Geneviève Leclair

  BIOGRAPHY

Geneviève Leclair is an active guest conductor with organizations across Canada, the United States and the U.K., and Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music, where she has been teaching since 2016. Highlights of her 2023-24 season include a debut with Calgary Philharmonic and return performances with The National Ballet of Canada.

Dina K Photography

Equally at home in symphony, ballet and opera, she was Music Director of Parkway Concert Orchestra from 2013 to 2019, as well as Assistant Conductor and Guest Conductor of the Boston Ballet Orchestra from 2010 to 2017, and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Conductors Guild from 2017 to 2020.

In recent years, she has had the opportunity to work with orchestras, such as Orchestre Métropolitain, The National Ballet of Canada, Northern Ballet, Spartanburg Philharmonic, Northern Ballet, Orchestre Symphonique de Sherbrooke, Saskatoon Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Jeunesses Musicales Canada, Symphony New Hampshire, Symphony New Brunswick, Orchestre symphonique du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean, Boston University Chamber Orchestra, Syracuse University Symphony Orchestra and New England Conservatory Chamber and Youth Philharmonic Orchestras. In 2020, she conducted the Québec premiere of Laura Kaminsky’s opera As One in a live stream that has since been broadcast on OuTV to rave reviews. 


Geneviève  was awarded the 2017 American Prize in orchestral conducting, college/university division and took 2nd place in the professional orchestra division. In 2010, she was honored to receive the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation Award in orchestral conducting.Her performances have been hailed as «impeccable» (Boston Phoenix), «ravishing» and of «exemplary pacing and reading» (Hugh Fraser) while her conducting style has been praised for its «verve and precision», «confident dynamics and tempos, crisp rhythms, and crystalline phrasing creat[ing] powerful forward momentum» (Carla DeFord).


Geneviève holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting from Boston University under the tutelage of Maestro David Hoose. She had previously obtained Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in flute performance at Université de Montréal, the latter under the supervision of Mr. Denis Bluteau, former associate principal flutist of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. She also studied choral conducting with Dr. Ann Howard Jones and perfected her art through public and private master classes led by Boris Brott, Kenneth Kiesler, Carl Topilow, Susan Hoeppner, Camille Churchfield, André Papillon, Lise Daoust and Jeanne Baxtresser. In November 2010, she was invited by the National Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa) to attend the first edition of their Canadian Conductors Workshop.


In addition to her career as a performer and teacher, Ms. Leclair is also a published author of music literature and theory exercise books, Les Devoirs du Prof. Rémi / Prof. Solfa’s Workbooks through Les Éditions École de musique Vincent-d’Indy.