Angèle Dubeau


Angèle Dubeau, is a Canadian classical violinist. She has devoted a large part of her career to making classical music accessible to a wide audience, but also frequently plays works by contemporary composers.

Early life and education

Dubeau was born in Saint-Norbert, Quebec, the seventh of eight children. She first studied the violin with Father Rolland Brunelle at the Joliette music camp, at Jean Cousineau's Les Petits Violons. She went on to graduate as a First-Prize winner from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. She studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York with Dorothy DeLay and later went to Romania to work with Ştefan Gheorghiu from 1981 until 1984.

Career

Angèle Dubeau participated in tours organized by the non-profit Jeunesses musicales du Canada from 1977 to 1981, and then began an international career. In 1985, she recorded her first record on the Radio-Canada International label. She is the first artist to be published on the Analekta label, in 1988. Since then, she has recorded an average of two albums a year, and is regularly awarded in the category of classical albums in the Félix Awards.
From 1994 to 1997, she hosted a series of concert broadcasts and weekly music programs for Radio-Canada, featuring young Quebec musicians. These include "Faites vos gammes" and "Angèle Dubeau et la Fête de la Musique". In 1995, she organized, directed, and hosted "Music in the Mountains," an event which attracts 75,000 people every Labour Day weekend. Since that year, she has also been artistic director of the Tremblant Music Festival, a festival she founded.
In 1996, she was made a member of the Order of Canada.
In 1997, Dubeau created the all-female, all-Canadian string ensemble "La Pietà." This group has performed in many concert halls in Canada, the United States, China, and Japan, receiving positive reviews from local papers and radio stations.
In 2004, she was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec. She was elevated to Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012.
In 2019, she continues to perform with La Pietà; she headlined the Tremblant Music Festival in September.
Dubeau has performed in concert halls in more than 25 countries and won several international competitions. In addition, she has sold more than 300,000 records as a solo classical recording artist. Some awards that she has won include the Sylva Gelber prize, Public Francophone Radio's "Soloist of the Year 1987", and the Prize of the Americas at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival.
Dubeau plays the "Des Rosiers" Stradivarius violin from 1733. She received this violin in 1976 when the violinist and previous owner Arthur Leblanc met Dubeau and heard her play. The violin was classified as a national heritage by former Quebec premier René Lévesque.
She sits on the board of directors of the Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec.

Personal life

Angèle Dubeau is married to Mario Labbé, founder of the record company Analekta. In February 2013, she had to stop performing in order to get treatment for breast cancer. She returned to the stage on 1 September 2013 and announced that she was in remission.

Discography

National recognition