- ACADEMY 2012 -

Nestled like a precious stone in the majestically natural setting of the Eastern Townships, the Orford Arts Centre (OAC) hosts a prestigious academy and internationally renowned festival every year. Functioning as an organic whole, OAC has a 60-year history of offering generations of young musicians at the graduate and postgraduate levels a unique environment fostering their musical development. The general consensus is, quite simply, that Orford holds the best music academy in eastern Canada.

I believe that, as society becomes increasingly materialistic and individualistic, you, as young artists deeply immersed in study, are on a quest for an artistic ideal that is rarely presented: an opportunity for holistic personal development enriched by exposure to a variety of points of view on art and life in general.
 
In addition to our traditional courses for strings, voice, woodwinds, piano, brass, composition, orchestra, and the like, we have three new major offerings: a baroque vocal workshop under the supervision of Suzie Leblanc, Alexander Weimann, and Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière; a percussion workshop with Mario Boivin and Emmanuel Séjourné; and a jazz workshop with a cluster of jazz luminaries under the direction of Ron Di Lauro.
 
To round out participants overall training, we will once again put on our humanities series, which features weekly conferences on a variety of topics (e.g. history, fine arts, and travel) given by specialists in the field.
 
Building on Orford Academy's long-standing tradition of excellence and the quality of its instructors, master classes, and workshops, the Orford Arts Centre has become the unrivaled destination for comprehensive, humanistic development worthy of the ideals of the Renaissance as stated by the motto:

be and become!
 
Please apply as soon as possible because places are limited, and all were filled last summer.

I look forward to seeing you.

Jean-François Rivest
Artistic Director and Orchestra Conductor
Orford Arts Centre