Musica Pacifica

Musica Pacifica has, since its founding in 1990, become widely recognized as one of America’s premier baroque ensembles, lauded for both the dazzling virtuosity and the warm expressiveness of its performances. They have been described by the press as “some of the finest baroque musicians in America” (American Record Guide) and “among the best in the world” (Alte Musik Aktuell).  At home in the San Francisco Bay area, the artists perform with Philharmonia Baroque and American Bach Soloists, and appear with many other prominent early music ensembles nationally and abroad. The Washington Post noted:  “the effect was transporting––a small miracle of precision and musical electricity.”

 

They have performed on some of the most prestigious concert series in the U.S., including the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, Music Before 1800 and the Frick Collection (NY), the Getty Museum (Los Angeles), the Cleveland Art Museum, Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, DC), Pittsburgh Renaissance and Baroque, Seattle Early Music Guild, Early Music Society of the Islands (Victoria, BC) and Houston Early Music Society, among many others.  The ensemble has been featured at the Berkeley Early Music Festival three times, and their first appearance there was cited in Early Music (UK) as “perhaps the standout of the entire festival.” Their appearance on the mainstage at the Boston Early Music Festival in 2015 was reviewed as “little short of sensational... astonishing... breath-taking throughout” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer). They have performed at festivals in Germany and Austria and have been heard on German National radio as well as on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” and “Harmonia” and on Minnesota Public Radio.

 

Musica Pacifica’s previous eight CD releases on the Virgin Classics, Dorian and Solimar labels have won national and international awards, including the highest ratings in several CD magazines and being chosen as “CD of the Month” by the early music journal Alte Musik Aktuell (Regensburg). Their last CD, Dancing in the Isles was lauded in the prestigious British journal, Gramophone as “one of the zestiest recordings of recent vintage,” and featured on WFIU’s nationally syndicated program, Harmonia; Fire Beneath My Fingers was featured as CD of the Week on Minnesota Public Radio and touted as “one of the most exciting Baroque recordings I’ve heard” on Audiophile Audition. Their Telemann CD won Chamber Music America and WQXR’s 2003 Record Award honoring the best chamber music recordings of the year, and their Mancini recording was cited as a “Noteworthy Disc” in the 2000 International Antonio Vivaldi Awards for Italian Early Music in Venice.

 

Online, Musica Pacifica can be heard on radio stations 1.fm, Last.fm, Celtic Radio, and Recorder-radio.com, as well as on Pandora, iTunes and Magnatune; and seen on Youtube.

 

Please visit their website: www.musicapacifica.org.

 

 

Dominique Labelle

Dominique Labelle is renowned for her probing explorations of the repertoire from the Baroque to new music. Her passionate commitment to music-making has led to close and enduring collaborations with a number of the world’s most respected conductors and composers, such as Iván Fischer, Nicholas McGegan, Jos van Veldhoven, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and the Pulitzer Prize winning composer Yehudi Wyner. She also treasures her long association with the late Robert Shaw.

 

Dominique’s many collaborations with Nicholas McGegan and his Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra include Handel’s Atalanta, Alexander’s Feast, and Teseo, which they recently revived at the 2014 Mostly Mozart Festival. Her appearances with Iván Fischer include the Countess Almaviva in Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro in Las Palmas and Budapest; a Bach B Minor Mass in Washington, D.C.; a Bach St. Matthew Passion with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; as well as Mozart’s Requiem and a Bach St. Matthew Passion with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She has also sung Britten’s Les Illuminations with Jean-Marie Zeitouni and I Musici de Montréal; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Brahms Requiem, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Zeitouni and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.

 

Among her numerous recordings of opera and concert repertoire is Monsigny’s Le Déserteur with Opera Lafayette and Ryan Brown (Naxos).  She can also be heard on recordings on the Virgin Veritas, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, RCA Victor Red Seal, Koss, Denon, New World, Carus and Muisica Omnia labels. Her recording of Handel’s Arminio (Virgin Classics) won the 2002 Handel Prize.

 

Born in Montreal and trained at McGill and Boston Universities, Dominique is Professor of Voice at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. She has also taught master classes at Harvard University, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts.

 

www.dominiquelabelle.com