera at the University of Toronto. Originally trained in biology, he discovered a passion for classical singing during his undergraduate studies and chose to pursue it professionally. He has honed his craft at renowned institutions such as the Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, the Barachois Summer Music Academy, the BIIMA Academy, and the St. Andrews Opera Workshop. On stage, he has portrayed l’Abbé Bridaine in Les Mousquetaires au couvent (Varney) and Enrico C’arouser/Nelson Deadly in Too Many Sopranos (Penhorwood) with the Université de Moncton Opera Workshop. With University of Toronto Opera, he has taken on diverse roles including Il zio Vézinet in Il capello di paglia di Firenze (Rota), le Doyen in Cendrillon (Massenet), Demodocus in Castaway (Berkley), and Ferrando in Così fan tutte (Mozart). In parallel to his artistic pursuits, Carlo currently works in environmental sciences with the federal government. This fall, he will continue his musical development by beginning a DEPA (Diplôme d'études professionnelles approfondies) in Music at the Université de Montréal.

Pianist, writer, and arts leader Pierre-André Doucet is recognized as a singular voice in Canada’s artistic landscape. Noted for the emotional depth and refined control of his performances, he has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician, and vocal collaborator across North America, Europe, and South Africa, as well as aboard Holland America Line ships as a Lincoln Center Stage artist. An active artistic curator, he serves as Artistic Director of Barachois Summer Music, in his native New Brunswick, and steered the Frye Festival—Atlantic Canada’s largest literary festival—through a time of transition as Interim Executive Director from 2021 to 2022. In 2023, he was also the artistic director of Une maison traversée at Montréal’s Festival international de littérature. He is currently the coordinator of the McGill-UdeM Piano-Vocal Arts Residency, a unique program which he also ompleted as part of its first cohort (2022-2023). Winner of the Knigge Piano Competition and the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition (with soprano Alexandra Smither), he has also received prizes at the Prix d’Europe, the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto’s Career Development Award, and the Ibiza International Piano Competition. A celebrated author, Doucet has published two critically acclaimed books with Prise de parole—Sorta comme si on était déjà là (2012) and Des dick pics sous les étoiles (2020)—and became the first writer to be a three-time finalist in literature at the Jeux de la Francophonie (Beirut 2009, Nice 2013, Kinshasa 2023). His work has also appeared in Ancrages, Art Song Canada Magazine, Impossible Archetypes, Opera Canada, and Voix plurielles. Doucet holds a Doctorate in Piano Performance from the Université de Montréal and a Graduate Diploma in Collaborative Piano Performance from McGill University. A former resident at the Franz-Schubert-Institut, Music Academy of the West, and Tanglewood Music Center, he has been a guest professor at l’Université de Montréal and is well in demand as an adjudicator across the country. His artistic projects have received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, CALQ, the New Brunswick Arts Board, SSHRC, and FRQSC.

Richard Boulanger began his formal training at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, where he studied piano with Yvonne Hubert and earned three First Prizes, along with prizes in chamber music and music history. He continued his studies in Germany with pianist Karl Engel, and later in Paris, where he spent six years studying under the legendary Nadia Boulanger. While in Paris, he earned a doctorate in musicology from the Sorbonne. His thesis, Les innovations de Domenico Scarlatti dans la technique du clavier, focused on Scarlatti’s influence on keyboard technique. During a sabbatical in 1998–1999, he returned to Paris to work with pianist Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, widow of composer Olivier Messiaen. A full professor at the Université de Moncton, Dr. Boulanger has been teaching piano and music history for over 35 years. He served as Director of the Music Department from 2004 to 2013 and became Coordinator of the university’s Preparatory School of Music in 2003. In demand across Canada as an adjudicator, he is also an active soloist and chamber musician known for his clarity, versatility, and musical insight. During his most recent sabbatical (2013–2014), he recorded a CD devoted to the solo piano works of his colleague Richard Gibson. This project reflects his deep commitment to promoting Canadian composers, especially those from Atlantic Canada, and to enriching Canada’s contemporary classical music scene.