Hélène Brunet

Soprano

  • ENGLISH

    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 Bach, Handel, and Mozart, her repertoire extends from Baroque to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries.

    Hélène is the recipient of a prestigious Juno award (2022) for her first solo album Solfeggio (ATMA Classique) with renowned ensemble L‘Harmonie des saisons. She is the first artist to ever win for a solo album in the category Large Ensembles at the Junos. The critics describe Solfeggio as “a first-rate vocal achievement” (La Presse) and a “red carpet that displays Hélène’s superb and enveloping tone” (Le Devoir). Accolades continue with Solfeggio being selected as one of CBC Music’s Top 20 Classical albums of the year, received with a glowing review: “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”. Hélène is also featured on Las Ciudades de Oro, a second Juno award winning album for ensemble L’Harmonie des saisons (2016).

    In the concert repertoire, Hélène is invited to perform across North America with ensembles and orchestras, notably at the Lincoln Center in New York City with the American Classical Orchestra, with American Bach Soloists in San Francisco, and the Orchestre Métropolitain under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who says, “Hélène Brunet is the embodiment of class, refinement, and purity.”

    Hélène was a prize winner at the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition at Carnegie Hall. She is the recipient of generous grants from Musicaction and the Canada Council for the Arts. She studies with voice teacher Neil Semer in New York.

    FRANÇAIS

    Reconnue pour son “chant d’une parfaite beauté et sa présence scénique des plus rayonnantes”, la soprano Hélène Brunet chante Bach, Handel, Mozart, et le répertoire du 20e et 21e siècle avec égal plaisir.

    Hélène est récipiendaire d’un prestigieux prix Juno (2022) pour son premier album solo Solfeggio (ATMA Classique) avec l’ensemble de renom L’Harmonie des saisons. Elle est la première artiste à récolter ce prix pour un album solo dans la catégorie Grands Ensembles aux Junos. La critique décrit Solfeggio comme une “réalisation vocale de premier ordre” (La Presse), et un “tapis rouge pour le déploiement de ce timbre superbe et enveloppant” (Le Devoir). La CBC compte notamment Solfeggio parmi son Top 20 des albums classiques de 2020, citant: “La voix étincelante de soprano d'Hélène Brunet perce la morosité de 2020 comme un rayon d'espoir dans cette étude joliment choisie d'arias baroques et classiques.” Hélène paraît également sur l’album Las Ciudades de Oro, un deuxième disque de L’Harmonie des saisons à décrocher un Juno (2016).

    En concert, Hélène se produit auprès de plusieurs ensembles et orchestres symphoniques à travers l’Amérique du Nord, notamment au prestigieux Lincoln Center de New York avec la American Classical Orchestra, avec l'orchestre American Bach Soloists à San Francisco, et avec l’Orchestre Métropolitain sous la direction de Yannick Nézet-Séguin, qui dit d’elle : « Hélène Brunet, c’est la classe, le raffinement, la pureté. »

    Hélène est récipiendaire d’un prix à la Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition à Carnegie Hall. Elle bénéficie du généreux soutien de Musicaction ainsi que du Conseil des Arts du Canada. Elle étudie avec le professeur de chant Neil Semer à New York.

  • May 16th, 2022: Canadian Soprano Hélène Brunet Wins Classical Album Of The Year Juno Award!
    - Juno Awards

    March 1st, 2022: Solfeggio Nominated For A Juno Award
    - Junos on CBC M    usic

    December 3, 2020: Hélène Brunet’s Album ‘Solfeggio’ is Selected as CBC’s Top 20 Classical Albums of 2020
    - CBC Music

    November 6, 2020: Hélène Brunet Releases Debut Album, ‘Solfeggio’
    - ATMA Classique

    April 11, 2017: Hélène Brunet Wins Johannes Somary Award in Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition
    - Oratorio Society of New York

  • 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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

  • Orchestral Repertoire

    Bach
    Cantatas: BWV 51
    Jauchzet Gott, 82
    Ich habe genug, 199
    Hunt Cantata, 208
    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 Matthäus Passion, BWV 244
    St. John Passion Johannes Passion, BWV 245
    Christmas Oratorio Weihnachts Oratorium, BWV 248
    Easter Oratorio Oster Oratorium, BWV 249
    4 Missa brevis, BWV 233-236

    Brahms
    Ein Deutsches Requiem

    Charpentier
    Messe de Minuit pour Noël

    Couperin
    Leçons de Ténèbres

    Fauré
    Requiem

    Finzi
    In Terra Pax

    Handel
    L’Allegro, HWV 55
    La Resurrezione, HWV 47
    Messiah, HWV 56
    Dixit Dominus, HWV 232
    Gloria, HWV deest

    Haydn
    Die Schöpfung
    Die Jahreszeiten

    Mahler
    Symphony No. 4

    Mendelssohn
    Psalm 42 Wie der Hirsch schreit

    Monteverdi
    Pianto della Madonna from Selva morale e spirituale
    Vespro della Beata Vergine

    Mozart
    Exsultate Jubilate
    Requiem
    Mass in C minor
    Missa Brevis

    Pergolesi
    Stabat Mater

    Rameau
    Cantate Le Berger Fidèle
    Cantate Orphée

    Schubert
    Der Hirt auf dem Felsen
    Mass in G Major

    Vivaldi
    Gloria, RV. 589
    Gloria, RV. 588
    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 Repertoire

    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)

    *Updated June 2022