Women's Choir Conducted by Renée Larouche

Renée Larouche offers us a "Bouquet de roses"

    The  women's choir, Chanterelles, new album "Bouquet de roses" will be available on all online music platforms on Friday, September 18, 2020. Renée Larouche conducted the choir for this recording.

    The album presents eleven a cappella pieces from the classical repertoire. The recording was made in front of a live audience during a concert in September 1999 in Knowlton, Quebec. 

    After a remastering in 2020, you will be able to relive this moment when a remarkable "Bouquet of Roses" was offered to the public by a choir and its conductor at the best of their art. 

Renée Larouche tells us about

    The women’s choir Chanterelles started up in September 1998 in Abercorn, a small village near the American border, where I was living at the time.  The weekly rehearsals were held in the classroom of the elementary school I attended.  This school is now the Town Hall.
    

    Looking back, I understand that without realizing it, over time I had become an autodidactic musician with four years of piano lessons under my belt… To be honest, my experience both as a choir director and a music composer was rather meagre.  
    

    Nonetheless I was about to demonstrate that having been born and grown up in a family where music is omnipresent, gives you, by osmosis, a pretty solid, intuitive foundation which cannot be acquired at university.  In other words, I simply tumbled into this world of music at a young age. 
        During my 18 years’ stay in Sherbrooke, up until 1987, I sang big works with the Choeur symphonique de Sherbrooke as well as with the Ensemble vocal de l’Université de Sherbrooke.  Back in the Sutton area, I continued singing, in particular as a member of the choir Choeur à Coeur, directed by my brother Jean.

    In 1995-1996, I created the mixed choir Les Voix du Coeur.  Then, in 1996, the anniversary celebration of the town of Sutton provided me, the youngest of the family(!), with the momentum and an excuse to introduce La Famille Larouche with a concert.  By 1998 we had performed about 15 concerts, which I prepared from afar. Imagine three generations of family members scattered throughout Quebec…  We rehearsed three or four times per year.  We stopped in 1998, then started up again in 2004 up to now, according to demand and availability.

    Also in 1998 I received requests from women friends interested in being part of a choir.  This is how Chanterelles came into being.  I came to it unworried and I was rather bold, given my brief formal training.  My passion for choral singing expressed itself naturally; it grew bigger and bigger as the group developed.  I came to realize that bringing together a dozen women (friends, family, acquaintances) stimulated my whole being.

    

I have always collected scores, songs and different music styles. My creativity has been fed by making arrangements, harmonizing and composing.  Choices were dictated by my goal of making the choir members feel and resonate with the musical piece, and ultimately the audience too.  I could not entertain the idea of just singing for the sake of singing: there had to be a concert at the end. In a nutshell, to pass on Beauty through choral singing! 

    This recording was made by Pierre Laurendeau in September 1999. The concert was held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Knowlton, Lac Brome, QC.

A word from producer Pierre Laurendeau

    

    On September 18, 1999, I remember coming out of the concert with the feeling that I had experienced a deeply human and moving encounter.

    The next day, listening to the recording, the proof was there; the artists had given an exceptional performance! And the communion with the audience was really palpable. We made a few dozen copies on tape to mark the event.

    For years, I kept these recordings in my iPod and I would come back to them regularly. Like a photograph of friends in the wallet to remember the good memories.

 

    With the dematerialization of music and worldwide distribution accessible to all, the time has come to share this "Bouquet of Roses" on a larger scale. A gift to my community to accompany the night of the Perseids on Mount Sutton...

    Artist Mathilde Hébert designed the cover and sound engineer Stéphane Grimm took care of the sound quality. Musically yours and enjoy the music!