Jean-Sébastien Vallée
Canadian-American conductor Jean-Sébastien Vallée is an internationally recognized musician, scholar, and pedagogue with a focus on vocal, choral and orchestral repertoire. Maestro Vallée has conducted ensembles in North America, Europe, and Asia and has prepared choruses for the Toronto Symphony, l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the National Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa), and, most recently, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Jean-Sébastien’s 2022-2023 season also saw a guest conducting engagement with his hometown orchestra, l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec, where he returns in 23/24.
In 2021, Jean-Sébastien Vallée was appointed the Artistic Director of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, one of Canada’s largest, oldest, and most prestigious choral organizations. Under his leadership, the TMChoir has seen an inclusion of diverse, contemporary works in their repertoire, a full rebranding, the start of an all-new chamber choir, and the development of a composer-in-residence program, the first in the choir’s 128-year history. Their 2023-2024 season, programmed by Vallée, includes Orff’s Carmina Burana, a new arrangement of Schubert’s Winterreise, Verdi’s Requiem, and an interdisciplinary dance work featuring Handel’s Dixit Dominus & Bach’s Christ Lag in Todesbanden.
Jean-Sébastien is Associate Professor of Music, Director of Choral Studies, and Coordinator of the Ensembles & Conducting Area at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University. Jean-Sébastien previously served as Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, and was on the choral faculty of the University of Redlands. Dr. Vallée holds degrees from Laval University, Sherbrooke University, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a doctorate in conducting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In addition to his interest in choral, operatic, and orchestral music, Jean-Sébastien is an advocate for contemporary music, making one of his priorities to premiere and commission works by young composers and program rarely performed repertoire. As a scholar, his research interests are varied and focus primarily on Renaissance French music, the oratorical works of Michael Tippett, and conducting pedagogy, more specifically the connection between audiation and gestural communication. Dr. Vallée has been invited to present his research at several national and international conferences including the American Choral Directors Association Conventions, Festival 500 in Newfoundland, the National Collegiate Choral Organization conference, Podium—the national convention of Choral Canada, the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, and the World Symposium on Choral Music in Spain (2017), New Zealand (2020), and Portugal (2022) .
Maestro Vallée’s work is broadcast internationally and can be heard on his albums Lux (ATMA, 2017), Requiem (ATMA, 2018 – requiems by Fauré and Duruflé), and Distance (ATMA, 2021).
October 2023
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“There is little more to say about the performances, other than that they are extraordinary.”
