Seán Dagher
Seán Dagher is an active performer, arranger, and composer of music from various classical and folk music traditions: Celtic, Baroque, Medieval, Arabic, Quebecois, and Maritime. He is artistic director and principal arranger of Skye Consort and and is a member of La Nef’s Artistic Commitee. Seán often provides arrangements for other ensembles and artists, including La Mandragore, Pierre Lapointe, Shannon Mercer, I Furiosi, Les Voix Baroques, and Les Voix Humaines. His music has been performed across Canada and the United States. Seán has recorded sea shanties and tavern songs for several video game sound-track in Assassin’s Creed 4 series, by Ubisoft. He has performed and toured with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Maestro Kent Nagano. Seán has worked with the Festival du Monde Arabe creating shows of Middle Eastern and North African music. He has arranged and composed music for audio books with story-teller and musician Suzanne De Serres, Youth Program Director for La Nef, and for American author Sandra Gulland. Seán has been a composer and sound designer forseveral theatre productions. Seán has been nominated for numerous ADISQ and Opus awards and participated in the ADISQ-winning CD, La Traverse Miraculeuse from Les Charbonniers de l’enfer and La Nef. He played in La Mandragore’s concert Convivencia which won the Opus award forworld-music concert of the year 2013. Despite all that Seán can frequently be found singing and playing in Irish pubs.
Patrick Graham, percussion, has developed a cross-cultural style that reflects his training in Western classical and contemporary music and his extensive explorations of Mediterranean, Irish, South Indian and Japanese rhythms. As a collaborator with groups such as Trifolia, Small World Project, On Ensemble and La Nef, among others, his unique sound reflects his experience in multiple genres of music and his profound fascination with the power of rhythm. In January 2009, he released his first solo album entitled Rheō. Along with a busy performing and recording schedule, Mr. Graham is also active as an instructor, and has given workshops in Canada, the USA, India, China and Japan. http://www.patrickgrahampercussion.com
Pierre-Alexandre Saint-Yves
Pierre-Alexandre Saint-Yves is a composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in music for ancient instruments. Since 2000, he has worked with Cercamon, a trio that plays traditional occitane music, in numerous festivals in Canada and the USA. Furthermore, he has collaborated with Gérald Zuchetto’s Troubadours Art Ensemble (France), La Nef, Philippe Gélinas, Gapa and Michel Cusson. In 2008, he and Andrew Wells-Oberegger formed De Lònga, which combines the warmth of acoustic instruments with novel sound production techniques. Their first disc, À l’abri du temps, was a nominee for “Instrumental Album of the Year” at the 2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards. Through his composing, Pierre-Alexandre Saint-Yves breathes new life into ancient instruments. Notably, his works have been part of three documentaries and a contemporary dance project. In 2009, he won the Prix Jeune Ambassadeur du Forum Jeunesse de Lanaudière. Equally a video artist, Pierre-Alexandre has numerous achievements to his credit, including a recent Mnémo prize for the documentary, Le chemin de Savoirs (St-Côme, CVPL, 2012). www.pasy.ca
Dorothéa Venture
Dorothéa Ventura is a singer, harpsichordist, dancer, actor, vocal coach, and choral director. She has participated in some 350 productions with renowned ensembles. She is a co-founder of the ALKEMIA vocal ensemble and of Sonate 1704. She directs the Opus Novum choir, and sits on La Nef’s artistic committee. She has recorded for theatrical, cinematic, and dance productions, and made some 15 CDs, several of which have won Juno or Opus prizes. As a vocal coach, notably for the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, she has assisted conductors Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Hervé Niquet, and Andrew Parrott. Solidly trained in classical, modern, and baroque dance, she became a member of the dance company Les Jardins chorégraphiques in 2009. She has also appeared in several short films, as well as playing Angélique in Molière’s Le malade imaginaire with the Toronto Masque Theatre and Baronne Elberfeld in La mélodie du bonheur, directed by Denise Filiatrault. www.dorotheaventura.com
Andrew Wells-Oberegger
Shortly after graduating from college in Renaissance lute, Andrew began making a living as a musician. Since 2000, he has recorded and collaborated on almost a dozen CD’s with musical ensembles such as La Mandragore, Weshida, and L’Ensemble Cercamon. He is a singer and songwriter with the folk group La Balconade, which he founded. He has played on film scores written by Michel Cusson and Luc Boivin, and for documentaries such as Carthage la passion d’une vie, Aventure archéologique en Tunisie, and Femmes mystiques du Moyen-Âge. Since November 2006, Andrew has been playing in La Nef’s Musiques des Montagnes. In 2007, he formed the duo De Lònga with Pierre-Alexandre Saint-Yves. In 2008 this duo, dedicated to the composition of original music for early, traditional, and modern instruments, released its first CD on the Fidelio Music label.
La Nef Musical Company 