Our story
The Louisbourg Choir was born from the desire of Réjean Poirier, a leading figure on the New Brunswick cultural scene, to create a professional choir specializing in early music. Under the artistic direction of Monique Richard, the choir, whose size may vary according to different needs, generally has about twenty choristers, all trained and experienced musicians from all over the province. Its inaugural concert took place on October 15, 2006 in the Saint-Anselme church in Dieppe. Since then, the choir has quickly established itself firmly in the cultural landscape of New Brunswick, being regularly invited to collaborate with other organizations in the province such as Symphony New Brunswick and the Atlantic Ballet Theatre.
It was the choir in residence at the Sackville Festival of Early Music from 2006 to 2014. In 2015, Service d’Action Culturelle et Artistique de l’Université PARIS 8 invited the Louisbourg Choir to take part in Rencontres Chorales 2015. In 2018, the choir launched its first CD, Chansons d’amour d’Acadie et de France, under the ATMA Classique label. In 2020, the choir was invited to take part in the Messiah/Complex, an initiative of the Against the Grain theatre company, in collaboration with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and over a dozen soloists and choirs from different communities in Canada, which was acclaimed, among others, by the New York Times, the BBC and France Musique. A new recording, entitled Tapisserie canadienne aux couleurs d'Acadie, is scheduled for the fall of 2023.
The Choir's main repertoire, since its founding, remains largely that of the Renaissance and the Baroque period. In its quest for an authenticity-informed performance, which has characterized most serious interpretations of early music for some decades, the choir often chooses to work with musicians performing on period instruments. However, taking advantage of the great versatility of its artistic director and its choristers, it also allows itself intrusions into other musical periods and attaches great importance to the interpretation of works by contemporary composers. In recent years it has performed works by Richard Gibson, Jean-François Mallet, Frédéric Chiasson and Mathieu Lussier, among others, and commissioned works from emerging composers such as Matthew C. Lane and James Forgarty.
With the goal of raising public awareness and increasing its understanding and appreciation of choir singing and choral works, the Chœur Louisbourg has become increasingly involved with young people in recent years. In particular, the "Chantons en chœur" musical gatherings, which it organized in 2017 and 2018 with to the support of the Groupe d'action-collaboration sur l'éducation en français (GACEF) and the Université de Moncton Music Dept., allowed it to work with over 400 students from New Brunswick's three francophone school districts.