Stéphane Lévesque
Born in Montréal, Stéphane Lévesque has held the position of principal bassoon with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) since September 1998. He has held principal positions with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Saito Kinen Orchestra in Japan, and he was a member of the New World Symphony and of the Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall.
Mr. Lévesque has appeared as soloist on several occasions with the OSM, as well as with ensembles including the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the New World Symphony, Les Violons du Roy, and the U.S. Army Orchestra. He is regularly guest artist at the annual conferences of the International Double Reed Society (IDRS), and he recently premiered the Concerto for bassoon and seven low strings by Ana Sokolovic, a work which he commissioned for the 2009 IDRS conference which took place in Birmingham, England.
Assistant Professor at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, Mr Lévesque has given master classes in numerous institutions throughout the world, including the Banff Centre, the Curtis Institute, the Manhattan School of Music, the National School of Music (UNAM) in Mexico City, and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon, France.
Stéphane Lévesque graduated from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, where he studied with Rodolfo Masella. He also received a Master's degree from the Yale University School of Music, where he studied with Stephen Maxym and Frank Morelli.
The classes:
1) Virtuoso Romantic works:
Weber, Andante and Hungarian Rondo
Berwald, Konzertstück for bassoon, Op. 2 Elgar, Romance
2) Russian orchestral excerpts:
Shostakovitch 9
Schéhérazade
Rite of Spring
Tchaik 4 (II), 5 (III) and 6 (I)
3) French solo rep:
Dutilleux, Sarabande et Cortege
Bourdeau, Premier Solo
Tansman, Suite or Sonatine (well, technically Tansman is Polish but he wrote those works while in Paris so...) Jeanjean, Prelude et Scherzo