About Us
Montcalm String Quartet
Montcalm String Quartet is one of the most sought-after Québec based ensembles for weddings, corporate events, and parties. The group performs both classical music, as well as original arrangements of popular contemporary songs, bringing a level of artistry and professionalism your guests are sure to notice!
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Anne-Sophie Paquet
Violin
Anne-Sophie Paquet obtained her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Conservatoire de musique de Québec, where she studied with Catherine Dallaire, and a Post-Master’s Certificate in Performance from DePaul University, where she studied with Ilya Kaler. Anne-Sophie has participated in numerous masterclasses with renowned musicians including Maxim Vengerov, Mikhail Kopelman, Christian Tetzlaff, Jonathan Crow and Grigory Kalinovsky, among many others. She has performed at
music festivals throughout the world: Domaine Forget, National Youth Orchestra of Canada where she was concertmaster in 2012, Canada-India Youth Orchestra in 2013 once again as concertmaster, Bowdoin International Music Festival in the USA, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany, and Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland. During her studies in Quebec, Anne-Sophie was awarded the Governor General’s Academic Medal to acknowledge the highest academic achievements. Anne-Sophie has been a substitute violinist with the Québec Symphony Orchestra since 2010, and at the end of her studies she was invited to perform with the Trio Frontenac for a concert at the Palais Montcalm. Anne-Sophie moved to Chicago in 2015 to continue her studies. While in Chicago, she was invited by the Fifth House Ensemble to join them for recording an album and she became a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, where she was appointed as concertmaster. In 2018, she won a substitute violin audition with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with whom she still plays regularly, and she also became a member of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra. After a few years in the OSQ, she won the position of assistant 2nd violin.
Ethan Balakrishnan
Violin
Ethan Balakrishnan is a violinist from Ottawa, ON. He received a BM in violin performance fro m the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as a full – scholarship student of Prof. Grigory Kalinovsky, and joined the Orchestre symphonique de Québec shortly after graduating. While in Indiana, Ethan was a member of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic an d the IU Baroque Orchestra, and also performed as concertmaster of IU’s Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras. At IU, he also completed applied violin pedagogy coursework with esteemed pedagogues Dr. Brenda Brenner and Mimi Zweig. Ethan was a three – time tro phy winner in the Ottawa Kiwanis Music Festival, as well as the recipient of two major prizes in the National Arts Centre Bursary Competition, and of MusicFest Canada’s top prize, the “Passion and Performance Award”. In 2019, Ethan was awarded the IU Music ology Department’s Austin B. Caswell Award for best undergraduate essay on a topic before 1700, in which he explained the development of medieval England’s distinctive harmonic style by analyzing the region’s sociopolitical relationship with the continenta l Catholic church. He has performed and studied at various summer festivals including the Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, the NAC Young Artists Program, and NYO Canada. In addition to violin, he is also a proficient violist and saxophon ist. Outside of music, he can often be found at the various climbing gyms of Québec. Ethan performs on a Carlo Despini violin and Nicolas Maline bow generously on loan from the CANIMEX Foundation.
Véronique Vanier
Viola
After advanced studies in viola at the Conservatoire National Régional de Paris with Laurent Verney, where she graduated at the top of her class, Véronique obtained a position as violist with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. She also holds a Master’s degree in violin performance from the Université de Montréal in the class of Jean-François Rivest and Vladimir Landsman. Véronique has also played with the Orchestre National de l’Opéra de Paris and taught violin at the Conservatoire de Musique d’Étampes near Paris. Interested in the health of musicians, she took part in the Médecine des Arts training program, which helps develop the foundations of a fair and balanced practice. Recipient of the JA Bombardier Internationalist Scholarship, she perfected her skills with Véronique and Marc Papillon in Paris. Still active as a violinist, she performs regularly with a variety of popular artists, and was part of Céline Dion’s European tour in 2017.
Carmen Bruno
Cello
Canadian-Dutch cellist, Carmen Bruno is an avid chamber musician, soloist and orchestral player and has performed across the Americas and Europe. Carmen spent her formative years in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where she studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. She pursued further education at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music with Professor Matt Haimovitz. As of 2019, she is a member of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and holds the positions of second assistant cello since 2022. An avid chamber musician, she appears on Duo Kalysta’s Origins as well as Yolanda Bruno (violin) and Isabelle David’s (piano) album, The Wild Swans. As an orchestral musician, she has toured the Caribbean with the Orchestra of the Americas and was a featured soloist with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada on their nationwide tour. In September 2022, she performed alongside her sister, Yolanda with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra for the opening of their 50th anniversary season. She enjoys freelancing with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Classical Orchestra, and les Violons du roi. Carmen plays an Italian cello, 1884, made by Giuseppe Tarasconi in Milan, and an Emmanuel Bégin bow, graciously loaned to her by CANIMEX INC. from Drummondville (Quebec) Canada.