Chloé Dominguez, cellist
Chloé Dominguez is a prominent cellist on the Quebec scene. Widely sought-after as a chamber musician, she was a member of Trio Hochelaga for 4 years and has taken part in major concerts, notably at the Festival International de Lanaudière, the Festival of the Sound or the Ottawa Chamberfest.
The principal cellist with the Orchestre Classique de Montréal also held this position with the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, where she played for 15 years. Versed in contemporary music, she has performed numerous world premiere compositions as a soloist. In addition, she has contributed to several recordings on labels including Analekta, Atma, Espace 21 et Oxingale Records.
Chloé Dominguez has won several major awards, including the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank competition, granting her the loan of the McConnell Nicolaus Gagliano cello, and the Golden Violin Award from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal.
Holding a doctorate in music performance from McGill University, where she currently teaches chamber music and cello, Chloé Dominguez is an esteemed pedagogue. She is on the faculty of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, the Université du Québec à Montréal, the International Academy of Domaine Forget during the summer, and was a guest cello teacher at the Université de Montréal in 2022 and 2025.
Chloé Dominguez performs on a Lorenzo Carcassi cello from 1745.
Louise Bessette
A versatile musician and a piano wizard, Louise Bessette is much in demand as a concert artist in Europe, America, and Asia. Numerous organizations and international competitions have seen to reward her talent, and her reviews are constantly laudatory. Many composers write especially for her.
Louise Bessette has performed with renowned conductors such as Leonardo García Alarcón (Les Violons du Roy), Charles Bruck (Orchestre symphonique de Québec), Edward Cumming (Belfast Ulster Orchestra), Agnieszka Duczmal (Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Poznan, Poland), Charles Dutoit and Kent Nagano (Orchestre symphonique de Montréal), Mauricio Kagel (Orchestre philharmonique de Radio-France), Pascal Rophé (Orchestre national de Montpellier, France), Gerard Schwarz (New York Chamber Symphony), Michel Swierczewski (Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Denmark), Yuli Turovsky (I Musici de Montréal), Pascal Verrot (Orchestre national de Lyon). She is regularly invited by major music festivals: Festival Présences Radio-France (Paris), Festival Musica (Strasbourg), Festival Détours de Babel (Grenoble), Festival Tivoli (Copenhagen), Numus Festival (Aarhus), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Festival International de Lanaudière and Festival International du Domaine Forget. She performed at the World Music Days in Warsaw and Mexico. In 2007, she was invited as piano professor and guest artist at the 4th International Piano Festival in Shanghai.
In 2019, Louise Bessette received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for Classical Music. The GGPAA are Canada’s highest honour in the performing arts. In 2016, she was honoured in London, University of Western Ontario, where she received the degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa, to celebrate her accomplishments as an internationally recognized performer.
As a pianist with an eclectic repertoire, and always eager to promote exchange with other art forms, Louise Bessette recorded works by Alkan and Grieg for a film soundtrack in 2009. “Hidden diary” by French film director Julie Lopes-Curval, starring Catherine Deneuve and Marie-Josée Croze, was presented as world premiere at the Festival des Films du Monde in Montreal (2009), and then in movie theatres all over the world.
Louise Bessette received her tenth Opus Prize from Conseil québécois de la musique in 2021. In 2015, she was listed as one of Canada’s top 25 pianists by CBC Music. First Prizes at Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition (1981), Concours International de Musique Contemporaine (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1986), International Gaudeamus Competition (Rotterdam, 1989), Femme de l’Année at Salon de la Femme de Montréal (Arts category, 1989), Prix Québec-Flandre (1991), Member of the Order of Canada (2001), Officier de l’Ordre national du Québec (2005), Canadian Music Centre Ambassador (2009), Louise Bessette has been a professor of piano at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal since 1996. In 2024, she was named Knight of the Ordre de Montréal.
Astor Piazolla
Oblivion, violon, violoncelle et piano (arrangement José Bragato)
Histoire du tango, violon et piano (arrangement de Dmitriy Varelas)
- Bordel 1900
- Café 1930
- Nightclub 1960
- Concert d’aujourd’hui
Le grand tango, violoncelle et piano
Adiós Nonino (tango rapsodia) piano solo
Las cuatro estaciones porteñas (Les quatre saisons de Buenos Aires), violon, violoncelle et piano (arrangement José Bragato)
- Primavera Porteña
- Verano Porteño
- Otoño Porteño
- Invierno Porteño
Marc Djokic
Violinist Marc Djokic is the concertmaster of the Orchestre classique de Montréal (2024 Juno Winner for Album of the Year) and co-director of the multidisciplinary ensemble ART CRUSH (Ensembl’arts). He is a Mécénat Musica Prix Goyer recipient, a Prix Opus recipient and winner of the 2020 ECMA Classical Recording of the Year for his debut album Solo Seven.
An accomplished chamber musician, Djokic tours extensively throughout Canada, the United States and Europe. As a soloist Djokic has performed with orchestras such as the Orchestre Classique de Montréal, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. From 2022 – 2024 he presented a multi-city tour of new Canadian violin concerto Under the Shadow of the Cypresses, written for him by Robert Rival. Djokic collaborates on multidisciplinary concerts, workshops and community projects together with his wife, visual artist Avery Zhao.
Djokic’s recent album recordings include Shadow & Light, featuring three Canadian double concertos (Centrediscs), and Piazzolla – Port of Call: Buenos Aires (Analekta). His second solo album, Solo Eight, will be released by the ATMA Classique label in 2026. Djokic will start work on recording a third solo album with ATMA in 2027.
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Djokic grew up in a large musical family. He first and foremost studied with his father, violinist Philippe Djokic who was also a pupil of violin pedagogue Ivan Galamian. Marc Djokic continued his studies in the United States under the tutelage of David Russell, Donald Weilerstein, and Jaime Laredo. He performs on a rare Guarnerius violin from 1740, a Carl Becker 1927, and a Hannibal Fagnola 1922.
