Les Violons du Roy, a pillar in the classical music community, celebrates its 40th anniversary with an extraordinary lineup of events that promise to enthrall audiences. From the divine melodies of Handel to the innovative sounds of Satie, the orchestra showcases a range of performances featuring renowned artists like Karina Gauvin, Bernard Labadie, and Antoine Tamestit. Each event not only highlights the timeless beauty of classical music but also introduces fresh interpretations and collaborations. Join us at Palais Montcalm for a season of unforgettable musical experiences.

A Symphony of Celebrations: Les Violons du Roy Marks 40th Anniversary

Les Violons du Roy invites you to an extraordinary series of concerts that showcase the brilliance of classical music. From Handel to Satie, these events feature renowned artists like Karina Gauvin, Kerson Leong, and Antoine Tamestit, alongside the masterful direction of conductors such as Jonathan Cohen and Bernard Labadie. Each performance, held at the stunning Palais Montcalm, promises to deliver a unique blend of historic pieces and innovative compositions. Join us as we explore the timeless connections between music, friendship, and creative expression in this unforgettable celebration.

A Musical Journey with Les Violons du Roy: Celebrating Iconic Composers and Talented Artists

Les Violons du Roy is set to enchant audiences with a captivating lineup of events celebrating classical music's timeless beauty. This season, performers like Karina Gauvin, Kerson Leong, and Antoine Tamestit take the stage, bringing works by composers such as Handel, Bach, and Dvořák to life. Join us as we explore these musical journeys, from Baroque masterpieces to new compositions, all culminating in a spectacular finale celebrating French symphonic tradition.

A Harmonious Celebration: Les Violons du Roy's Spectacular Season

Les Violons du Roy is set to mesmerize classical music enthusiasts with an extraordinary lineup of events celebrating their 40th anniversary. From the divine compositions of Handel, Bach, and Satie to French symphonies and unexpected trios, the orchestra's upcoming season promises an unforgettable musical journey. Featuring renowned artists like Karina Gauvin, Antoine Tamestit, and Nicolas Ellis, these performances are poised to deliver exceptional musical experiences, showcasing the versatility and depth of the classical genre. Join us as we delve into this rich tapestry of sound and explore the highlights of this remarkable season.

A Symphony of Celebrations: Les Violons du Roy's Upcoming Season

Les Violons du Roy invites you to an exceptional series of performances that explore the depths of classical music. Over three events, experience the brilliance of Baroque arrangements by Bernard Labadie, the whimsical genius of Érik Satie, and the revolutionary sounds of French symphonies led by Nicolas Ellis. Each concert promises to deliver a unique exploration of musical styles, from the intricate compositions of Bach and Pachelbel to the avant-garde flair of Satie and the historical richness of French orchestral works.

Exploring Musical Masterpieces: A Journey with Les Violons du Roy

Les Violons du Roy, a renowned Canadian orchestra, presents an exciting 2025 season filled with a tapestry of orchestral delights. From the dynamic interpretations of Baroque classics to a celebration of French symphonic elegance, the season promises captivating performances. Highlights include Bernard Labadie's chaconnes and passacaglias, tributes to Satie, French symphonies led by Nicolas Ellis, and an exploration of cinema-inspired compositions. Each event showcases the unique talents of international soloists and the orchestra's own musicians, ensuring a memorable experience for all attendees.

Exploring Musical Masterpieces: Les Violons du Roy's 2025 Season

Discover the orchestral magic of Les Violons du Roy with a series of captivating events this season. From the evocative cinema-inspired 'Shadow and Light' to the vibrant 'Les Goûts Réunis', each event promises a unique musical experience. With renowned artists and a repertoire ranging from Baroque to Romantic, these concerts are set to enchant audiences. Highlights include Bernard Herrmann's iconic 'Psycho' suite and the rediscovery of Bach's masterpieces. Join us at venues such as Palais Montcalm and Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal for unforgettable performances.

A Symphony of Strings: Les Violons du Roy's 2025 Orchestral Showcase

Embark on an unforgettable symphonic journey with Les Violons du Roy as they present a series of magnificent concerts that celebrate the power and beauty of orchestral music. From the evocative compositions in 'Shadow and Light' to the Baroque elegance of 'Les Goûts Réunis,' each event promises a unique auditory experience. Join us as we delve into these events, showcasing the talents of renowned musicians and highlighting the creative works that leave a lasting impression on audiences.

A Symphonic Journey: Exploring the Musical Tapestry of Les Violons du Roy

In addition to showcasing our musicians’ talent, Vivaldi’s music also reveals the full scope of Jonathan Cohen’s musical creativity. These irresistible and iconic concertos for one, two, and four violins—along with their solo cello passages—once again offer the opportunity to revel in both the individual and collective virtuosity of Les Violons du Roy.

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Vivaldi, L'Estro Armonico

Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal

Palais Montcalm – Maison de la musique

With a varied and original choice of music, exchanges and a convivial atmosphere with the musicians, the Apéro series offers unique and privileged encounters. The program features romantic trios and sextets.

Sérénades Romantiques

Palais Montcalm

Far from having fully explored its vast riches or uncovered all its secrets, Les Violons du Roy have devoted themselves to the music of the great Johann Sebastian Bach for over 40 years. Renowned musician and musicologist Robert D. Levin joins them on this fascinating quest through some of the great master’s most remarkable works.

Leçons de Bach

Soprano Elisabeth St-Gelais and cellist Cameron Crozman, rising stars already receiving significant acclaim, join Jonathan Cohen for the first time in a magnificent concert showcasing the French overture, a genre pioneered by Lully and taken to new heights by Bach.

Grand concert D'ouverture

Place des Arts

With a varied and original choice of music, exchanges and a convivial atmosphere with the musicians, the Apéro series offers unique and privileged encounters. The program features French and Italian Baroque music.

Les Goûts Réunis

Many musical masterpieces have been used in cinema for their powerful evocative power, such as Barber's famous Adagio, heard in over twenty films. Another American composer, Bernard Herrmann, has often been associated with the great director Alfred Hitchcock, for whom he composed numerous original scores, including that of the film Psycho, which left its mark on the imagination through its unforgettable use of string instruments.

Shadow and Light, cinema to listen to

To round off the season, Les Violons du Roy Principal Guest Conductor Nicolas Ellis leads a programme of French music, with works composed before or just after the French Revolution, including a magnificent orchestral suite by Rameau, a superb symphony by Gossec and a cello concerto by Duport, a forgotten treasure which Raphaël Pidoux reveals in all its richness in his first performance with the orchestra.

Symphonie à la française avec Nicolas Ellis

Érik Satie occupies a special place in the history and repertoire of music. Unclassifiable, his music heralds American minimalism, yet is also close to surrealism and the absurd. Poetry is often present, particularly in his famous piano pages. Les Violons du Roy approach Satie for the very first time, thanks to transcriptions by Simon Desbiens, specially made for them on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of this beautiful iconoclast.

Satie: Selected Pieces in the Form of a Tribute

Bernard Labadie offers a brilliant programme of Italian, French and English music featuring his own arrangements of two Baroque masterpieces especially made for Les Violons du Roy: Bach's monumental Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor and Pachelbel's poignant Chaconne in E minor.

Chaconnes and passacaglias with Bernard Labadie

After his memorable Opus Award-winning debut with Les Violons du Roy in 2023, renowned violist Antoine Tamestit returns to the orchestra for a new collaboration that promises to be just as exhilarating and moving—a transcription for string orchestra of Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 15.

Requiem pour cordes avec Antoine Tamestit

The string trio is usually formed by a violin, viola and cello. There are also other, rarer formations, such as these unexpected trios: two violins and a viola, then two violins and a double bass. Dvořák's Terzetto is the pinnacle of the composer's chamber music output, and he played the viola part himself when the work was first performed.

Dvořák et cie : Trios inattendus

Palais Montcalm – House of Music

It is easy to imagine the great Johann Sebastian Bach almost exclusively as an elderlyman, steeped in the greatest musical knowledge that only time and experience can bring. Yet it was a young man in his early twenties who handed down to us the powerful, true masterpieces that comprise his very first sacred cantatas. These works are the first of one of the most important musical collections in the whole of the western world, delivered in all their splendour here with La Chapelle de Québec.

Bach, les premières cantates et Bernard Labadie

Three gifted soloists join Les Violons du Roy, conducted by Jonathan Cohen, in a concert dedicated to Mozart's friendship and admiration for Anton Stadler, the greatest virtuoso clarinetist of his time. The programme also features works by three fellow composers who left a lasting impression on the young prodigy from Salzburg.

Jonathan Cohen, Mozart and friendship

The violinist Kerson Leong, Les Violons du Roy and conductor Nicolas Ellis join forces once again to create a programme featuring Mendelssohn's last string quartet, composed in memory of his sister Fanny, and a brand new work conceived especially for this admirable team of performers by Kelly-Marie Murphy, one of Canada's most accomplished composers.

Un violon hors du temps avec Kerson Leong

Almost 10 years after the birth of his eldest son, Father Bach compiled a small book of keyboard pieces for his musical education. The collection includes two- and three-part inventions that can be played very well on a variety of instruments. An immense pleasure for all instrumentalists, ultimately all heirs to the great Bach.

Bach : Le premier des héritiers

No one remains unmoved by the exceptional renditions of Handel’s Messiah offered by the combined forces of La Chapelle de Québec, Les Violons du Roy and Bernard Labadie. For this 40th-anniversary Messiah, our 18th production of the work, Bernard Labadie once again brings together an outstanding quartet of soloists, including Liv Redpath and William Thomas in their Quebec debuts.

Le Messie de Handel avec Bernard Labadie

Karina Gauvin and Marie-Nicole Lemieux hold a special place in our music community, and even more so at Les Violons du Roy! Since the very beginning of their respective careers, they have both ranked among the favourite guest artists of the public and the orchestra. It’s a real privilege to bring them together with Jonathan Cohen and our musicians to celebrate our 40th anniversary with a truly exceptional concert!

Gauvin, Lemieux : divin Handel

One of the 2022 BBC New Generation Artists and the first countertenor ever to win first prize at the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Awards in London, the young English-born Hugh Cutting has already worked with such conductors as William Christie and Philippe Herreweghe as well as Bernard Labadie, with whom he recently made his Carnegie Hall debut. He reunites with the founding conductor of Les Violons du Roy to celebrate the orchestra’s 40th anniversary with two of Bach’s most beautiful cantatas for solo voice.

Hugh Cutting : une voix pour Bach

Mozart was generous to string instruments, dedicating several of his 23 quartets and six string quintets to them. The musicians of Les Violons du Roy invite you to immerse yourself in these sublime musical conversations.

Mozart: Chamber Music for Strings

Mozart : Musique de chambre pour cordes

Vivaldi's Four Seasons are always a renewed pleasure for ears and hearts of all ages. With Les Violons du Roy, it becomes a real party! The perfect occasion to launch the 40th anniversary festivities of one of North America's most famous chamber orchestras!

Vivaldi et Les Violons: Quatre saisons

Festival International du Domaine Forget

Domaine Forget de Charlevoix

Festival d'opéra de Québec

Festival de Lanaudière

Amphithéâtre Fernand-Lindsay

Lanaudière Festival

Orford Musique

Opening concert of the Domaine Forget International Festival.

Salle de concert du Domaine Forget

Known for her dazzling interpretations, Quebec soprano Andréanne Brisson Paquin is for the first time a guest with Les Violons du Roy. Osvaldo Golijov’s dreamlike music is at the heart of an irresistible program that takes us into a universe of folk rhythms with a poetic touch. Interludes by Canadian composer Claudie Bertounesque unify this journey through time.

Par une nuit de chevaux volants

Les Violons du Roy has been a focal point of Québec City’s musical life since it was founded by Bernard Labadie in 1984. The ensemble takes its name from the celebrated court orchestra of the French kings. Under music director Jonathan Cohen, this orchestra soars to truly regal heights. With classical guitarist Miloš, Les Violons du Roy explores an expansive chamber orchestra repertoire with a skillful faithfulness to the period of each work.

Les Violons du Roy

Stanford University

La Chapelle de Québec in all its glory! Bernard Labadie conducts a selection of baroque works by some of the greatest composers of the time, including Vivaldi’s celebrated and joyful Gloria. With the outstanding choristers of La Chapelle de Québec, this program will delight all choral music lovers.

Le Gloria de Vivaldi

Conducting the choir and the orchestra, Bernard Labadie will bring out the full splendour of two choral masterpieces. Fauré’s Requiem is steeped in sweet relief and comfort. Profound emotions of serenity reign in Duruflé’s Requiem. Magali Simard-Galdès, Julie Boulianne and Jean-François Lapointe join their voices to those of La Chapelle de Québec to make these requiems unforgettable moments.

Fauré et Duruflé, deux Requiem

With La Chapelle de Québec and four specially selected soloists, Jonathan Cohen offers the complete Christmas Oratorio by J.S. Bach as an invitation to the holiday festivities. Flamboyant music and spectacular choruses celebrate an age-old tradition.

L'Oratorio de Noël de Bach

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church

Quebec’s Les Violons du Roy—named after the court orchestra of the French kings—has long been a favorite chamber ensemble at Carnegie Hall. They now return in their first performance at the Hall with Music Director and Conductor Jonathan Cohen, who brings an extraordinary new energy to the group. Adding further to the excitement is Miloš, named the “hottest guitarist in the world” by The Sunday Times. Enjoy expertly informed performances of selections from Vivaldi’s quintessential L’estro armonico, as well as works by Couperin, Purcell Dumanoir, Rameau, and others.

Carnegie Hall

The chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy is joined by celebrated pianist Inon Barnatan for a night of “atmospheric effects” (The Washington Post) and breathtaking cinematics.

Les Violons du Roy & Jonathan Cohen, Music Director & Inon Barnatan, piano

Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts

This collection of Baroque Christmas concertos brings together touching pages, at times rustic, naïve or spiritual. These works have been grouped together on an album that has been a huge success ever since, and has even prompted a reissue. A great lover of Christmas traditions, Bernard Labadie revisits these beautiful Baroque pages, with the precision of a goldsmith and the candor of a child.

For Christmas Eve

With a varied and original choice of music, exchanges and a convivial atmosphere with the musicians, the Apéro series offers unique and privileged encounters. On the program, the continuation of Mozart's complete chamber music for strings.

Mozart, musique de chambre pour cordes

Mozart left us countless sublime works for the human voice, and some of his finest were originally performed by the Weber sisters—Aloysia, Josepha, and Constanze (the composer’s wife). Here, these three muses are brought to life by soprano Sarah Dufresne, making her debut with Les Violons du Roy, also joined for the first time by L’Orchestre de l’Agora.

Les muses de Mozart

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Don Quixote has inspired innumerable works of art, including a delightful suite by the prolific Telemann and a spectacular concertante piece for cello by Finnish composer Sallinen. In this performance, cellist Johannes Moser will showcase his full virtuosity in Sallinen’s work, then also appear in C.P.E. Bach’s most famous concerto.

Autour de Don Quichotte

National Arts Centre

Mozart’s Requiem holds a unique place in the hearts of music lovers, particularly among the audiences of Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec. The work has shaped the history of both ensembles, marked by unforgettable moments and immortalized by the recording made in September 2001. Joined by four seasoned soloists, Bernard Labadie once again shares his profound interpretation of this legendary masterpiece.

Le Requiem de Mozart

With a varied and original choice of music, exchanges and a convivial atmosphere with the musicians, the Apéro series offers unique and privileged encounters. The program features powerful 20th-century works for strings.

Toute la puissance des cordes

Dvořák’s renowned quartet takes on a more expansive scope in this arrangement for string orchestra, as Kerson Leong and Les Violons du Roy once again combine their talent and energy in a collaboration that remains as strong as ever. They promise an electrifying encounter on the occasion of a new work by François Dompierre.

Beautés des Amériques

A meeting with the sublime Dixit Dominus by Handel, a work of remarkable vocal virtuosity and expressive power, making it one of the composer’s greatest choral masterpieces. Bach’s motet Jesu, meine Freude also belongs to the finest sacred repertoire of the entire Baroque era. Opening the program is a brief yet deeply moving motet by Bach’s predecessor at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig.

Handel, Dixit Dominus

One of Tchaikovsky’s most personal works lends its name to this concert, promising a transporting and deeply felt journey that spans both geographical routes and more intimate paths of memory and profound impressions. Our voyage also includes a new piece by composer Barbara Assiginaak, written for flutist Ariane Brisson, who will be performing its premiere.

Souvenir de Florence

Rome is where Corelli developed the concerto grosso, where Respighi was inspired while celebrating its beauty, and where Nino Rota composed countless film scores. For Handel, Rome played a decisive role during his early career, even though his opera about the most famous Roman emperor was composed in London. This tribute to the Eternal City will mark the debut of contralto Rose Naggar-Tremblay and young conductor Kyrian Friedenberg with Les Violons du Roy.

Les Violons du Roy

Dec 11, 2025

For Christmas Eve

4 - 5 Feb, 2026

Mozart, musique de chambre pour cordes

12 - 14 Feb, 2026

Les muses de Mozart

6 - 8 Mar, 2026

Autour de Don Quichotte

26 - 28 Mar, 2026

Le Requiem de Mozart

19 - 22 Nov, 2025

Vivaldi, L'Estro Armonico

12 - 13 Nov, 2025

Sérénades Romantiques

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