“For more than 30 years, Bernard Labadie has cultivated a reputation as ‘the 18th century man,” writes Tim Greiving in Wednesday’s (4/13) Los Angeles Times. “As founding conductor of the chamber group Les Violons du Roy in his native Quebec, he has championed ‘performance practice’—performance technique appropriate to the era in which pieces were composed. Labadie and Les Violons return to Walt Disney Concert Hall on Wednesday for a program of Bach…. It’s the conductor’s first appearance in L.A. since August 2013—and a concert that once seemed against all odds. In early 2014, at age 51, Labadie was diagnosed with stage IV lymphoma. Ultimately, he required a stem cell donation…. Labadie recently spoke about the long journey back to the conductor’s stand.” Said Labadie, “If music’s been the center of your life for 30 or 40 years, it is definitely one of the strongest sources of comfort and hope that one can find. As soon as I had enough energy to focus more on music, I really, literally fed on it—especially the idea of returning to my orchestra and my choir [La Chapelle de Quebec]…. And being reunited with them has been such a joy.”
Posted April 14, 2016
