Music lov­ers in the Rich­mond area will be treated to a free con­cert a week before Christ­mas. While a free con­cert is unusual in itself, this one is not­able for other reas­ons as well.

The con­cert fea­tures two musi­cians who are well known in their respect­ive fields, harp­ist Valérie Milot and cel­list Stéphane Tétreault. Although the two instru­ments aren’t often paired as a duo, the two musi­cians have been per­form­ing together for sev­eral years. The even­ing is being hos­ted by Julie Laferrière, a fre­quent cul­tural com­ment­ator on Radio-canada.

Valérie Milot, a nat­ive of Troisrivières, stud­ied at the Con­ser­vatoire de Trois-rivières before con­tinu­ing her stud­ies in New York. She won numer­ous prizes and com­pet­i­tions, most not­ably, in 2008, the Prix d’europe. Des­pite its name, the Prix d’europe is not awar­ded in Europe, but in Que­bec. It is con­sidered one of Que­bec’s most pres­ti­gi­ous musical com­pet­i­tions. She was the first harp­ist to ever win the prize which dates back to 1911. (In 1915, the Prix d’europe was won by Will­frid Pel­letier.) She per­forms widely and has recor­ded a dozen albums includ­ing a trib­ute album to Simon and Gar­funkel.

Stéphane Tétreault was born in Montreal and stud­ied at the Con­ser­vat­ory there. He was a gif­ted stu­dent who went on to a suc­cess­ful career. He has won numer­ous prizes includ­ing the Opus in 2022. (Pre­vi­ous recip­i­ents of the Opus include Valérie Milot in 2009 and Oliver Jones in 1998.) Stéphane Tétreault recor­ded his first album in 2012 and has recor­ded nine more since then.

Artists of this caliber appear­ing in Rich­mond would nor­mally per­form at the Centre d’art de Rich­mond (CAR), and in the past, they have done so. But not in this case. The harp­ist and cel­list will be play­ing in the gym­nas­ium of l’école Plein-coeur.

“The venue is per­haps unusual,” says Sylvie Gen­dron, who is the driv­ing force behind the con­cert, “but it was ideal in this case.”

A teacher of Fran­ciz­a­tion, Sylvie Gen­dron teaches both chil­dren and adults. Two days a week, she teaches small groups at Plein-coeur, and Rich­mond Regional High School. Two even­ings a week, she teaches an adult class of 13. All of her stu­dents are recently-arrived immig­rants from a dozen or more coun­tries includ­ing the Phil­ip­pines, Columbia, Haiti, and Ukraine.

“I’m one of three teach­ers work­ing with adult immig­rants in Rich­mond. We were already plan­ning a sup­per on the 18thof Decem­ber for all of our stu­dents and their fam­il­ies,” she explains. “We’d planned to hold it in the cafet­eria at Plein-coeur. When we learned that we could host a con­cert, the prin­cipal was kind enough to offer us use of the gym. We’ll have our sup­per and then move to the gym for the con­cert. The sup­per is only for our stu­dents and their fam­il­ies, but the con­cert is open to the gen­eral pub­lic. It is free, but people are asked to reserve because seat­ing is lim­ited.”

It was good luck that the musi­cians were avail­able to per­form on the 18th.

That they are com­ing to Rich­mond at all is thanks to an after-con­cert con­ver­sa­tion that Sylvie had in Septem­ber with Julie Laferrière in Val­court.

Sylvie and her hus­band are both music lov­ers who are volun­teers at the CAR.

“We had seen Stèphane Tétreault when he per­formed in Rich­mond,” Sylvie explains, “but we had never heard Valérie Milot, although we knew of her. When we learned that the two musi­cians were play­ing at the J. Armand Bom­bardier Museum of Ingenu­ity last Septem­ber, we decided to go. The present­a­tion was being hos­ted by Julie Laferrière, and after the show we had a chance to talk to her.”

Among other things, Julie Laferrière is very involved with Ma Parole, a non­profit organ­iz­a­tion that works on social, cul­tural, and lin­guistic devel­op­ment. It seeks to provide easier access to arts and cul­ture to com­munit­ies for whom that access is not always avail­able.

Ma Parole some­times works with

Anémone 47, a char­it­able organ­iz­a­tion that sees music as a vehicle for social inclu­sion and as a poten­tially trans­form­at­ive force, espe­cially for the mar­gin­al­ized. The organ­iz­a­tion offers par­ti­cip­at­ory musical work­shops in ele­ment­ary schools, con­certs in retire­ment homes, as well as inter­act­ive con­certs for immig­rant and mar­gin­al­ized com­munit­ies. Both Valérie Milot and Stéphane Tétreault are act­ive with Anémone 47.

Sylvie con­tin­ues, “It was in the middle of a con­ver­sa­tion that Julie asked if we might like to have Valérie Milot and Stéphane Tétreault per­form in Rich­mond. I jumped at the oppor­tun­ity, and it worked out won­der­fully for us in terms of tim­ing.”

“We’re in the pro­cess of mak­ing all the neces­sary arrange­ments,” Sylvie Gen­dron says. “Right now, we have over 60 reser­va­tions. There’s still lots of room, as the gym can hold about 200. The con­cert is free, but we do want people to reserve by email at sylvie.gen­dron@cssds.gouv.qc.ca.”