Michèle Boucher

Boucher, Michèle

Michèle Boucher. Soprano, b Shawinigan, Que, 8 Jun 1948; premier prix voice (CMM) 1976. After piano studies she studied singing at the Conservatoire de Hull 1969-72 with Gaston Germain, then at the CMM 1973-76 with Pierre Mollet and Linda Narducci. She took further studies at the Juilliard School in New York,working with Alberta Masiello (Italian opera) and Rose Bampton (voice). At the same time she worked with Gérard Souzay, Dalton Baldwin and Hans Hotter. In 1976 she won the International Stepping Stones of the Canadian Music Competitions; the following year she was a finalist at the auditions of the Metropolitan Opera and won first prize at the Edward Johnson National Vocal Competition at Guelph, Ont. In 1978 she was a soloist at the opening of the Guelph Spring Festival and sang Messiah in New York with the MSO under Sarah Caldwell. In 1979 she made her operatic debut as Fresquita in Carmen with the Société lyrique d'Aubigny. That same year she sang Noémie in Massenet's Cendrillon at Festival Ottawa After a tour of Quebec with the Opéra de chambre du Québec she appeared with the OJQ under Pierre Hétu and in Beethoven's Missa solemnis with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra under James De Preist. She has also sung Marguerite in Faust in Edmonton, Annina in La Traviata and Mimi in La Bohème in Winnipeg and New York, Fenena in Nabucco in Quebec City, Silvia in Zanetto, the Young Babylonian in Hérodiade, Rose in Lakmé, and Rozenn (Le Roi d'Ys) in New York, and Micaela in Carmen in Edmonton, Greensboro, Liège, New York and Victoria, BC She has sung with the Orchestra métropolitain, the MSO, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the TS, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. In recital, she has sung at the Merkin Concert Hall and the Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York. She has also sung in several CBC broadcasts. With tenor Mark DuBois and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra under Raffi Armenian, she has recorded Oktoberfest Operetta (CBC SM-5045).