PC: Brice Cocset
Recipient of a FRQSC research grant and a JMC AIDA Fund award, violinist Camille Poirier-Lachance’s musical inspirations have brought her to stages across Canada and the United States, as well as in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Portugal. Her curiosity and love of new experiences have led her to explore various types of music, ranging from historical performance to contemporary.
An avid chamber musician, she has been invited to take part in various prestigious music festivals such as the Perlman Music Program, Kneisel Hall, the Taos School of Music, the Evolution of the String Quartet program at the Banff Centre, the Heifetz International Music Institute and the Sarasota Music Festival, where she was coached by members from the Juilliard, Emerson, Brentano, Shanghai, Borromeo, Parker, JACK and Eybler Quartets. Additionally, she has worked with other renowned musicians and professors including Ithzak Perlman, Donald Weilerstein, Ilya Kaler, Mark Kaplan, Martin Beaver, Ani Kavafian, Alexander Kerr and Laurie Smukler. Camille is also co-founder of the Duo Nova with violist Marilou Lepage.
At the age of 15, Camille made her debut as a soloist with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra. More recently, she performed Vivaldi’s Concerto for 4 Violins in B minor with the Sarasota Music Festival Orchestra and in May 2021, she was invited to perform with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra as the winner of the Prix de la Fondation de l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. She was a finalist and prizewinner at the Canadian Music Competition, the Peter Mendell Prize and the International Concerto Competition held by Les Violons du Roy.
As an orchestra musician, Camille regularly joins ensembles such as Theresia Orchestra, Arion Orchestre Baroque, Les Violons du Roy, l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Schaffhausen Sinfonietta and Ensemble Kabinet. Additionally, she has performed with l’Orchestre Philharmonique de la Relève, l’Orchestre de l’Agora and was invited as concertmaster for a program with l’Orchestre symphonique de la Côte-Nord in November 2022. She has also been part of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Camille was concertmaster of the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble and the McGill Symphony Orchestra with whom she performed Mahler’s 4th Symphony in the Maison Symphonique de Montréal in April 2022.
In summer 2024, she will join the Jeune Orchestre de l’Abbaye and Sigiswald Kuijken for a performance at the Festival de Saintes, France and will perform as an academist at the Musica Antica Festival in Brugge, Belgium. She will also join the Schaffhausen Sinfonietta and Nina Haug for a program in Zürich, Switzerland.
Camille’s mentors include Violaine Melançon, Andrew Wan and Jinjoo Cho. She graduated with distinction and Outstanding Achievement from McGill University (BM ‘19, MM ‘22 & AD ‘23) as a recipient of a Rachel and Benjamin Schecter Memorial Scholarship and a Student Excellence Award. As of Fall 2023, she is pursuing a master’s degree in baroque violin at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam on an AHK Talent Grant, under the tutelage of Emmanuel Resche-Caserta and Shunske Sato.
Camille has received scholarships from the Fonds de recherche du Québec pour la société et culture, Jeunesses Musicales Canada, the Concertgebouworkest Foundation and the Fondazione ICONS. She plays on an 1867 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin and a Johann Wilhelm Knopf bow which were graciously lent to her by CANIMEX INC. from Drummondville (Québec), Canada.