What's new ..

Pianist, keyboardist, composer and musical director Julie Lamontagne has followed a fascinating career path and gained an exceptional amount of experience along the way. Possessing a solid classical background, and winner of numerous awards (including a First Prize at the prestigious Canadian Music Competition at the age of thirteen), she decided early on to explore other musical styles. With boundless determination and an unconditional love of music, she tackles with equal passion both her jazz projects and her numerous collaborations with various artists.

The proud leader of her own trio (with long-time partners in crime Dave Watts on double bass and Richard Irwin on drums), Julie is back with a highly anticipated new album entitled ‘Now What’ (Justin Time/EMI). On this occasion, she has the pleasure of welcoming a very special guest: the excellent New York saxman Donny McCaslin. As a measure of its excellence, the album has been nominated for an Opus prize in the category Jazz Album of the Year. If you missed the latest Montreal show by the Julie Lamontagne trio this past October at L’Astral, you can listen to the CBC radio broadcast of the concert at click here.

In addition to her jazz work, Julie Lamontagne regularly takes on a variety of other projects. She has been the keyboardist and bandleader for Isabelle Boulay since 2000, accompanying the singer on several tours of Quebec and Europe, and is featured on many of Boulay’s albums. Julie has also collaborated on several occasions with Bruno Pelletier, most notably as leader of the Julie Lamontagne trio for his ‘Gros Z'orchestre’ jazz project. Frequently doing keyboard work for a number of artists, Julie has toured with Dan Bigras and Térez Montcalm, and is also featured on Nanette Workman’s cover of the piece “I Lost my Baby”. In 2008-2009 she was the official pianist for Monique Giroux’s daily radio program on Espace Musique (Radio-Canada), a forum which allowed her to display her versatility in a wide variety of musical styles.

This past year, Julie has done all the arrangements (strings included) of Nicole Martin's new album 'Cocktail de douceur'.  More recently, she has done the summer ROSEQ tour with Natasha St-Pier for the show 'Confidences autour d'un piano' .   She is also touring with Marie-Élaine Thibert all over Quebec and playing as well in many different venus her jazz music with her trio.  

Check out our calendar of activities to learn more about upcoming concert dates. You can also view exclusive video of recording sessions for the album ‘Now What’.

Wishing you a wonderful year 2010 filled with joy and, of course, lots of music!