Émilie Girard-Charest, Cello
Teaching at:
- Mile-end
Émilie Girard-Charest is a cellist, a composer and an improviser dedicated to new music. As a chamber musician, both as soloist and member of various ensembles, she has taken part in the premiere of more than sixty new works and has worked closely with many composers, most notably Malcolm Goldstein, Maxime McKinley, Brice Catherin, Cecilia Arditto, Marc Sabat, Graciela Paraskevaídis, Enno Poppe and Jorge Diego Vazquez. Her own compositions have been performed by several ensembles, namely Novarumori, Qhirqhiña, Quasar, Continuum, Thin Edge New Music Collective, SuperMusique, Molinari Quartet and by the members of No hay banda.
She has also released several albums, including Enthousiasme viscéral (in duet with Sergio Castrillón, 2019, Mikroclimat), Uncanny Valley (in duet with Marc Vilanova, 2017, audiotalaia) Émilie préfère le chant (2016, Ambiances Magnétiques), Race with time (in duet with Mart Soo, 2016, Improtest Records), Avec (2016, Kohlenstoff Records) and Musica in camera (Quatuor d’occasion, 2014, &records).
Émilie maintains an active international touring schedule and has appeared herself in performance at numerous festivals in Canada (Festival de musique actuelle de Victoriaville, OFF Festival de Jazz, Festival de Jazz de Montréal, Festival de Jazz de Québec, Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques, Modulus Festival); the United States (Avant-Music Festival, New York); Belgium (Ars Musica); Austria (Klangspuren Schwaz and Impuls); Germany (Darmstadt Ferienkurse for Neue Musik and Donaueschingen Musiktage); Chile (Encuentro Internacional de Compositores); Argentina (Muchas Músicas and Sonido Presente); Estonia (Autumn Festival); Finland (MuTe Fest); Spain (Mixtur) and Macedonia (Macedonian Music Days) as well as in concerts in France, Russia, San Marino and Uruguay.
She has also taken part in various theatre, dance and performance art productions, such as Rhinocéros by Eugène Ionesco (Troupe Éponyme directed by Jocelyn Sioui), Couloir et Chambres by Philippe Minyana and La fête à Jean by Pierre-Luc Lasalle (Théâtre L’Instant, directed by André-Marie Coudou), ADN by Dennis Kelly (Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique de Montréal, directed by Sylvain Bélanger), the Physical Theater Choir Project (Vicki Tansey), The Sticks (Andrew Tay) and Le frottement du monde (Sarah Bronsard).
Émilie holds a degree in cello (Denis Brott) and in composition (Michel Gonneville) from the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal and a CoPeCo Master (Contemporary Performance and Composition) from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. She is now pursuing her doctoral studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon under the supervision of Philippe Hurel and Laurent Pottier.
She has received numerous awards and grants in support of her composition career, most notably the Bourse de développement de carrière from the Foundation of the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal (2014), the Prix d'Europe de Composition Fernand-Lindsay (2015) and the Robert-Fleming Prize of the Canada Arts Council.
Émilie plays a cello made by Angel Alvarez Verde.