About
Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde (Montreal, CA) performs on three continents in a wide variety of genres and styles. Equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestra player, she is also a researcher and gives lectures in universities around the world. A prize winner at several international competitions (Concours Corneille, Early Music Yamanashi, Graun Brothers Award), Octavie received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Fonds Podiumkunsten and the Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst for her research and artistic endeavours.
She was invited to perform in solo and chamber music settings in Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Grachtenfestival, Musica Antica da Camera (NL), Folle Journée Tokyo (JA), Festival Royaumont, La Nouvelle Athènes, La Cité de la Voix (FR), MA Brugge, Bozar, AMUZ (BE), and Festival Montréal Baroque (CA) among others. She regularly collaborates with historical keyboardist Artem Belogurov and together they co-direct the early music ensemble Postscript. She also plays with Vox Luminis, Ensemble Masques, Il Gardellino, La Sfera Armoniosa, and Ensemble Alia Mens. As an orchestral player, she performed with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the 18th Century, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, and Utopia. Her recordings can be heard on labels such as Alpha Classics, Challenge Classics, Passacaille, Brilliant Classics and TRPTK. Her Debut CD “From Mannheim to Berlin”, released by Challenge Classics, was Gramophone editor’s choice, 5-star at de Standaard, BBC recommendation, and long listed for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
Active as a researcher, she gave lectures and masterclasses at the Oxford, Bonn and Cornell Universities, as well as at the Hochschule der Künste Bern, Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris and Utrechts Conservatorium. Together with five colleagues from the Bern University, Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts, as well as independent performer/researchers like herself, she is part of an ongoing research group exploring the use of historical recordings in performance. She runs the video blog Romantic Lab, where she and Artem Belogurov share the results of their experiments with 19th-century performance practice through the imitation of historical recordings.
à Amsterdam: a second CD for Postscript, out September 29th 2023
My ensemble Postscript (Best Ensemble and Sonderpreis at Gebrüder Graun Preis 2018) recorded its second album on June 10th 2022 for the label TRPTK. Centered around Amsterdam, this new album presents music from the city where we met in a live performance full of energy and intimacy. We are done editing and mastering it: the CD will be out on September 29th 2023!
It is available for pre-orders here:
https://trptk.com/shop/cds-sacds/a-amsterdam-sacd/
In the meantime, if you haven’t yet, listen to our first album, Introductio!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/PostscriptEnsemble
Members of Postscript:
Aysha Wills, traverso
David Westcombe, traverso
Artem Belogurov, harpsichord
Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde, cello
Debut CD! From Mannheim to Berlin: Sonatas for cello piccolo
Gramophone Editor’s Choice!
Read the review →
In 2018, I acquired a beautiful Baroque cello labeled J. M. Alban, fecit 17… a Graz. The instrument is of a smaller size than today’s standard cello, and the sound is silky, malleable and rich. I had heard of the existence of four-string violoncello piccolos (tuned G-d-a-e’) during the 17th and 18th centuries, and soon I decided to try this tuning on my small 18th-century cello. The result was impressive: the instrument’s tone became bright, crystalline and colourful, with an enhanced singing quality on the top string. This new voice of the Alban was an exciting discovery, and I set my mind to recording a full programme featuring my four-string violoncello piccolo.
With works by JCF Bach, C. Schaffrath, F. Benda, A. Filtz, and JB Zyka.
Available for purchase:
https://challengerecords.com/products/16845007040023/from-mannheim-to-berlin-sonatas-for-violoncello-piccolo?tab=2
Musicians:
Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde, cello piccolo
Artem Belogurov, fortepiano
Victor García García, cello (in F. Benda and JB Zyka)
