Joanna Marsden, artistic director, is a flautist from Lincoln, Massachusetts. She has performed recently in Belgium, Canada, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States “beautifully” (Luis Gago, Madrid) and “with notable rhetorical clarity” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). She addresses a wide repertoire from medieval to Romantic. She has a doctorate in historical performance from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music and holds degrees from the Royal Conservatory of the Hague and Vassar College. She has recorded numerous albums for Navona Records, Leaf Music, Atma, and Centaur. She lives in Montréal, Québec.
A talented chamber musician, Christophe Gauthier has founded many ensembles such as Les Rendez-vous baroque français (Montréal), La Frontera (Mexico) and Le Consort laurentien (Basel). He also plays organ with Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Arion orchestre baroque, Ensemble Clavecin en concert and Orchestre Métropolitain with maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He was featured in a recital with soprano Suzie LeBlanc at the Orford Festival.
Quebec violinist Noémy Gagnon-Lafrenais combines historical inspiration and imagination in her artistic approach. She has been praised for her “lively, nuanced, and accomplished” playing (Le Devoir, 2020), as well as for performances of “wonderfully sweet sound,” in which “she is quick to articulate the music’s ever-changing rhetoric” (Gramophone, 2023).
Her activities have brought her to perform throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, Belize, and China.
An accomplished chamber musician, she also collaborates with Ensemble Poiesis and Les Temps Perdus. Concertmaster of Arion Baroque Orchestra from 2019 to 2024, she also directed several projects from the violin.
Noémy has contributed to more than a dozen award-winning recordings, including projects recognized with a Diapason d’Or, a Prix Juno, and a Prix Opus.
Deeply engaged in performance research, she is currently developing La Belle Époque, a project dedicated to the contribution of women to the French repertoire of the late nineteenth century.
She is a finalist of the Jumpstart Jr. Foundation, a semi-finalist at the Concours international Corneille, and was invited to the Concours international Bach-Leipzig. She is also the recipient of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Fonds de recherche du Québec, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Founding Member
Mark Edwards is the former artistic director of Poiesis. First prize winner in the 2012 Musica Antiqua Bruges International Harpsichord Competition, Canadian harpsichordist and organist Mark Edwards is recognized for his captivating performances, bringing the listener “to new and unpredictable regions, using all of the resources of his instrument, […] of his virtuosity, and of his imagination” (La Libre Belgique).
He has given solo recitals at a number of prominent festival and concert series, including the Utrecht Early Music Festival, Bozar (Brussels), the Montreal Baroque Festival, and Clavecin en concert (Montreal). He has had concerto performances with a number of award-winning ensembles, including Il Gardellino (Belgium), Neobarock (Germany), and Ensemble Caprice (Canada). Also an active chamber musician, he plays with Les Boréades de Montréal and has played with Il Pomo d’Oro, Pallade Musica, and Flûtes Alors! Since 2016, he is Assistant Professor of Harpsichord at Oberlin Conservatory.