Born: March 27, 1963 - Québec, Canada

The Canadian conductor, Bernard Labadie, is one of Québec's most active musicians. He studied recorder and voice before devoting himself to choral and orchestral conducting.

Bernard Labadie is a graduate of the School of Music of Laval University in Québec City, where he conducted his first concerts, including Purcell's Dido and Æneas, which he directed at the age of nineteen. He also directed the Québec premiere of Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea in 1984. He took honours in harmony and counterpoint at the Québec and Montréal Conservatoires, and was recipient of bursaries from the Ministry of Culture of Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts. He has studied Gregorian Chant with the renowned Dom Jean Claire at the Abbaye Saint-Pierre-de-Solesmes, and conducting with Simon Streatfeild, Pierre Dervaux and John Eliot Gardiner.

Bernard Labadie is particularly renowned in Canada and Europe for his work with two ensembles he founded: Les Violons du Roy (1984) and the professional choir La Chapelle de Québec (1985). He is frequently invited to direct symphony and chamber orchestras in Canada and abroad. Since 1989, he has also been the choral director of the Orchestra symphonique de Québec. In 1995, he made his debut with the Nihon Shinsei Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo conducting Bach's St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244).

Bernard Labadie was nominated as the Artistic and Musical Director of the Opéra de Québec in July 1994; he conducted Mignon by Ambroise Thomas and Nabucco by Verdi during 1994-1995 season. In 2002 he was nominated at L'Opéra de Montréal.

Bernard Labadie has recorded on the Dorian, Hyperion, Adès and Syrinx labels.

Source: Liner notes to Dorian Recordings CD DOR-90207 (Secular Cantatas Vol. II - with Les Violons du Roy, conducted by Labadie - 1995); Marie Sylvie Comtois (April 2002)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (March 2001), André Papillon (January 2008)

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