The Montréal connection

The Banff Centre is connected to Montréal’s vibrant art scene on a multitude of levels – in dance, theatre, music, film, television, visual arts, and literature. The Banff Centre has welcomed thousands of talented individuals from Quebec, as both program participants and faculty.

Some of our distinguished Montréal alumni and faculty include:

In dance

• Fourteen of the eighteen members of [bjm_danse] (formerly Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal) are Centre alumni, including artistic director Louise Robitaille and resident choreographer Crystal Pite. Pite was awarded the Centre’s Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award in 1995. In spring 2004, [bjm_danse] participated in the prestigious Canada Dance Festival Residency at the Centre, enabling the company to finish The Stolen Show, which has played to critical acclaim in Italy, France, the U.S., and across Canada. Eva Von Gencsy, one of the co-founders of Ballets Jazz de Montréal is also a Centre alumna.
• One quarter of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal have trained at the Centre, including soloist Marie-Ève Lapointe.
• Premiering in October 2005, Sylvain Émard Danse’s Temps de chien was honed during what Sylvain Émard termed a “magnificent residency” at The Banff Centre, working with composers Michel F. Côté and Tim Hecker.
• Montréal choreographer and actress Dulcinea Langfelder was a 2005 Banff Centre Fleck Fellow, providing an opportunity to work on her latest dance creation, Dulcinea’s Lament. Blending elements of theatre, cinema, music, and musical theatre in her work, Langfelder was honoured as “Personality of the Year in Dance” by La Presse in 1990.
• Artistic directors Marie-Claude Poulin and Martin Kusch of kondition pluriel are also Centre alumni. Based in Montréal, kondition pluriel produces performative spaces integrating media and choreographic concepts.

In opera

• Jean Marie-Zeitouni, associate conductor and chorus master at l’Opéra de Montréal and associate conductor of Les Violons du Roy.
• Soprano Allison Angelo, l’Opéra de Montréal.
• Soprano Christina Tannous, Les Nuits d’été with the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Radio-Canada series Jeunes artistes.

Some of our distinguished Montréal alumni and faculty include:

In music

• One third of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM) are Centre alumni, including Kent Nagano who began his tenure as the OSM’s Music Director in September 2006.
• Arcade Fire/Bell Orchestre members Sarah Neufeld, Richard Perry, Pietro Amato, Kaveh Nabatian, and Stefan Schneider.
• Stéphane Lévesque, principal bassoon with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and assistant professor at McGill University.
• Pianist Marc Durand, soloist, accompanist, chamber musician, and pedagogue, professor of piano at the University of Montréal.
• Trombonist, conductor, composer, arranger, and educator Alain Trudel, professor of trombone at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal.

In the literary arts

• Award-winning literary translator Linda Gaboriau, director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre (BILTC) since its inception.
• Yann Martel, author Life of Pi, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, and Self. Martel was a 2005 Banff Centre Fleck Fellow and worked with German, Bulgarian, and Israeli translators during the 2005 BILTC residency.
• Poet, novelist, and non-fiction writer Madeleine Gagnon, winner of the Governor General’s Award for Poetry (1990).
• Award-winning writer and journalist, Mark Abley, author of Spoken Here.
• Anita Rau Badami, author of Tamarind Men and The Hero’s Walk, winner of the 2001 Commonwealth Prize for the Caribbean-Canada region.
• Colin McAdam, author of Some Great Thing, nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.
• Writer, director, and actor Larry Tremblay, author of Le Mangeur de bicyclett and Talking Bodies.

In theatre

• Award-winning playwright, Kent Stetson, winner of the 2001 Governor General’s Literary Award for English Drama for The Harps of God.
• Dramaturge, teacher and translator of more than 25 Quebec plays Maureen LaBonte, program dramaturge at the Banff playRites Colony.
• Montréal-based theatre translator Shelley Tepperman. Four of Tepperman’s play translations were workshopped at the Banff playRites Colony and produced across Canada.

Published: Summer 2007.