The Festival classique des Hautes-Laurentides offers an exciting program for its 12^th edition, presented from June 19 to August 21, 2010, in 10 municipalities in the Upper Laurentians. Under the artistic direction of flute player André-Gilles Duchemin, the Festival classique des Hautes-Laurentides is an invitation to discover the universe of classical music as well as the magnificent region of the Upper Laurentians, from Saint-Faustin-Lac-Carré to Ferme-Neuve, including Mont-Tremblant, Nominingue and Mont-Laurier. And this year, the Festival is proud to announce the participation of internationally acclaimed violinist, Alexandre Da Costa as its spokesperson.

A symphony of musical activities

The audience is invited to enjoy various musical activities in magnificent natural surroundings with concert-events such as the Pique-nique avec l'Orchestre de tambours japonais Arashi Daiko; l'Événement astronomique Velan, an outdoor tribute concert to astronomy, complete with an image projection from NASA; Classique Afrique presenting classical music and dances from Africa; and Banquet espagnol au Cap Lafontaine, a concert on a mountain, complete with Spanish guitar and paella. The orchestral series includes 96 musicians from Orchestre national des jeunes du Canada; Soirée Tchaïkovski, with an orchestra of 50 musicians; Daniel Lavoie with I Musici; as well as Orchestre à vents non-identifiés and its 45 musicians in original performances.

For the Big Top series, the Festival presents the following concerts: Gino Quilico Opéra Plus presenting works from operas and musicals; the complete Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth symphonies; Viva l'Italia, with Cleveland's baroque orchestra Apollo's Fire; Claude Dubois Symphonique, with Orchestre philharmonique du Nouveau Monde, under the direction of Stéphane Laforest.

A series of gourmet concerts

This series presents the performances of virtuosos such as tenor Marc Hervieux, violonist Alexandre Da Costa, Vietnamese pianist Dang Thai Son, soprano Marie-Josée Lord, as well as a Cello Stradivarius Concert with cellist Sébastien Lépine, and features "meet and greets" with artists, and gourmet food experiences created by our chef Michaël Benoit. This latter will, among other things, celebrate la Fête des Récoltes with a dinner inspired by the songs of Daniel Lavoie, and a sushi feast for the concert Un moment japonais, which will present classical music and traditional dances from Japan. New this year, the Festival will feature Chef Michaël Benoit, who will bring his culinary talents to some of the "gourmet concerts".

11 free concerts

The Festival classique des Hautes-Laurentides offers many free concerts again this year, and young people aged 17 and under will have free access to 28 of the 31 concerts.

A brief history

Québec actor and singer Claude Gauthier initiated the first edition of the Festival in 1998, under the name of Concerfs du Lac. Since then, the Festival classique des Hautes-Laurentides has been presented every summer for the last 12 years by Carrefour Bois-Chantants, a non-profit organization located in Lac-du-Cerf, in the Upper-Laurentians.

The Festival classique des Hautes-Laurentides, which has been under the artistic direction of flute player André-Gilles Duchemin since 2000, was created to feature the beauty of classical music and the splendour of the majestic territory of the Upper Laurentians, blessed as it is with a pristine landscape of endless forests and over 5,000 lakes.

The main goal of Festival classique des Hautes-Laurentides is to promote classical music as we know it in the Western world, but also as it is played in the rest of the world in countries such as China, India and Japan. Following that vision, the Festival will showcase, again this year, various international musicians coming from England, Italy, Japan, Vietnam, the United States and Canada.

Click here to view the complete schedule of the Festival classique des Hautes-Laurentides.