Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy with Jean-Michel Dubé, piano | January 28, 2024 | House Program

CLASSICAL / BADER & OVERTON COMPETITION ALUMNI
DOMINIQUE BEAUSÉJOUR-OSTIGUY,
cellist and composer, with
JEAN-MICHEL DUBÉ, pianist
OF TWO HEMISPHERES
JANUARY 28, 2024, AT 2:30 PM
CLASSICAL / BADER & OVERTON COMPETITION ALUMNI
DOMINIQUE BEAUSÉJOUR-OSTIGUY, cellist and composer,
with JEAN-MICHEL DUBÉ, pianist
JANUARY 28, 2024, AT 2:30 PM

CLASSICAL / BADER & OVERTON
COMPETITION ALUMNI
DOMINIQUE BEAUSÉJOUR-
OSTIGUY, cellist and composer,
with JEAN-MICHEL DUBÉ, pianist
JANUARY 28, 2024, AT 2:30 PM
OF TWO HEMISPHERES
This concert has no intermission.
RACHMANINOFF Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14
FAURE Elegie, Op. 24
PIAZZOLLA
Grand Tango
BEAUSEJOUR-OSTIGUY
Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 in G Minor
Allegro moderato
Elegie
Andante – Allegro
BEAUSEJOUR-OSTIGUY
Do Mi Si La Do Ré
BEAUSEJOUR-OSTIGUY
Voltige

PROGRAM NOTES
The performers have titled today’s concert,
“Of Two Hemispheres,” to indicate their intent to
immerse the audience in the passionate lyricism
of post-Romantic composers, Rachmaninoff and
Fauré, before heading to Argentina for Piazzolla’s
tango-inspired music. They end in Canada with
Dominique’s own compositions inspired by
both hemispheres.
As the title suggests, the Vocalise of Sergei
Rachmaninov (1873-1943) was originally written
for textless solo voice with piano accompaniment.
This piece gained immediate popularity with
many transcriptions appearing over the years
for different solo instruments and piano.
Rachmaninoff even made two arrangements
himself, one for soprano and orchestra and
another for orchestra alone.
Gabrielle Fauré (1845-1924) was a French
composer whose life straddled the Romantic
period and early 20th-century explorations into
different compositional approaches. He began his
career with his compositions often being labelled
too progressive, while later, as the director of the
Paris Conservatoire, his tastes were viewed as
being too conservative. Many of his compositions
have become mainstays of the concert hall,
including this Elegie, which was originally
written for solo cello and orchestra.
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was born in Argentina
to Italian immigrant parents who moved to New
York when Astor was four. Growing up listening
to his parents’ records, Astor was immersed in
the many approaches to the tango. At the age of
eight, this interest was further supported by his
father’s gift of a bandoneon (an accordion-like
instrument integral to Argentinian music). Astor
returned to Argentina with his family in 1936 and
moved by himself to Buenos Aires at the age of 17
to begin playing in tango orchestras and writing
his own music. Eventually studying composition
with the great Argentinian composer Alberto
Ginastera, Piazzolla would go on to incorporate
more modernistic tendencies into the tango. His
highly virtuosic Grand Tango was composed in
1982 and dedicated to the world-famous cellist,
Mstislav Rostropovich. Upon receiving this
unsolicited score, it took Rostropovich some time
to learn more about the composer and his music,
but to his credit, Rostropovich premiered this
highly demanding piece in 1990.
It is always a privilege to hear a composer/
soloist perform their own music, and the threemovement
sonata by Dominique Beauséjour-
Ostiguy (b.1994) is certainly the most significant
work on this program. A neo-Romantic work,
it makes use of the rich piano figuration that
encourages the cello to soar to wonderful
melodic heights. The central movement, Elegie,
is notable for the very stark C-minor theme that
is initially presented by the solo cello, and then
in the six variations that follow, gains significant
emotional and virtuosic depth.
Do Mi Si La Do Ré (the note names: C-E-B-A-
C-D) is a rhapsodically compact piece that places
these notes in sharp profile while the texture,
mood and harmonizations constantly cast the
notes in different hues. Voltige (French for
“Acrobatics”) utilizes significant syncopation and
shifting meters, building to a powerful ending.
The piano, for the most part, maintains a constant
sixteenth-note pulse while the cello presents
longer melodic lines, but towards the end,
the cello takes over and participates in the
sixteenth-note patterns.
©2024 by John Burge for the Isabel
ABOUT DOMINIQUE
BEAUSÉJOUR-OSTIGUY
A two-time winner in the Canadian Music
Canadian Music Competition, a semi-finalist
of the 2020 Bader & Overton Canadian Cello
Competition, and a recipient of the 2018 Prix
d’Europe, the 2021 Choquette-Symcox Award,
and the 2017 Peter Mendell Award, cellist
Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy also ranked
among CBC Music’s “30 hot Canadian classical
musicians under 30” in 2018. A sought-after
chamber player, he founded the Trio de l’Île and
the Andara Quartet, and in 2018, became

a member of the Trio Hochelaga. He also
frequently performs with various Quebec
orchestras. Also a composer, in 2020 Dominique
was awarded 3rd Prize in the Do Mi Si La Do Ré
(Home Sweet Home) composition competition
hosted by the Jeunesses Musicales Canada
Foundation. He is a founding member of the
duo BOA expérience, an instrumental music
project with cinematic elements.
His album Aux deux hémisphères, in duo
formation with pianist Jean-Michel Dubé,
features the complete cycle of his own works
for cello and piano. The album was released
on the Espace 21 label in February 2023 and
received many rave reviews.
Dominique holds a master’s degree in
performance from the Faculty of Music of
the University of Montreal, which he obtained
with distinction, under the tutelage of Yegor
Dyachkov. He obtained his baccalaureate with
distinction at the Montreal Conservatory of Music
with Carole Sirois and Denis Brott. During his
training, he followed advanced training courses
and master classes, notably with Mischa Maisky,
Alisa Weilerstein, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Hans
Jorgen Jensen, Raphaël Wallfisch, Philippe
Muller and Richard Aaron.
francophonie, the Orchestre des Jeunes de
Montréal, the Orchestre du Concours de musique
du Canada and the Orchestre Philharmonia
Mundi de Montreal. He has performed under
the orchestra conductors Dina Gilbert,
Julien Proulx, Mathieu Lussier, Daniel Missyk,
Louis Lavigueur, Uri Mayer, Jean-Pascal Hamelin
et Hubert Tanguay-Labrosse.
Passionate about chamber music, Jean-Michel
Dubé recorded André Mathieu’s chamber music
with the chamber musicians of Les Violons du
Roy. The album, published under Espace XXl
label, was a finalist for the Prix Opus 2021 of
the Conseil québécois de la musique. He also
recorded an album of French classical music
for piano four-hands with pianist Rosemarie
Duval-Laplante. Jean-Michel Dubé was “Artist
in Residence” of the Orchestre symphonique
de Drummondville for the 2021-2022 season. ●
NEXT
MONTH!
ABOUT JEAN-MICHEL DUBÉ
Jean-Michel Dubé is emerging as one of the
most promising Canadian pianists in the country
according to CBC / Radio-Canada. His innate
musical flair and dazzling technique have earned
him much praise both in Canada and abroad.
Laureate at the German Piano Open, First Prize
winner of the Canadian Music Competition’s
Stepping Stone, Laureate of the Prix d’Europe,
Finalist at the Paris International Music Festival
and at the Piana Del Cavaliere Competition in
Italy, Jean-Michel Dubé pursues a brilliant career.
He has recorded live on Ici-Musique, Radio
classique and on France Musique for live concerts.
As a concert performer he has collaborated
with the Orchestre symphonique de l’Estuaire,
the Orchestre symphonique de Drummondville,
Les Violons du Roy, the Orchestre de la
Esme Quartet with
Yekwon Sunwoo
CLASSICAL / ENSEMBLE SERIES
Tuesday, Feb 20, 2024, 7:30 pm
The award-winning Esmé Quartet—has
taken concert halls by storm. Discover why,
as the members explore the richness of
the European chamber tradition alongside
Gold medalist of the Fifteenth Van Cliburn
International Piano Competition, pianist
Yekwon Sunwoo, in a program featuring
Haydn, Mendelssohn, Debussy, and Brahms’s
celebrated Piano Quintet in F minor.
General Public $45+ / Faculty/Staff $41+ / Students $10+
queensu.ca/theisabel · 613-533-2424