Nicolas Ellis
Conductor
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NICOLAS ELLIS is Music Director of the Orchestre National de Bretagne, Principal Guest Conductor of Les Violons du Roy, as well as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Orchestre de l’Agora, which he founded in Montreal in 2013.
Known for his versatility in a vast repertoire, Nicolas has distinguished himself with the Orchestre de l’Agora by the conception of concerts with a dramaturgical approach. In collaboration with the Opéra de Montréal, the Agora has presented a number of opera projects in atypical venues in Montreal, including The Turn of the Screw which took place in an industrial warehouse, and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges presented at the Théâtre le Paradoxe, a church converted into a performance space that offers arts training to marginalized youths. In addition, concerts such as Electra and Iphigenia featuring the music of Mozart, Gluck and Haydn with soprano Karina Gauvin, and Bach, le voyage éphémère, used unique lighting effects to create immersive musical experiences for a wide variety of audiences. Alongside the Orchestre de l’Agora, Nicolas won a JUNO award in the Classical Album of the Year, Large Ensemble category for the album Viola Borealis featuring violist Marina Thibeault. Agora also won the Opus Prize for Musical Event of the Year for the Gala de la Terre featuring Mahler’s 3rd symphony, a major fundraising event for several environmental organizations. The eclecticism of Agora’s repertoire as well as the talent and curiosity of its musicians constitute the core of the ensemble’s artistic identity, as demonstrated by its recent critically acclaimed productions of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea and the contemporary music showcase titled Big Bang. In keeping with the Agora’s outreach mission, Nicolas has set up musical creation projects with teenagers coping with mental illness, educational workshops for children, and a series of monthly concerts for the inmates at the Bordeaux Prison in Montreal.
Nicolas is one of the most active conductors on the Canadian scene. He has been invited to conduct the Vancouver Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the I Musici de Montréal Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. In the 2023-2024 season, he will make his American debut with the San Diego Symphony and will also be conducting Le Nozze di Figaro at the Opéra de Montréal and Die Fledermaus at the Opéra de Québec, as well opening the 2024 Festival de Lanaudiere with the orchestra de L’Agora in July. The 2024-2025 season will see Nicolas guest conducting with Tampere Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Orchestre Métropolitain, and Edmonton Symphony. He will be conducting L’Enfant et les Sortilèges at Opera de Montreal and Magic Flute at Opera de Rennes.
Among the musical encounters and projects that have strongly influenced him are his former position as Artistic Collaborator of the Orchestre Métropolitain and Yannick Nézet-Séguin from 2018 to 2023, and his role as assistant conductor to Raphaël Pichon and the Ensemble Pygmalion in opera productions at the Opéra comique, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and the Salzburg Festival.
Nicolas Ellis is the recipient of the 2017 Fernand Lindsay Career Grant, was named revelation of the year 2018-2019 by Radio-Canada and has also been awarded 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