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Section Principal

Etienne Boudreault

Etienne Boudreault began his bassoon studies with Richard Gagnon (Principal bassoon of Quebec city symphony orchestra) at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in Saguenay, Canada. He received an Artist Diploma (1997) at Indiana University, first bassoonist ever to obtain one from the prestigious institution, under Professor Kim Walker & 1er prix de virtuosité avec distinctions at the Conservatoire supérieur de musique de Genève under Professor Roger Birnstingl (former Principal bassoonist of the London Symphony Orchestra & l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande) with the Raymond Weill prize for the best exam result of the year (1999). Thereafter, under special invitation, he received a post-virtuosité diploma (2000) under Professor Daniele Damiano (Principal bassoonist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra). He has also attended masterclasses by Milan Turkovic, Stephan Turnovsky, Mordechai Rechtman, Christopher Millard.

At the age of 17, Boudreault won the Canadian Music Competitions (CMC) as the wind category Grand award winner. He was also the Grand award winner, all categories, of the National Music Festival of Canada in 1997. 

Boudreault has been regularly performing & teaching in European chamber music festivals both as performer & teacher: Kuhmo international chamber music festival (Finland), Storioni Festival (Netherlands), Accademia delle crete sinesi (Italy), Festival Mozart (Waterloo, Belgium), Korsholm Music Festival (Finland), Crusell week festival (Finland), Kuru Fest (Finland), Crusell Week, Esbjerg International Chamber Music Festival, etc. He's performed with renowned musicians such as Peter Frankl, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Pascal Moragues, Ilya Gringolts, Michel Lethiec, Janne Thomsen, Francis Orval, Nicholas Daniel, Hervé Joulain, Wolfgang Meyer, Finghin Collins, Henri Sigfridsson, Storioni trio, Jacques Zoon, Hervé Joulain, Aldo Baerten, etc.

As soloist, Boudreault has appeared with various orchestras, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Geneva, Switzerland), Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester, to mention a few. 

He worked closely with jazz musician Carsten Dahl who wrote "Don't speak, don't talk, don't hear" for him. In 2015, he premiered "Libera Me" for bassoon & percussion by Nordic Prize winning composer Peter Bruun. 

In 2000, Boudreault was appointed principal bassoon of the Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester in Denmark, a position he held until 2004. He's been also substituting as Principal bassoon of Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, the Danish national chamber orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, 2nd bassoon Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Royal Chapel Orchestra (Copenhagen). He was also a founding member of Ensemble Midtvest (2004-2009). In 2009, he became bassoonist of internationally renowned Esbjerg Ensemble in Denmark.

In 2015, he started teaching at Odense Conservatory, Denmark as well as teaching on the popular online teaching platform "Play with a pro".

Since January 2017, Boudreault is Principal bassoon of Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Finland.