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 North America and Europe. Her curiosity and love of new experiences have led her to explore various types of music, ranging from historical performance to contemporary music.
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.
At the age of 15, Camille made her debut as a soloist with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, perfomring Mozart’s 3rd Violin Concerto. 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 Piazzolla’s “Invierno Porteño” 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. She is one of the founding members of Orchestra Lagrandt, a historically-informed ensemble based in the Netherlands specializing in the performance of romantic works on historical instruments.
As a modern violinist, Camille regularly plays with ensembles such as the Nederlands Philarmonisch Orkest, Rotterdams Philarmonisch Orkest, Residentie Orkest, Radio Filarmonisch Orkest, Les Violons du Roy, and the Schaffhausen Sinfonietta. As a historical violinist, she is part of the Theresia Orchestra and has performed with Les Arts Florissants, Insula Orchestra, B’Rock Orchestra and Arion Orchestre Baroque. She has also taken part in 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. Since its foundation in Fall 2024, she serves as co-concertmaster of Orchestra Lagrandt.
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. In the Fall of 2025, she obtained her master’s degree in baroque violin at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where she studied with Shunske Sato, Sayuri Yamagata and Emmanuel Resche-Caserta.
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 Christian Ficker baroque violin which were graciously lent to her by CANIMEX INC. from Drummondville (Québec), Canada.