SEASON OPENING CONCERT

Alain LEFÈVRE - Hailed as a “hero” (Los Angeles Times), a “spectacular pianist” (Fanfare), a “smashing” performer (Washington Post), JUNO  Award winner Alain Lefèvre has also been acclaimed as  “a pianist who breaks the mold” (International Piano, London) and “who stands out from the typical trends and artifices offered on the international scene.” (Classica).  He has revived and championed the music of the forgotten prodigy, composer and pianist André Mathieu, called the “Canadian Mozart” and was music director, pianist and composer of L’Enfant prodige (The Child prodigy) released in 2010, a film based on André Mathieu’s life (Cinémaginaire), produced by Denise Robert and Daniel Louis (The Barbarian Invasions: 2004 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, directed by Denys Arcand).

Mr. Lefèvre was invited by the renowned American journalist Charlie Rose to appear on his show in New York (PBS) to share his passion for Mathieu presenting his Concerto No.4, described by the international
critic as a “masterpiece” and as a “national treasure”. When released, the CD came in 2nd place on the American billboard and in 1st place in Canada, a noteworthy success for an unknown piece. Since the beginning of his career, he has included, commissioned and battled for the music of our time. Alexander Brott, Walter Boudreau, John Corigliano, François Dompierre, Pierre-Max Dubois, Henri Dutilleux, Alain Payette are but a few of the composers he has added to his core repertoire.  

One of Canada’s foremost virtuosos, Mr. Lefèvre pursues a sparkling international career, having performed in over forty countries to prestigious venues (Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Pleyel, Théatre du Châtelet, Théatre des Champs-Élysées, …) and with leading conductors such as Matthias Bamert, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, JoAnn Falletta, Lawrence Foster, Bernhard Klee, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Vladimir Spivakov and Long Yu, to name but a few. He has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Orchestra of St-Luke’s, Royal Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, Oper Komische Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony, SWR in Stuttgart, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Malaysian Philharmonic, Shanghaï Symphony, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Thessaloniki Symphony Orchestra, the Athens Camerata (Friends of Music Orchestra), the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic and Moscow Virtuosi, amongst many others. He was also invited to numerous international festivals such as Cervantino, Istanbul Festival, Epidavros, Athens Festival, Ravinia, SPAC, Wolf Trap, Vermont Mozart Festivals, Lanaudière  Festival, and Mostly Mozart at Notre-Dame Basilica.  


With over thirty CDs, some winning numerous prizes, his discography covers a vast repertoire, including John Corigliano’s Piano Concerto, chosen by BBC Music Magazine as the reference version. Gramophone magazine in a featured article about his recording of works by Rachmaninov and Scriabin with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Kent Nagano, referred to a “crisply executed and superb recording with razor-sharp responses to Rachmaninov's complex rhythms and rapid changes of metre.” His recording of the Liszt Transcriptions of works by Bach and Wagner, was chosen as a “ Télérama event” by Télérama magazine and Audiophile Audition asserted it to be as “groundbreaking an illumination of Liszt’s transformational art as Gould’s was of Bach’s pure art nearly half a century ago”.

Officer of the Order of Canada, Chevalier of the National Order of Quebec, Chevalier of the Pléiade Order, Mr. Lefèvre is also winner of an Opus Award, ten Felix Awards (ADISQ) and won the prestigious AIB Award in London in 2010, for “International personality of the year – Radio”, saluting his radio program featuring classical music, every Sunday on ICI Musique, Radio-Canada.

Charles OLIVIERI-MUNROE is from the 2015/16 season the newly appointed Artistic Director & Principal Conductor of the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra. He is concurrently Chief Conductor with Philharmonie Sudwestfalen since 2011. He holds the position of Honourary Chief Conductor with the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he has had a long and successful relationship since 1997. Since 2005 he has been Resident Conductor with the Texas Round Top Festival Institute.
Previously Olivieri-Munroe has held the position of Principal Conductor of the Colorado ‘Crested Butte’ Festival (2008), Artistic Director of the Inter-Regionales Symfonie Orchester in Germany (2008), Chief Conductor of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava (2001-2004), and Associate Conductor with the Brno Philharmonic (1995-97) and Karlsbad Symphony Orchestra (1993-95).
Charles Olivieri-Munroe’s hold on public imagination stems from a combination of talent and charisma. He is increasingly recognized in the international press for his innovative programming, interpretation of Slavic repertoire and his passion for purity of orchestral sound. From his home in Prague his career takes him across five continents, appearing with many of the world’s finest orchestras which has included the Israel Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Deutches Symphonie-Orchester, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony, Budapest Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, Royal Brussels Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and others. He has also appeared in New York, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Athens, Istanbul, Lisbon, Tokyo, Seoul and Santiago.
In the opera house, Charles Olivieri-Munroe made his debut conducting Verdi’s Falstaff at the Berlin Komische Oper in 2001. He led Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Milan, Aida at the Lago di Como Festival and also conducted at Il Teatro Fenice in Venice. He has a worked with the Netherlands National Ballet, at the Prague National Opera and the Prague State Opera,. He as music director at the Warsaw Chamber Opera in their 50th anniversary in 2012 conducting Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress. In February 2014 he led the Dvorak National Theater in a critically acclaimed new production of Schumann’s Genoveva.
Born in Malta, Charles Olivieri-Munroe grew up in Canada where he studied the piano with the eminent pedagogue, Boris Berlin, at the Royal Conservatory of Music and at the University of Toronto. Following his graduation in 1992 he won three Ontario scholarships to study with Otakar Trhlik at the Janacek Academy of Music in Brno, Czechoslovakia. He was also a student of Jiri Belohlavek and spent two summers (1995/96) at L’Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena studying with Ilja Musin and Yuri Temirkanov and Myung Whun Chung. In 1997 Charles Olivieri-Munroe was a recipient of the $20,000 career grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. His international career was launched by a series of triumphs in international competitions culminating with him winning First Prize in the 2000 ‘Prague Spring International Music Festival’ Conducting Competition in which he also won the prizes offered by Supraphon Records, City of Prague and by Czech Radio.
Charles Olivieri-Munroe is the winner of the 2013 Brand Personality Award by the Asia Pacific Brand Foundation for his achievements in conducting and music. Previous laureates have included Hillary Clinton, Steve Jobs, Michael Schumacher and Nelson Mandela and Mark Zuckerberg.
Charles Olivieri-Munroe’s recordings for SONY, RCA Red Seal, NAXOS, SMS Classical, and Naive Records can be heard on many of the major international classical radio stations.