Acclaimed for her luminous tone, her refined musicianship and her remarkable stage presence, french canadian soprano Hélène Guilmette has been leading a great international career since she won Second Prize at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium in 2004.
Ms. Guilmette also sang in recital and in concert at the Palais des Beaux arts in Brussels, the Concertgebow in Amsterdam, the Teatro Colòn in Buenos Aires, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Schwarzenberg’s Schubertiade, Istanbul Festival, at the Auditorium Parco della musica in Rome, at London Barbican center, in Sydney’s City Recital Hall, at the Carnegie Hall in New-York in works including Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Andreas Scholl, Poulenc’s Gloria and Stabat Mater, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C minor, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.
She has sung under the direction of Alain Altinoglu, Ottavio Dantone, Stéphane Denève, Richard Egarr, sir Mark Elder, Patrick Fournillier, Paul Goodwin, Bernard Labadie, Ludovic Morlot, Kent Nagano, Kazushi Ono, Michel Plasson, Christophe Rousset, Masaaki Suzuki, Marcello Viotti and has collaborated with several renowned stage directors such as Robert Carsen, Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser, Mariame Clément, Christophe Honoré, Guy Joosten, Piero Faggioni, Laurent Pelly and Dmitry Tcherniakov.
Her discography includes : Airs chantés, french songs by Poulenc, Hahn and Daunais on Ambroisie Label, Il Duello Amoroso (Haendel) along side Andreas Scholl and the Accademia Bizantina and Dixit Dominus / Ode for the anniversary of Queen Anne (Haendel) with the Akademie Für Alte Musik Berlin on Harmonia Mundi, Poulenc’s songs on ATMA, Les Amants trahis (Rameau) and l’Heure rose, french songs by women composers both on Analekta Label an opera L’Aiglon by Honneger / Ibert (role of Thérèse) with Montreal symphony and Kent Nagano on Decca label. We can also see her on DVD in Dialogues des Carmélites (sister Constance) in Dmitry Tcherniakov Munich’s production on Bel-Air media.
Holding a degree in musical education and piano from Laval University in Quebec, Guilmette did her vocal training with Marlena Malas in New York.