September 4, 2022
12:30 pm | Scène Deslauriers
Pascal Valois
GUITAROMANIE
The GUITAROMANIE concert brings to life the frenzy and wonder of a musical performance where spontaneity is combined with virtuos- ity. It features a set of masterpieces that drew crowds and rocked music salons across Europe. Whether an operatic fantasy by Mauro Giuliani, a sonata by Niccolò Paganini or a theme and variations by Fernando Sor, audiences were fond of new works for guitar. Some- times imbued with clarity and rigour, sometimes strewn with dazzling drama, romantic guitar music always charms, thanks to its richness and diversity.
BIOGRAPHY
Pascal Valois is dedicated to reviving enthusiasm for the guitar scene during the Romantic era. He performs music from the nineteenth-century repertoire by using various period instruments, ornamentation, stylistic practices of the period, as well as improvisation, which was customary in that era. After graduating with honours at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal under Jean Vallières, and receiving the award Pierre J. Jeanniot during his studies at Université du Québec à Montréal with Alvaro Pierri, Valois studied romantic guitar with Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and with David Starobin in New York. He has also received a doctorate in Performance Practice from Université Laval. Recently, he has played in Basel, Paris, Riga, San Francisco, New York, Ottawa, and Toronto. He has been a soloist with many ensembles, among them Rigas’s Ensemble Samsara and Montreal’s Les Idées Heureuses. He has also given master-classes in many institutions, including the Manhattan School of music, the San Francisco Conservatory, and the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. Pascal Valois has received the most renowned bursaries in Canada for guitar performance (Canada Council for the Arts) as well as Musicology (FQRSC and SSHRC). He has also been awarded scholarships from the Desjardins Foundation, the Wilfrid-Pelletier Foundation, the Laval University Foundation, and the Université du Québec à Montréal Foundation. Pascal Valois recorded for the Centaur Records and Analekta labels.
