Élisabeth Pion, Arion Orchestre Baroque & Mathieu Lussier
Biography Élisabeth Pion, Arion Orchestre Baroque & Mathieu Lussier
Élisabeth Pion
An enquiring and innovative artist, pianist Élisabeth Pion leads an imaginative career as a soloist, chamber musician & artistic collaborator. Recent highlights include her nomination as Révélation Radio-Canada 2024/2025, the release of her first solo album with ATMA Classique, as well as being awarded the Bita-Cattelan Philanthropic Engagement Award at the Concours musical international de Montréal 2024 & the 3rd prize of the 2023 Rio Piano Festival - Tribute to Nelson Freire, performing with the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira & Roberto Tibiriçá. Her second album with ATMA Classique, a collaboration with Mathieu Lussier & Arion Orchestre Baroque highlighting works by Mozart & Montgeroult, will be out this upcoming June 2024.
Élisabeth was heard for the first time with Nézet-Séguin’s Orchestre Métropolitain & Kensho Watanabe this past January 2024 in a series of performances of Garuta concerto. She is a regular guest artist with several orchestras, such as the Toledo Symphony, the Victoria Symphony, the Orchestre classique de Montréal, Arion Orchestre Baroque & the National Academy Orchestra. She has collaborated with conductors such as Alain Trudel, Mathieu Lussier, Jacques Lacombe, Geneviève Leclair, Gordon Gerrard, and has also enjoyed a close collaboration with conductor Thomas Le Duc-Moreau and the Ensemble Volte.
She has been heard as a recitalist in several venues in London, notably making her Wigmore Hall recital debut in 2021 following her winning the 2020 Guildhall Wigmore Prize. She also made her BBC Radio 3 broadcast debut in 2019, and can regularly be heard on CBC/Radio-Classique.
Élisabeth also loves chamber music. She most recently performed alongside Juliana Koch (Principal Oboe @London Symphony Orchestra), Julie Price (Principal Bassoon @BBC Symphony), Vertavo Quartet and Mark Padmore during Midsummer Festival 2024. She also recently shared the piano bench with Dame Imogen Cooper for a joint 4-hands concert. In 2023, she was invited to IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music; performed with the Quatuor Cobalt; and presented a concert weaved around Marisol Escobar’s life with the vocal ensemble Les Rugissants, in collaboration with Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. In 2022, she gave a solo & collaborative recital with mezzo-soprano Alexandra Achillea Pouta at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall - they subsequently presented Messiaen’s Harawi in Barbican’s Milton Court. From 2020 to 2023, she was the pianist of the prize-winning ensemble De Beauvoir Piano Trio (see Collaborations).
Élisabeth has been active in performing on fortepiano, having worked with Maggie Cole. She is also fascinated by classical improvisation & cadenza writing and is furthering her knowledge of those skills with Professor David Dolan.
Among recent accolades, Élisabeth has won the 2023 Best Original Score from the Vesuvius Festival for her music on ballet dancer Ysabelle Taylor’s short film « Spirit of the Tree ». She has been awarded the 2022 Choquette-Symcox Award from the Fondation Jeunesses Musicales Canada. In 2019, she won the Silver Medal of the Musicians’ Company in London. In 2018, following her winning the Shean Competition in Edmonton, Élisabeth was named in the CBC Palmares 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30, and was also selected as one of 2018’s 15 Rising Stars from the magazine La Scena Musicale.
Élisabeth is an alumna of the Imogen Cooper Music Trust and a Young Artist of the Musicians’ Company of London. She also is an alumna of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she worked with Professor Ronan O’Hora. She was made a Guildhall Junior Fellow in 2022/2023, and previously graduated with the Artist Diploma & Artist Masters with the highest mention. She has also completed the 2021/2022 “Conducting from the keyboard” course with Ricardo Castro at the Scuela di musica di Fiesole, and has recently worked with Claudio Martinez Mehner during IMS Prussia Cove 2023. She previously studied in Canada with Francine Lacroix, Suzanne Goyette and André Laplante. She wishes to say thank you to the several institutions who have supported her during her studies, namely the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation, The Musicians’ Company Carnwath Scholarship, The Jane Ades Ingenuity Scholarship, Talent Unlimited UK, and the Fondation Jeunesses Musicales Canada.
She is currently enrolled in the 23/24 Light Course at the Accademia di Musica di Pinerolo with Benedetto Lupo, and is receiving guidance from her mentor Gabriela Montero throughout 2024 as an OAcademy Fellow.
Élisabeth is also the co-founder and co-artistic director of the Festival Unisson in Canada, founded in 2020 with cellist Agnès Langlois, a festival based on Abramovic’s The Artist is Present.
Her strong interests in literature, writing, composition, repertoire research and Tai Chi nurture her musical practice. She is also involved with the International Liberty Association.
Mathieu Lussier
Appointed Artistic Director of Arion Baroque Orchestra in 2019, Mathieu Lussier previously served as Associate Conductor of the chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy from 2012 to 2018, directing the ensemble’s performances throughout Canada and in Mexico, Brazil and the US, and collaborating with artists including Marc-André Hamelin, Alexandre Tharaud, Jeremy Denk, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Philippe Jarrousky, Julia Lezhevna, Anthony Marwood and Karina Gauvin. In 2014, he received the Canada Council for the Arts’ Jean-Marie Beaudet Award for orchestral conducting. As Artistic Director of the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival from 2008 to 2014, Mathieu Lussier also led various Canadian ensembles including Arion Baroque Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, I Musici de Montréal, Symphony Nova Scotia (Halifax), Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Drummondville and Sherbrooke symphony orchestras.
For the past 20 years, Mathieu has tirelessly and passionately introduced audiences throughout North America, South America and Europe to the modern and Baroque bassoons as both solo and orchestral instruments. He continues to pursue a career in chamber music with Pentaèdre in Montreal, and was appointed Professor at the Faculty of Music of Université de Montréal in the summer of 2014. A talented communicator known for his humour and eloquence, Mathieu Lussier also served as President of the Conseil québécois de la musique from 2012 to 2015 and as President of CAMMAC from 2015 to 2017. In August 2019, he was named Vice-Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Professorial Affairs and Faculty Life at the Faculty of Music of Université de Montréal.
Mathieu Lussier is also a composer whose catalogue comprises more than 50 works performed regularly in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. In 2018, he composed part of the music for the film La chute de l’empire américain by Oscar-winning director Denys Arcand. His works are published by Trevcomusic (US), Accolade (Germany), June Emerson (UK) and Gérard Billaudot (France).
