About

Ever since her sensational 1994 debut on short notice in Berlioz's Les Troyens with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, Canadian-born mezzo-soprano Annamaria Popescu has established herself as a force on opera stages around the world. Comfortable in both the mezzo and contralto idiom, she has been praised for her "dark and velvety voice" (Montréal Gazette), "a svelte, penetrating contralto, by turns bubbly-urbane and stricken," according to The Financial Times. Following her success in London, she was soon invited to La Scala which now has become the anchorpoint of her career, appearing in 14 productions ever since with such conductors as Riccardo Muti, Vladimir Jurowski, Myung-Whun Chung and Carlo Rizzi.

Annamaria Popescu is Assistant Professor of Voice at McGill University.

Acadian pianist Julien LeBlanc is a well sought-after soloist, chamber player and accompanist. In 2002, Julien was awarded the Prize for Emerging Artist of the Year by the New Brunswick Foundation for the Arts. Since his debut solo recital at the National Art Centre in 2003, he has toured for Debut Atlantic and Jeunesses Musicales du Canada with violinist Marc Djokic.

Julien LeBlanc holds a post-graduate Diploma in Accompaniment from the Royal Academy of Music (London, UK) where he studied with pianist Malcolm Martineau, a Doctorate in piano performance from Université de Montréal under Paul Stewart and Marc Durand as well as an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School (Toronto, ON). www.julienleblanc.com