Ensemble Paramirabo, photo by Brenden Friesen.
Join us for an evening of bold contemporary music as Ensemble Paramirabo performs a program of mostly minimalist works by today’s leading composers. United by a dedication to new music, the ensemble’s six members perform with a single voice that explores repetition, openness, and transformation.
Through works by Nicole Lizée, Nico Muhly, Dorothy Chang, Philippe Macnab-Séguin, Kai Kubota-Enright, and Missy Mazzoli, the concert invites listeners into sound worlds of texture and space, weaving pulse and stillness, analog and digital.
Taking its name from a work by Montreal composer Claude Vivier, Paramirabo has commissioned over 80 premieres, toured internationally, and been recognized with the Opus “Performer of the Year” prize and a JUNO nomination.
Jeffrey Stonehouse (flute & artistic director), Viviane Gosselin (cello), Gwénaëlle Ratouit (clarinets), Hubert Brizard (violin), Pamela Reimer (piano), Krystina Marcoux (percussion).
Nicole Lizée – Music for Body Without Organs
Nico Muhly – Doublespeak
Dorothy Chang – Of All Things Elusive
Philippe Macnab-Séguin – It Was Inside You All Along
Kai Kubota-Enright – Spatial Communication of Dripstone
Missy Mazzoli – Still Life with Avalanche
Julius Eastman – Joy Boy (featuring Banff Musicians in Residence participants)
“Montreal’s Ensemble Paramirabo quickly became known as one of the most innovative and accomplished new music ensembles in Canada.” - James O’Callaghan, Canadian League of Composers
“Ensemble Paramirabo has a firm commitment to quality chamber music, which, in the world of contemporary music, equates to total fearlessness… This ensemble is a rare gem in the city—born solely of creative inspiration, and their evolution as an up-and-coming musical force is not to be missed.” - Andrew Crust, Bachtrack
A graduate of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and McGill University, flautist Jeffrey Stonehouse performs on stages across Canada as well as abroad in Europe, the United States and Mexico. Very active in the Montreal new music scene, he is co-founder and artistic director of Paramirabo and flautist of the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. He also performs with ECM+, SMCQ and No Hay Banda. He is artistic director of the specialized broadcaster Le Vivier. Jeffrey also works as a freelancer in orchestras in Quebec. He performs with the Orchestre Métropolitain, I Musici, as well as the symphony orchestras of Trois-Rivières, Laval, Quebec City and Drummondville. As a soloist, he has performed with the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and at the festivals Journées de l'informatique musicale (Paris), Cluster New Music + Integrated Arts (Winnipeg), Mise-En (New York) and Chrysanthemums and Maple Leaves Festival (Vancouver).
He is the winner of the Best Performer Award at the Soundscape Festival (Maccagno, Italy) as well as 2nd prize in the TD-Canada Trust Young Artist Competition.
Other projects include the iso project (with harpist Robin Best) and Altra Voce (with soprano Sarah Albu).
He can be heard on several records on the labels: ATMA, Naxos, Centrediscs, and Redshift Records.
Photo by Brenden Friesen
Viviana Gosselin has been presented as a soloist by ECM+ and Paramirabo. She performs in concert with ECM+, the ARKEA ensemble, the Sinfonia de Lanaudière, the Orchestre symphonique de l'Estuaire, the Opéra bouffe du Québec and the Radio-Ville-Marie choirs and the Petits chanteurs du Mont-Royal. She has collaborated with the groups of Mario Pelchat, Marc Hervieux and OktoEcho. Viviana graduated from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in Carole Sirois' class. She was an intern at the Orchestral Institute of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa during the 2010-2011 season. She is a prizewinner of the Concours de musique de la Montérégie and Verdun and received the Montée des arts (2006) and Wilfrid Laurier (2008) scholarships. In addition to her talents as a cellist, she is also active on the Montreal scene as a graphic designer and computer graphics artist.
Photo by Brenden Friesen
Gwénaëlle Ratouit is a versatile clarinetist active as a chamber musician and orchestral musician in Montreal. Her curiosity now leads her to perform in various projects between classical and contemporary music in Europe and Canada.
After several years of musical studies in France where she perfected her skills with the soloists of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine including Richard Rimbert, Gwénaëlle developed her musical personality and refined her playing alongside Martin Carpentier at the University of Montreal where she obtained her Master of Interpretation. She also holds a French teaching diploma as well as a Bachelor of Musicology.
Winner of several prizes and scholarships, she notably won the First Julie Sirois Prize organized by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne twice in a row in 2021 and 2022.
Playing from the small clarinet to the bass clarinet, Gwénaëlle is a permanent member of the contemporary music ensembles Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Paramirabo and also a member of the reed quintet 5ilience. She can be found in classical repertoire with the wind octet Ad Hoc. She participates in numerous recordings for emerging artists and film music composers in Quebec. She also performs as a supernumerary in symphony orchestras and wind ensembles in France and Canada.
Very involved in the transmission of knowledge, she currently teaches clarinet and bass clarinet in secondary schools.
Photo by Brenden Friesen.
A 2016 graduate of the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal where he studied with Johanne Arel, Hubert Brizard is a violinist from Longueuil. Recipient of several summer scholarships, he had the opportunity to perfect his skills with great violinists such as Pinchas Zukerman, Grigory Kalinovsky, William Van Der Sloot, Jonathan Crow and Andrew Wan. He has been a member of the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal (ECM+) for 3 years, in addition to being a supernumerary for ensembles such as I Musici, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Orchestre Symphonique de Sherbrooke, as well as the Orchestre Symphonique de Longueuil. He can also be seen occasionally in SMCQ concerts.
Passionate about new music, he has participated in many memorable creations, such as Hockey Noir by André Ristic (ECM+), Evta by Ana Sokolovic (ECM+), Who Can Go Up to the Mountain of the Eternal by Katia Makdissi-Warren (NEM) as well as …and at the End… by Brice Gatinet.
Photo by Brenden Friesen
Soloist, chamber musician and creator, Montreal pianist Pamela Reimer is renowned for her versatility and great musical complicity. She has created, toured and recorded with the Bradyworks ensemble, the Blue Rider Ensemble, the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, Orford Six Pianos, Erreur de Type 27, the Ensemble Paramirabo, No Hay Banda and in duets with flautist Marie-Hélène Breault and percussionist Beverley Johnston. Her passion for dance and theatre has led her to interdisciplinary collaborations with Les Grands ballets Canadiens, the National Ballet of Canada, and to the creation of theatrical concerts, including Les Non-dits (2023) with Krystina Marcoux and Nick Carpenter; '50 questions @ 50' (2019), directed by Marie-Josée Chartier; and Perspectives d'Hildegard (2016), directed by Alice Ronfard. She has received several grants from the Canada Council for the Arts. From 2016 to 2018, she was artist-in-residence at Concordia University, and in 2020, guest pianist in London with the London Sinfonietta. Her recent recordings are 'Mes hommages' (2019): works for flute and piano by Quebec composers, with Marie-Hélène Breault; and 'Musique de François Tousignant' (2021), with the Ensemble Paramirabo, where she can be heard on piano, harpsichord and synthesizer. She teaches at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal.
Photo by Brenden Friesen
Krystina Marcoux is an artist and a percussionist recognized for her dynamic energy, musical precision, and commitment to interdisciplinary creation. In 2012, she won first prize at the OSM’s Standard Life Competition and after seven years of studies in France with Jean Geoffroy, she developed a philosophy of the stage as a malleable creative space. Her deep engagement with the marimba, particularly through the works of Bach, has become central to her artistic voice, allowing her to bridge classical rigor with contemporary exploration while remaining rooted in her musical foundations, which she continually refines. She made her solo debut with the OSM in 2019 under Kent Nagano's baton and in 2021 became the first marimbist to perform at the Montreal Bach Festival. Her doctoral research focused on methodologiesfor writing interdisciplinary shows (CNSMD Lyon), and her postdoctoral work at UQAM explored a methodology where performers can embody the role of creator and eliminate hierarchical barriers in the staged arts, a commitment that shapes all her work.
With cellist Juan Sebastian Delgado, she forms Stick&Bow, a creative and singular duo known for its bold arrangements and staged musical concerts. They were honoured with the 2024 Opus Prize for "Artist of the Year" and "International Outreach" and their four albums have received international acclaim, with tours spanning Argentina, Mexico, Armenia, USA, France, and beyond. The duo regularly collaborates with internationally renowned artists such as an upcoming project with DJ
Philippe Cohen Solal (Gotan Project). Having performed at festivals such as Avignon, she has written and directed a dozen shows, including Bavela (150+ performances across three continents) and Speak No Words (2026), co-created with composer Philippe Macnab-Séguin for Stick&Bow and Paramirabo. As percussionist and a member of the artistic committee of Paramirabo, she contributes to an ensemble committed to expanding the boundaries of contemporary Canadian creation, an undeniable reference on the national stage. In November 2026, she will take the leading acting role in a musically driven theatre project by Mathilde Côté, Suzanne Guité. Co-founder of the Montreal-based collective Angle Mort, she continues to explore intersections between music, gestures, technology, and other artistic disciplines, a space where creative hierarchies dissolve.
As the artist in residency with Jeunesses Musicales du Canada (2026/27), she will premiere three new programs with collaborations centered around the marimba. Krystina will also be featured at PasicQuebec 2027 and she will serve as an interdisciplinary specialist at Banff Centre's Fuse 2.0 (April 2027). Through these residencies and collaborations, she integrates her creative practice into pedagogy. At UQAM, she teaches a doctoral seminar on "Interdisciplinary Creation as Social Engine," and with LeVivier she facilitates workshops exploring how the body becomes an artistic tool for musicians. Through her coachings at Orford Musique and her teaching at the Quebec Conservatories, she transmits a philosophy grounded in her multifaceted background: her training in theatre, dance, and clown, along with six years of performing in street festivals with BAM all across Europe, have shaped her conviction that music dialogues with the stage, the body, and other disciplines, a vision she transmits to the next generation of artists, preparing them for the challenges of tomorrow.
Photo by Brenden Friesen
The intrepid and dedicated members of Ensemble Paramirabo come together as a single voice to perform contemporary music, showcase emerging Canadian composers, and expand the boundaries of the traditional concert experience. As a creator of innovative events, the group provides young composers with a venue for refining their trademark within Montreal’s vibrant new music scene and act as a springboard for exposure abroad. The ensemble’s flutist, Jeffrey Stonehouse, has been the group’s artistic director since its founding.
Taking its name from the piece Paramirabo, by Montreal composer Claude Vivier, the ensemble’s roots date back to 2008 at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. The ensemble has toured internationally to Belgium, England and Mexico and has been invited to Festival LOOP and Ars Musica (Mons, Liège and Bruxelle, 2019), Waterloo Region Contemporary Music Sessions (2018), Frontiers Festival (Birmingham, 2016), Eduardo Mata Festival (Oaxaca, 2016), New York’s Mise-En Festival (2014), Winnipeg’s Cluster New Music Festival and Montreal Contemporary Music Lab (2013). Paramirabo has been ensemble-in-residence for the Domaine Forget International Music and Dance Academy’s New Music Session since 2017.
A proud ambassador of local contemporary music, the ensemble is the winner of the OPUS 23rd edition - Performer of the year Prize and was nominated for the JUNO 2020 Prize, Classic album of the year - solo or chamber music for their album Alone and Unalone, in partnership with composer James O'Callaghan. Paramirabo has more than 80 premieres and commissions to its credit. Its recordings, both live and studio, have garnered numerous awards for composers such as Gabriel Dharmoo (À chaque ventre son monstre OPUS Prize 22nd edition - Premiere of the year), James O’Callaghan (AMONG AM A; Salvatore Martirano Award 2016, 1st prize); Julien Robert (Flash Point: 1st prize at the 2013 Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble Competition and 3rd place in the Serge Garant category of the 2014 SOCAN Foundation Awards); Scott Rubin (the Torn Cubist: 2nd prize at the 2013–2014 OSSIA New Music Composition Prize); and Matthew Ricketts (Graffiti Songs: 1st place in the Serge Garant category of the 2011 SOCAN Foundation Awards). The ensemble has been presented by numerous organizations, including ECM+, SCMQ, CMCQ, Groupe Le Vivier, the Music Gallery: Emergents Series, Groupe Le Vivier, Forum des compositeurs, the SMCQ, Erreur de type 27, Innovations en concert, the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, the Centre d'expérimentation musicale and Codes d’accès.
Over the years, the ensemble has been noticed by a number of journalists and music critics. Crystal Chan mentioned the ensemble in a March 2012 Scena Musicale article entitled “Yin/Yang, Montreal’s Musical Entrepreneurs.” The website Bachtrack describes the group as demonstrating “total fearlessness” and “a rare gem … born solely of creative inspiration, [whose] evolution as an up-and-coming musical force is not to be missed.”
Phone (Main Switchboard)
403.762.6100
Address
107 Tunnel Mountain Drive
PO Box 1020
Banff, Alberta
Canada
T1L 1H5
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We recognize, with deep respect and gratitude, our home on the side of Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain. In the spirit of respect and truth, we honour and acknowledge the Banff area, known as “Minihrpa” (translated in Stoney Nakoda as “the waterfalls”) and the Treaty 7 territory and oral practices of the Îyârhe Nakoda (Stoney Nakoda) – comprised of the Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Goodstoney Nations – as well as the Tsuut’ina First Nation and the Blackfoot Confederacy comprised of the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai. We acknowledge that this territory is home to the Shuswap Nations, Ktunaxa Nations, and Métis Nation of Alberta, Rockyview District 4. We acknowledge all Nations who live, work, and play here, help us steward this land, and honour and celebrate this place.