BIOGRAPHY
Montreal native Charles-Eric Fontaine is a conductor and oboist with a passion for contemporary music and composer-performer collaboration. His detailed attention to nuance in the score and devotion to collaborating musicians leads to vivid and intimate performances. He has conducted the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Ensemble Court-Circuit, Divertimento Ensemble, Paramirabo, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec.
He obtained his Master’s degree in conducting at McGill University in 2021 and learned alongside Alain Cazes, Guillaume Bourgogne, Lorraine Vaillancourt, Jean Deroyer and Sandro Gorli. He has conducted over thirty world premieres, made two recordings, including a work on Francesco Ciurlo's monographic CD with Ensemble Divertimento, and worked with Stephen McAdams and Robert Hasegawa in the ACTOR research program.
With the musicians of Ensemble Éclat, in which he is in charge of the artistic and musical leadership, the young conductor aspires to showcase the great works of the canon, while supporting the leading composers of the next generations and the technological innovation in the field of mixed music.
Laureate of the Fondation Royaumont in 2023, Charles-Eric has received grants from the Austrian Society, the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, and an award from the Italian Ministry of Culture.