Bourgie Hall Reveals Winter Season Lineup

Bourgie Hall of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) will continue its season with a program that champions diversity and innovation, bringing back beloved series alongside new offerings, including world and Canadian premieres.

The winter season opens with Soleil de minuit, part of the Music From Here and Abroad series, featuring Denis Plante on bandoneon, Valérie Milot on harp, and Stéphane Tétreault on cello. The series continues with Amel Brahim-Djelloul's tribute to Kabyle music in Les chemins qui montent, followed by tabla virtuoso Salar Nadar and rubab player Quraishi in The Art of the Afghan Rubab and Tabla. In the Grands Jazz Evenings series, audiences will find Walter Smith III Meets Carlos Jiménez, presenting daring new compositions, and Because: A Concert of Spirituals, with American countertenor Reginald Mobley and French pianist Baptiste Trotignon. This performance is presented for Black History Month in collaboration with the Montreal Afro-Canadian Cultural Centre (MACC) and the Black History Month Roundtable.

Among the season's most anticipated events, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor make their Bourgie Hall debut with gems from the chamber music repertoire. Also not to be missed: Avi Avital, one of the world's great mandolin virtuosos, joins Les Violons du Roy in this bold collaboration to present his own arrangements of Baroque concertos by Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Bach, and Avison.

Another favourite series is Outstanding Pianists, featuring Piano Romances with pianist Bertrand Chamayou, whose program blends contemporary works with beloved Romantic composers. French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard will be joined onstage by celebrated British composer George Benjamin, for the Canadian premiere of Divisions for piano four hands, a musical duet where two players share a piano. This musical duo will be followed by a conversation with the artists hosted by Bourgie Hall artistic director Olivier Godin. The eagerly awaited Complete Schubert Lieder: Year 3 series continues with Schubert and Reger: Light and Shadow, as mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel explores Max Reger's expansive catalogue alongside pianists Jean Marchand and Olivier Godin. In March, Thomas Dolié traces the connections between Beethoven and Schubert in Beethoven and Schubert: Intimations, while soprano Marianne Lambert and pianist Jeff Cohen continue the series with lieder inspired by women and their stories in April. In the Baroque and Early Music series, violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and lutenist Thomas Dunford present The Mad Lover, recreating the sounds of 17th-century England, while the celebrated Concerto Italiano and its conductor, Rinaldo Alessandrini, close the series with a program dedicated to transcriptions of Bach's keyboard pieces.

With U. (un canto), Bourgie Hall marks its first collaboration with the Festival TransAmeriques (FTA), with a concert-performance conceived by Alessandro Sciarroni. This performance, conceived for seven a cappella voices, is structured around the work of composers Renzo Bertoldo, Piercarlo Gatti, Bepi de Marzi, Angelo Mazza, and Giorgio Susana. The festivals produced by the Hall include the Philip Glass Festival, which in January celebrates the 90th birthday of one of the great composers of our time. The Kronos Quartet and Les Violons du Roy, the latter joined by pianist Elisabeth Pion, take the stage, as does countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who performs selections from Glass's song cycles and operas with pianist Bryan Wagorn. The Pierre-Mercure Festival, marking the 100th anniversary of the Quebec composer's birth, features a lecture on his studio compositions, orchestral works and television productions at Radio-Canada, as well as an exclusive screening of two episodes of L'Heure du concert, which he produced. Finally, the Beethoven Festival commemorates the 200th anniversary of the composer's death with three renowned ensembles: Trio Wanderer, the Goldmund Quartet and the Juilliard String Quartet. The latter will also give a masterclass on chamber music.

To close the season, Bernard Labadie leads Les Violons du Roy in Celebrating Bach, a program of exceptional soloists. From Triple Concerto BWV 1044 to the Brandenburg Concertos, this performance will showcase Bach's genius through the ensemble's rich instrumental colour.

More on Bourgie Hall

Upcoming Shows

The Art of the Afghan Rubab and Tabla – Salar Nader and Quraishi

9/24 - 6/30/2027

Delirio amoroso – Ensemble Les Ondes

9/24 - 6/30/2027

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