Mathieu Lussier

Bio

A versatile musician with a commanding grasp of early repertoire, Mathieu Lussier is increasingly in demand as a guest conductor in Canada and abroad, Appointed by Les Violons du Roy as Conductor-in-Residence in 2012, and Associate Conductor in 2014, Lussier has led the orchestra in numerous programs both in Quebec, and on tour in greater Canada, the United States and Mexico. Previous appointments include Artistic Director of the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival, where he served from 2007 to 2014. In 2014, Lussier was awarded Canada Art Council’s prestigious Jean-Marie-Beaudet Conducting prize.  

Recent engagements include the 2013 and 2014 Festival International de Lanaudière, Orchestre de la Mission Saint-Charles, Arion Baroque Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal and Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, where he conducted an acclaimed production of Handel’s Acis and Galatea.  In addition to his guest engagements with Sherbrooke Symphony Orchestra, Trois-Rivière Symphony Orchestra and the Montréal Symphony Orchestra (OSM), Lussier returns to Les Violons du Roy next season for a series of subscription performances. 

As a soloist, Mathieu Lussier has energetically and passionately promoted the modern and baroque bassoon as solo instruments for nearly two decades throughout North America and Europe. He has been associated with such ensembles as Arion Baroque Orchestra (Montreal), Les Violons du Roy (Quebec City), Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Toronto), the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, and Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland). He also devotes considerable time to chamber music as a member of Ensemble Pentaèdre de Montréal. Since the summer of 2014, he has been Assistant Professor at Université de Montréal. 

His numerous solo recordings include over a dozen bassoon concertos (Vivaldi, Fasch, Graupner, Telemann, and Corrette), a CD of bassoon sonatas by Boismortier, three CDs of music for solo bassoon by François Devienne, and two CDs of wind music by Gossec and Méhul. 

Mathieu Lussier is also a respected composer, with a catalogue of over 40 titles heard regularly in the concert halls of North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. In August 2009, his piece Bassango, in its version for bassoon and string orchestra, won the third prize in the Contemporary Classical Song category at the Just Plain Folks Awards of Nashville, Tennessee. He has received commissions from artists such as Nadina Mackie Jackson, Guy Few, Lise Beauchamp, and George Zukerman as well as from the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Oshawa-Durham Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Les Idées Heureuses. Mathieu Lussier’s music has been recorded on numerous occasions and is broadcast all around the world. “Dos Tropicos,” a wind quintet written in 2001, has been performed over 100 times in Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom. His compositions are published by Trevco Music (USA), Accolade (Germany), June Emerson (UK) and Gérard Billaudot (France).