Hélène Brunet
Soprano
Soprano
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BIOGRAPHY
Hélène Brunet (soprano) is hailed by the critics as “a singer of tremendous quality” with “a voice of perfect beauty” and “sincere expression”. Recognized for her interpretations of the works of Bach, Handel, and Mozart, her repertoire extends from Baroque to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
In the concert repertoire, Hélène is invited to perform with reputed orchestras and ensembles across North America and Europe, notably at the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, with American Bach Soloists in San Francisco, with American Classical Orchestra at the Lincoln Center in New York City, the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, the Florida Orchestra, the Eugene Symphony, the Pacific Baroque Festival, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Newfoundland Orchestra, the Nova Scotia Orchestra, Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Arion Baroque Orchestra, I Musici de Montréal, as well as the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
In opera, Hélène recently sang in Lully’s Persée in Toronto and on tour at the Royal Opera House of the Château de Versailles with the famed Opera Atelier. In Ottawa, she was recently featured in the world premiere of the opera Sleeping Rough, by Roddy Ellias and Sandra Nicholls.
The album Las Ciudades de Oro (label ATMA Classique), where Hélène is featured with ensemble l’Harmonie des Saisons, won a Juno Award in 2016 for Best Vocal Album of the Year. Her further collaborations with ATMA include an album of Bach cantatas (2018), as well as the upcoming recording of her debut solo album of a selection of baroque arias with orchestra to be released in September 2020. In addition to her ATMA collaborations, Hélène has also been featured in a recording of modern premieres of pieces by Geist, Krieger and Eberlin with the New York baroque ensemble ACRONYM under the label Olde Focus Recordings, to be released next fall.
Hélène was a prize winner at the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition at Carnegie Hall in New York. She has been the recipient of multiple grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as Musicaction. Hélène is currently studying with voice teacher Neil Semer in New York City.
NEWS
November 6, 2020: Hélène Brunet releases debut album, Solfeggio
For her first solo album with ATMA Classique, the celebrated Canadian soprano Hélène Brunet has chosen baroque and classical arias that have always been part of her life and for which she feels a deep affinity.
Source:https://atmaclassique.com/en/product/solfeggio/ACCLAIM
Canada’s top 20 classical albums of 2020
Hélène Brunet’s gleaming soprano cuts through the gloom of 2020 like a ray of hope on this nicely curated survey of baroque and classical arias. She sounds right at home with her usual early music posse, Harmonie des Saisons, whether she’s digging into the coloratura of Handel’s Scipione or spinning silky vocal lines in Vivaldi’s lilting motet “Nulla in mundo pax sincera.” The album takes its name from the final track, a wordless vocalise (or solfeggio) that must have been the model for the aria “Christe eleison” from Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, and which Brunet lovingly caresses without a trace of tension — simply beautiful!
– , CBC Music – Related Link
Hélène Brunet : plus que du solfège
Hélène Brunet’s talent is undeniable. Her soprano voice is equal across all registers, supple and displays great ease in the coloratura passages. The high C at the end of the Exsultate jubilate is performed without the shadow of a difficulty. Throughout, the singer also displays remarkable musical intelligence (especially in the subtle ornamentation of the da capo arias) and drama, inhabiting every word, every phrase. We have here a first-rate vocal achievement showcasing a Quebec talent’.
– Emmanuel Bernier, La Presse – Related Link
Solfeggio, Hélène Brunet
Hélène Brunet has a very warm soprano voice. The Solfeggio program is a red carpet that displays this superb and enveloping tone. The well-mastered technical challenges nestle in the vocalizations of the aria Armatae face et anguibus from Vivaldi’ Juditha triumphans. The best of the recording is to be found in the arias in which Hélène Brunet’s voice unfolds calmly. As such, she takes pleasure in the section devoted to Bach and poses as a consoler of the soul.
– Christophe Huss, Le Devoir – Related Link
Solfeggio
What I hear here is a very beautiful, velvety voice, as mellow in the luminous highs as those of a certain Karina Gauvin. That’s no small thing to say!
– Frédéric Cardin, PAN M 360 – Related Link
Hélène Brunet and Luc Beauséjour offer elegant evening of fine Baroque fare
“Ms Brunet… stand[s] at the beginning of a bright and exciting career. If she sings so well now, I cannot wait to hear her again in many more recitals in the years to come.”
– Stephan Bonfield, Calgary Herald – Related Link
Levin-ized Mozart Mass proves the highlight of American Classical Orchestra program
“Her melodious dialogue with the woodwinds in Et Incarnatus Est was a treasure.”
– David Wright, New York Classical Review – Related Link
American Classical Orchestra and Chorus: Cherubini, Beethoven and Mozart
“[M]arvelous. Hélène Brunet combines souple lyricism with technical elegance. In her… aria, Hélène was able to make ornements feel like a spontaneous, unplanned and experimental development of ideas.”
– Jean Ballard Telepka, TheaterScene.net – Related Link
Quebec soprano Helene Brunet shines in CPO’s Bach-at-Knox Festival
“This was one of the best performances of the entire festival – Brunet splendid in her clear, compact tone, effortless technique, and beguiling grace in overall presentation. This is music she understands well, and she has the flexibility of voice, breath control, and flair to make Bach’s sometimes difficult writing sound perfectly natural. It was an impressive debut.”
– Kenneth Delong, Calgary Herald – Related Link
DISCOGRAPHY
REPERTOIRE
Orchestral
-
Bach
Cantatas (including ‘Ich habe genug’ BWV 82, 199, 208 ‘Hunt Cantata’)
Magnificat BWV 243
Motets BWV 225 – 231
Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach
Psalm 51 BWV 1083
Mass in B minor BWV 232
St. Matthew Passion BWV 244
St. John Passion BWV 245
Christmas Oratorio BWV 248
Easter Oratorio BWV 249Couperin
Leçons de TénèbresFauré
RequiemHandel
L’Allegro HWV 55
La Resurrezione HWV 47
Messiah HWV 56
Dixit Dominus HWV 232
Gloria HWV deestHaydn
Die SchöpfungMahler
Symphony No. 4Mendelssohn
Psalm 42 ‘Wie der Hirsch schreit’Montiverdi
‘Pianto della Madonna’, from ‘Selva morale e spirituale’
‘Vespro della Beata Vergine’Mozart
Exsultate Jubilate K. 165
Requiem K. 626
Mass in C minor K. 427
Missa Brevis K. 275Pergolesi
Stabat MaterRameau
Cantate ‘Le Berger Fidèle’
Cantate ‘Orphée’Schubert
‘Der Hirt auf dem Felsen’ D. 965
Mass in G Major D. 167Vivaldi
Gloria RV. 589
Beatus vir RV. 598
Motet ‘Laudate Pueri Dominum’ RV. 601
In Exitu Israel RV. 604
Motet ‘Laudate Pueri Omnes Gentes’ RV. 606
Magnificat RV. 611
Motet ‘In Furore Iustissimae’ RV. 626
Motet ‘Nulla in Mundo Pax Sincera’ RV. 630
Motet ‘O qui Coeli Terraeque Serenitas’ RV. 631
Motet ‘Sum in Medio Tempestatum’ RV. 632
Motet ‘Vos Aurae per Montes’ RV. 634
Juditha Triumphans RV. 644
Opera
-
Handel
Acis & Galatea (Galatea)
Giulio Cesare (Cleopatra)
Semele (Semele)Mozart
Cosi fan tutte (Despina)
Die Zauberflöte (Pamina)
Don Giovanni (Zerlina)
Idomeneo (Ilia)
La Clemenza di Tito (Servilia)
Le nozze di Figaro (Susanna)
Orchestral
Bach
Cantatas (including ‘Ich habe genug’ BWV 82, 199, 208 ‘Hunt Cantata’)
Magnificat BWV 243
Motets BWV 225 – 231
Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach
Psalm 51 BWV 1083
Mass in B minor BWV 232
St. Matthew Passion BWV 244
St. John Passion BWV 245
Christmas Oratorio BWV 248
Easter Oratorio BWV 249Couperin
Leçons de TénèbresFauré
RequiemHandel
L’Allegro HWV 55
La Resurrezione HWV 47
Messiah HWV 56
Dixit Dominus HWV 232
Gloria HWV deestHaydn
Die SchöpfungMahler
Symphony No. 4Mendelssohn
Psalm 42 ‘Wie der Hirsch schreit’Montiverdi
‘Pianto della Madonna’, from ‘Selva morale e spirituale’
‘Vespro della Beata Vergine’Mozart
Exsultate Jubilate K. 165
Requiem K. 626
Mass in C minor K. 427
Missa Brevis K. 275Pergolesi
Stabat MaterRameau
Cantate ‘Le Berger Fidèle’
Cantate ‘Orphée’Schubert
‘Der Hirt auf dem Felsen’ D. 965
Mass in G Major D. 167Vivaldi
Gloria RV. 589
Beatus vir RV. 598
Motet ‘Laudate Pueri Dominum’ RV. 601
In Exitu Israel RV. 604
Motet ‘Laudate Pueri Omnes Gentes’ RV. 606
Magnificat RV. 611
Motet ‘In Furore Iustissimae’ RV. 626
Motet ‘Nulla in Mundo Pax Sincera’ RV. 630
Motet ‘O qui Coeli Terraeque Serenitas’ RV. 631
Motet ‘Sum in Medio Tempestatum’ RV. 632
Motet ‘Vos Aurae per Montes’ RV. 634
Juditha Triumphans RV. 644
Opera
Handel
Acis & Galatea (Galatea)
Giulio Cesare (Cleopatra)
Semele (Semele)Mozart
Cosi fan tutte (Despina)
Die Zauberflöte (Pamina)
Don Giovanni (Zerlina)
Idomeneo (Ilia)
La Clemenza di Tito (Servilia)
Le nozze di Figaro (Susanna)
MEDIA
Audio
Handel: Scipione – Scoglio d’immota fronte
Vivaldi: La fede tradita e vendicata – Sin nel placido soggiorno
Vivaldi: Juditha triumphans – Armatae face et anguibus
Bach: Cantata BWV 208 – Schafe können, sicher weiden
Bach: Cantata BWV 82 – Ich habe genug
Mozart: Mitridate, Re di Ponto – Lungi da te, mio bene
Mozart: Exsultate jubilate – Alleluia
Mozart: K. 393 – Solfeggio no.2 in F major
PRESS KIT
Video
Documents
Short Biography
Hélène Brunet (soprano) is hailed as “a singer of tremendous quality” with “a voice of perfect beauty and sincere expression.” Recognized for her interpretations of Bach, Handel, and Mozart, her repertoire extends from Baroque to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Hélène sings at the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, with American Bach Soloists in San Francisco, the American Classical Orchestra at Lincoln Center in New York City, and the Orchestre Métropolitain under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who says, “Hélène Brunet is the embodiment of class, refinement, and purity.” Her debut solo album Solfeggio (ATMA Classique) has been described as a “red carpet that displays Hélène’s superb and enveloping tone” and “a first-rate vocal achievement”.
Full Biography
Hélène Brunet (soprano) is hailed by the critics as “a singer of tremendous quality” with “a voice of perfect beauty” and “sincere expression”. Recognized for her interpretations of the works of Bach, Handel, and Mozart, her repertoire extends from Baroque to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
In the concert repertoire, Hélène is invited to perform with reputed orchestras and ensembles across North America and Europe, notably at the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, with American Bach Soloists in San Francisco, with American Classical Orchestra at the Lincoln Center in New York City, the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, the Florida Orchestra, the Eugene Symphony, the Pacific Baroque Festival, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Newfoundland Orchestra, the Nova Scotia Orchestra, Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Arion Baroque Orchestra, I Musici de Montréal, as well as the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
In opera, Hélène recently sang in Lully’s Persée in Toronto and on tour at the Royal Opera House of the Château de Versailles with the famed Opera Atelier. In Ottawa, she was recently featured in the world premiere of the opera Sleeping Rough, by Roddy Ellias and Sandra Nicholls.
The album Las Ciudades de Oro (label ATMA Classique), where Hélène is featured with ensemble l’Harmonie des Saisons, won a Juno Award in 2016 for Best Vocal Album of the Year. Her further collaborations with ATMA include an album of Bach cantatas (2018), as well as the upcoming recording of her debut solo album of a selection of baroque arias with orchestra to be released in September 2020. In addition to her ATMA collaborations, Hélène has also been featured in a recording of modern premieres of pieces by Geist, Krieger and Eberlin with the New York baroque ensemble ACRONYM under the label Olde Focus Recordings, to be released next fall.
Hélène was a prize winner at the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition at Carnegie Hall in New York. She has been the recipient of multiple grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as Musicaction. Hélène is currently studying with voice teacher Neil Semer in New York City.
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