Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal & Christopher Jackson
Biographie Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal & Christopher Jackson
Christopher Jackson
Organist, harpsichordist, conductor, artistic director, teacher, mentor, renaissance man …. Christopher Jackson’s accomplishments are so numerous that it is difficult to choose a single word to describe him and the impact of his work.
A pioneer of Montreal’s fertile early music scene, Jackson was among the first to present period music to audiences in the early 1970s. He founded the world-renowned Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal (SMAM) in 1974 and obviously hit a nerve with music lovers in that city: one of his first concerts attracted more than 400 people, an astonishing feat considering the Canadian period music movement was in its infancy at that time. His reputation extends well beyond national borders — Jackson has been invited to conduct several prestigious ensembles in France, Belgium and Spain, and led a tour of Monteverdi’s Orfeo across France in 1998.
A leader in the academic world, Jackson was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University in 1994, a post he retired in 2005. He was also granted an honorary doctorate by Laurentian University in 1999 in recognition of his contribution to the world of music. Ever the pioneer, Jackson was one of the key minds behind an unprecedented partnership between Concordia’s Engineering and Fine Arts Departments. The result is the state-of-the-art Integrated Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Complex, which opened in downtown Montreal in 2005.
His most recent, and possibly most challenging incarnation at Concordia is as Director of the Grey Nuns Project, a long-term initiative that will transform a heritage building — the Mother House of the Grey Nuns Order— into a gathering place for Concordia’s artistic community. When completed, the project will be the first totally integrated arts school in North America.
For all his entrepreneurial initiative in the academic world, Jackson never strays far from his musical career, and continues to create unique and beautiful concert programs and recordings with SMAM. Their latest CD for ATMA, Roma Triumphans [ACD2 2507], brings to life the glory of Rome’s polychoral tradition at the height of the Renaissance. Jackson’s role as ancient music detective is one that he has inhabited for years, searching libraries and working with music historians and musicologists to revive previously unknown or unedited works.
Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal Choir
Praised for its “rich-textured, vibrant sound” and “hypnotic beauty”, the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal has established a reputation as Montréal’s finest early music vocal ensemble. Composed of 10 to 13 singers chosen for the remarkable clarity and purity of their voices, the Studio was founded in 1974 by the organist and harpsichordist Christopher Jackson, whose inspired leadership continues to
this day.
Delighting audiences for close to four decades, the Studio has brought more than 800 Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces before the public, and continues to reveal and share the vitality, sensuality, and emotional depth of early music. The ensemble’s concert series is a highlight ofMontréal’s cultural and ranks as an integral part of the city’s lively baroque scene. Flowering from Montreal’s fertile early music scene in the early 1970s, the Studio was a pioneer ensemble in the North American period music movement. The choir partners with period instrument ensembles to perform Renaissance and Baroque choral masterpieces.
The Studio has toured Mexico, France, Spain and Luxembourg and has often appeared at the Festival International de Sarrebourg. Through frequent concert collaborations with many well-known early music instrumental ensembles including Skip Sempé’s Cappriccio Stravagante Renaissance Orchestra—the Studio has partnered withmany renowned artists, such as Jordi Savall, Ton Koopman, Dame Emma Kirkby, Guillemette Laurens, Suzie LeBlanc and Daniel Taylor.
The Studio has made 20 widely acclaimed recordings, several of which are on the ATMA label, including Arvo Pärt/StabatMater, which earned the Toronto Star’s CDPick of theWeek, and Rise, Omy soul,which Classics Today singled out for the“ardent, deeplyfeltexpression of the singers”.
