Canadian violinist Julie Rivest masters a vast repertoire ranging from the late 16th century to the present day. She has performed as a chamber and orchestral musician in some twenty countries in Europe, North America, and Asia, under the baton of renowned conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, François-Xavier Roth, Alain Altinoglu, Hervé Niquet and Marc Minkowski. She performs regularly with Les Siècles (Paris), Collegium Vocale (Ghent), il Gardellino, Ausonia, Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie (Brussels), Orchestre des Champs-Elysées (Poitiers), il Convito (La Rochelle), Les Sacqueboutiers (Toulouse), Orchestre de l’Agora, Arion Orchestre Baroque and Les Boréades (Montreal). As a chamber musician, she regularly collaborates with renowned musicians, performing for example at the Festival Collegium Vocal Crete Senesi (Italy), the Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht (Netherlands), the MM Festival and the Festival Sinfonia en Périgord (France).

Julie Rivest holds two Master’s Degrees, from the Université de Montréal and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles. She has studied with Mira Glodeanu, Aki Saulière, Claude Richard, Jean-François Rivest, Michael Frischenschlager, Zakhar Bron, Sonia Jelinkova and Jonathan Crow. She plays on a Francesco Ruggeri ca.1695 violin, graciously provided by the company CANIMEX INC. (Canada), as well as on a Mathias Albanus baroque violin from 1685.

Étienne Asselin started his musical career as a trumpet player, having graduated from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal with Manon Lafrance. While living in Montreal, he performed with multiple orchestras including the Orchestre classique de Montréal and the Festival de Lanaudière orchestra. Following his newly found passion for early music, he studied cornetto performance with Matthew Jennejohn at McGill University. In September 2019, Étienne moved to Switzerland to further his mastery of the cornetto at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis under the tutelage of Frithjof Smith. Now dedicating his career to the cornetto, Étienne has performed with many of the leading early music ensembles in Canada, the USA and Europe, including Dark Horse Consort, I Gemelli, The Toronto Consort, the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, ¡Sacabuche!, Ensemble Caprice, Early Music Vancouver, Trinity Baroque Orchestra and L’Harmonie des Saisons. He has also been a member of several historical opera productions at the Wiener Staatsoper and the Bayerische Staatsoper.

An alumnus of the Université de Montréal, McGill University, the Royal Conservatoire The Hague and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where he studied with Catherine Motuz and Charles Toet, Maximilien Brisson is a leading specialist of historical trombones. A member of I Fedeli, Le Consort laurentien and ¡Sacabuche!, he has performed with the Freiburger Barockorchester, Akamus, Concerto Palatino, Collegium Vocale Gent, Les Cornets Noirs, I Gemelli, The Toronto Consort and the Zürich Opera, among others. He can be heard on disc with ¡Sacabuche!, ensemble cantissimo and the Europeaïsches Hanse-Ensemble, and has recently recorded his first solo album with Christophe Gauthier and Luc Beauséjour.

Maximilien is lecturer for Baroque trombone at the University of the Arts Bremen and has taught in masterclasses and workshops at the University of Toronto, MentiParti, the San Francisco Early Music Society and the Madison Early Music Festival. Also active as a scholar and editor, he has presented at the MedRen conference in 2019 and the Romantic Brass Symposium in 2023. His edition of the complete works of Andreas Oswald is pending publication.

An accomplished leader, Maximilien has received critical acclaim as an orchestra conductor. He is now Artistic Director of the Viadana Collective and co-director of canticum trombonorum.

Born in Montreal, Christophe Gauthier studied harpsichord at the Conservatoire de Montréal (Mireille Lagacé) and he did his Bachelors (Réjean Poirier) and Masters (Luc Beauséjour) at Université de Montréal. He also took classes with Benjamin Alard (Paris) and Jory Vinikour (Chicago).

A talented chamber musician, Christophe Gauthier has founded many ensembles such as Les Rendez-vous baroque français (Montréal), La Frontera (Mexico) and Le Consort laurentien, which was produced at the Utrecht Early Music Festival in summer 2021. He also plays organ with Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Arion orchestre baroque, I Musici de Montréal and Orchestre Métropolitain with maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He was heard in harpsichord recital at Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur in autumn of 2021, and will be seen again as a soloist at Clavecin en concert in winter of 2023.

Christophe Gauthier teaches harpsichord and organ at Cégep Marie-Victorin and ear training at Cégep de Saint-Laurent. He is often invited to conduct ensembles from the harpsichord and he is choirmaster for Ensemble vocal Vivace and le Chœur de l’OPMEM. He has also conducted Dido and Eneas (Purcell), Hercules (Handel) and David et Jonathas (Charpentier). Christophe hosts a classical music programme on Radio Ville-Marie weekly.