Notice Board

Music at Noon featuring Julien Oberson, violin & Jesse Plessis, piano
12:15 pm | October 27, 2020
uLethbridge Online Concert

Please reserve your pass at: uleth.ca/tickets. Registration is required as we need to provide you with secure access information prior to the start of the event.

Julien Oberson and Jesse Plessis, a Montréal-based violin and piano duo, are very excited to present music by Arlan Schultz (Chair, Department of Music), for whose music and humanity they feel a special affection. His works Entwirren and Pli will be featured alongside Beethoven’s 9th violin sonata, the Kreutzer, renowned as much for its demands on the technical prowess of the performers as it is for its heart-rending beauty.

Biographies

Julien Oberson is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Montreal since 2015.

He performs as violinist with the Orchestre Métropolitain under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Orchestre Nouvelle Génération, the Contemporary Music Ensemble of the University of Montreal, and the Ensemble Les Volutes, of which he is the concertmaster. As an accomplished chamber musician, he plays frequently in duet with Jesse Plessis and with several string quartets in Québec, New Brunswick, and France.

He is very interested in contemporary creation and mixes between the arts, and has composed music for contemporary plays and ballets. In particular, he won the prize for best soundtrack for the piece Fendre les Lacs at the Gala Arlequin of Québec 2020. Passionate about pedagogy, he teaches the Cousineau Method at the school Les Petits Violons in Montreal, and coaches the violin sections in the Montreal Youth Symphony Orchestra. Julien Oberson studied violin and composition at the Conservatoire de Lyon, the Haute École de Musique in Geneva, and the University of Montreal. He is also trained as a dancer which allows him to develop his passion for the interdisciplinarity between the performing arts.

Canadian pianist and composer Jesse Plessis has been described as a "force of nature" with "a skilled hand at crafting textures that pulse with life," (Winnipeg Free Press). He has regularly appeared in recitals, concert series, and music festivals across Canada, England, and continental Europe, performs as a guest artist with several orchestras and ensembles in Canada, and has garnered numerous awards as both pianist and composer. His works have been called “ardent and incredibly well-structured” (Arlan Schultz) and have been performed by many musicians and groups in Canada including the Land’s End Ensemble and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and broadcast on CBC Radio. In 2013 he founded the Centric Festival, a classical music festival that continues annually in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Plessis obtained a Master of Music degree from Brandon University where he studied piano with Megumi Masaki and composition with Patrick Carrabre. His Bachelor of Music degree is from the University of Lethbridge where he studied piano with Deanna Oye and composition with Arlan Schultz. He pursued additional studies in masterclasses in London with Norma Fisher and in Switzerland with Edith Fischer. Jesse currently resides in Montréal where he studies piano with Paul Stewart in the doctoral program at the University of Montréal, and in September 2020 he will begin a doctorate in composition at the Schulich School of Music (McGill University).

Julien Oberson photo credit: ©Andrew Dobrowolskyj – Faculté de musique UdeM