STÉPHANE LÉVESQUE

Professional Bassoonist, Professor, Chamber Music Coach & Master Class Instructor

Stéphane Lévesque was born in Montréal in 1972, and has held the position of Principal bassoon with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) since 1998. He has also served as Principal bassoon with the Mito Chamber Orchestra and Saito Kinen Orchestra in Japan, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach and took part in the Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall.

He is currently Assistant Professor at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, where Mr Lévesque was the recipient of the 2011-12 Schulich School of Music Teaching Award. A guest artist at the Orford Arts Centre since 2000, he has been the coordinator of the Orford Winds Workshop, and he also served on the faculty of the Université de Montréal from 1998 to 2004, and with the Banff Centre from 2002 to 2008. His former students have won positions in orchestras and music institutions in Canada, Australia, Finland, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, and the USA.

Mr. Lévesque has given master classes in numerous music institutions throughout the world, including the Curtis Institute of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, the Oberlin Conservatory, the New World Symphony, Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, the National School of Music (UNAM) in Mexico City, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon, the Hautes Écoles de Musique in Genève and Lausanne (Switzerland), and the Conservatoriums in Adelaide and Sydney (Australia). 

He has been featured as guest soloist with OSM on numerous occasions, and has performed as a soloist with ensembles such as the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the New World Symphony, Les Violons du Roy in Québec City, the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra in Ottawa, the U.S. Army Orchestra, and the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble.

Mr. Lévesque commissioned and premiered new works for bassoon by Gary Kulesha (Sonata for bassoon and piano, 2011) and Ana Sokolovic (Concerto for bassoon and seven low strings, 2009), both with the financial assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts. He has given local and world premieres of solo and chamber works by Elliott Carter, Michael Daugherty, Sofia Gubaidulina, Simon Leclerc and Mathieu Lussier. 

He was Second Vice-President of the International Double Reed Society (IDRS) from 2000 to 2004, co-host of the Banff 2002 conference of the IDRS, and has appeared as soloist with orchestra, in recital and chamber music performances, and as clinician at many IDRS conferences. 

Mr. Lévesque holds bassoon and chamber music from the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, where he studied with Rodolfo Masella. He also studied with Stephen Maxym and Frank Morelli at the Yale School of Music where he obtained a Master of Music degree.