Emilie Girard Charest

Émilie Girard-Charest is a cellist, a composer and an improviser. As a chamber musician, a soloist and with different ensembles, she dedicates herself to new music.

As a performer, she took part in more than sixty premieres and worked with many composers, including Malcolm Goldstein, Michel Gonneville, Maxime McKinley, Joane Hétu, Jean-Luc Fafchamps, Hans Zender, Graciela Paraskevaídis, Enno Poppe and Fredrik Gran.

She has recorded several albums, namely Émilie préfère le chant (2016, Ambiances Magnétiques), Race with time (in duet with Mart Soo, 2016, Improtest Records), Avec (2016, Kohlenstoff Records), Musica in camera (Quatuor d’occasion, 2014, &records), Bruit court-circuit (Ensemble SuperMusique, 2012, Ambiances Magnétiques) and Tremblement de fer (Pierre Labbé, 2009, Ambiances Magnétiques).

Émilie has played at numerous festivals in Québec (Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville, OFF Festival de Jazz, Festival de Jazz de Montréal, Festival de Jazz de Québec, Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques), in the United States of America (Avant-Music Festival, New York), in Belgium (Ars Musica), in Austria (Klangspuren Schwaz and Impuls), in Germany (Darmstadt Ferienkurse for Neue Musik and Donaueschingen Musiktage), in Chile (Encuentro Internacional de Compositores), in Argentina (Sonido Presente), in Estonia (Autumn Festival), in Finland (MuTe Fest), in Spain (Mixtur) and in Macedonia (Macedonian Music Days). She also played concerts in France, in Russia, in San Marino and in Uruguay.

In addition to that, she took part in various theatre, dance and performance art productions, such as Rhinocéros by Eugène Ionesco (Troupe Éponyme directed by Jocelyn Sioui), Couloir et chambres by Philippe Minyana and La fête à Jean by Pierre-Luc Lasalle (Théâtre L’Instant, directed by André-Marie Coudou), ADN by Dennis Kelly (Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal, directed by Sylvain Bélanger), the Physical Theater Choir Project (Vicki Tansey), The Sticks (Andrew Tay) and Reine et oiseaux (théâtre Tête au Corps, Vincent Langlois and Émilie Sigouin). She is now developing different projects with multidisciplinary artists, namely with the dancer and visual artist Sarah Bronsard and with the composer-performer Charles Quevillon.

Émilie holds a degree in cello (Denis Brott) and in composition (Michel Gonneville) from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and a CoPeCo Master (Contemporary Performance and Composition) from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. She is now enrolled as a doctorate student at the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon under the supervision of Philippe Hurel and Laurent Pottier.

Émilie plays a cello by Angel Alvarez Verde.