Nicolas Ellis
Conductor
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Nicolas Ellis is the Artistic director and conductor of the Orchestre de l’Agora. He was recently named Principal Guest Conductor for Les Violons du Roy and has also served as Artistic Partner to the Orchestre Métropolitain and Yannick Nézet-Séguin from 2018 to 2023.
He currently stands out as one of the most active conductors on the Canadian scene, as well as for his artistic and social commitment to the Montreal community. Renowned for his versatility in a vast repertoire, he will be heard in the 2023-2024 season in works ranging from Monteverdi's L’incoronzione di Poppea to Strauss's An Alpine Sympohny, as well as Bach cantatas and new music.
Mr. Ellis appeared as guest conductor with Les Violons du Roy, the Vancouver Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orchestre de chambre I Musici de Montréal, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Recent engagements have also brought him to conduct at the Graz opera house in Austria and he is also a regular guest conductor at the Orchestre National de Bretagne in France. During the 2023-2024 season, he will make his debuts at the Opéra de Montréal in Le Nozze di Figaro and the Opéra de Québec in J. Strauss’s La Chauve-souris.
In 2023, the Orchestre de l’Agora won a JUNO award for its recording Viola Borealis featuring violist Marina Thibeault and has also won the Prix Opus for « Musical event of the year » for its Gala de la Terre around Mahler’s 3rd symphony. At the core of Agora’s social mission, Nicolas Ellis has developed projects involving youth with mental health challenges, educational music workshops for children and a monthly concert series at the Prison de Bordeaux in Montreal.
Nicolas Ellis is the recipient of the 2017 Bourse de carrière Fernand-Lindsay and was named Revelation of the Year 2018-2019 by Radio-Canada while also winning the Prix Goyer Mécénat Musica 2021.
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April 6, 2021: Nicolas Ellis Wins 2021-2022 Goyer Mécénat Musica Prize, Worth $125,000, to Support an "emerging collaborative artist".
-La PresseNovember 9, 2017: Nicolas Ellis wins Fernand-Lindsay Career Scholarship worth $50,000
-The Ludwig Van Montreal -
NICE DOUBLE FOR NICOLAS ELLIS AND LES VIOLONS DU ROY
“Supple, delicate, pulsating, Nicolas Ellis has shown great maturity in the art of creating a very elastic internal dynamic to musical phrases without ever rushing them with jolts or effects.”
– Christopher Huss, Le DevoirTHE ORCHESTER MÉTROPOLITAIN, BEYOND EXPECTATIONS
“Subsequently, Nicolas Ellis, who can also be seen as an excellent pianist in the Dvorak Quintet in a "benefit webcast" of his Orchester de l'Agora , conducted And So Be Changed to Lightning in the End, by Kelly Marie Murphy, and Don Juan, by Strauss, with an impressive grip and bearing. We admire, for example, his respect for the resonance of the room in Don Juan. As for Murphy's score, what an orchestral tour de force, which could make it an appreciable Canadian calling card during a future tour! This high-quality contemporary work was reassuring to hear at a time when a sudden and frenetic race for symbols in programming tends to turn some corners in terms of substance and quality.”
– Christopher Huss, Le DevoirNICOLAS ELLIS AND THE ORCHESTER DE L'AGORA GAVE A POSITIVELY STUNNING CONCERT ON THURSDAY
“The program was courageous, all the music being after 1940, even if that of Ichmouratov sometimes sounds like Tchaikovsky. Basically, the evening leaves you speechless. Such a combination of talents deployed, both by the conductor and by the musicians and the young composer Francis Battah, cannot leave you indifferent.”
– Christopher Huss, Le Devoir