Dominique Bellon is an oboist, professor and specialist in performance psychology who divides her time between Saint-Donat-de-Montcalm, Montreal and Richmond, Kentucky. Her love for collaborating with musicians from everywhere has led her to perform regularly in the US, Mexico, and Canada. She co-directs and performs in Bach to Now, a chamber music concert series in Lexington KY that focuses on music for voice and instruments from the Baroque period to the present. In 2023, she performed several concerts in Guanajuato, Mexico, including performances with Ensamble Pegasus and Confluencias musicales. In 2021, her trio, Favonian Winds, was a finalist for the American Prize in Chamber Music. She is a member of the Lexington Chamber Orchestra and has held positions with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the Orquesta sinfonica de Guanajuato. Ms. Bellon also plays in several musical ensembles in Quebec.

Dominique Bellon’s love of Saint-Donat and her desire to encourage the development of a musical community in the region led her to create MusiNature Saint-Donat. She also wanted to share the skills she has developed over the years. Dominique has been a professor at Eastern Kentucky University for the last ten years, but since the pandemic she has been teaching entirely online. Her current appointment involves coordinating courses in music history and literature that are designed mainly as enrichment courses for the university's general education curriculum. Dominique has also taught at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory in Toronto and at the University of Ottawa. Her doctoral research on the application sports psychology to music performance has led her to give lectures on this subject at several Canadian and American universities as well as for professional organizations. She holds a doctorate in performance (oboe) from Arizona State University, a master's degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory, and a bachelor's degree with honours in composition from McGill University.

Louis Babin 

(English bio soon)

Thomas Couvillon is a composer and university professor from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His Acadian last name is a transformation of “Quévillon” As a composer, Thomas Couvillon likes to work collaboratively with performers. Whether in the United States, Mexico or Quebec, many of his works are written for particular performers or ensembles. He also specializes in the composition of chamber music works. Thomas has composed works for large ensemble. Recently, his piece Rivers, Mountains, Dreams, commissioned by the Eastern Kentucky University band, was performed at the Peabody Conservatory (Baltimore).

In the past two years, Thomas has had commissioned works performed at the American String Teachers Association conference (Louisville, Kentucky), the International Double Reed Society conference (Boulder, Colorado), and two chamber music concerts “Confluencias Musicales” in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Thomas is currently Professor of Theory and Composition at Eastern Kentucky University. His deep attachment to Quebec leads him to spend several months a year in Saint-Donat. His compositions are often influenced by the natural beauty of the region. One of his recent pieces, “Rivière du Diable,” commissioned by the Lexington Chamber Orchestra, is inspired by the course of the Diable River which has its source in an isolated and inaccessible lake north of Mont Tremblant Park.

Thomas is excited to participate in the creation of MusiNature Saint-Donat and to teach there this summer. He is also looking forward to contributing to the 150th anniversary of Saint-Donat by composing a piece for his orchestra which will be performed next August.

Paul Frehner is a composer, guitarist, and pianist. He began his musical career playing guitar in progressive rock and folk bands in the Montreal area. He then studied classical guitar, followed by piano and composition at McGill University, where he earned a PhD in composition in 2004. Throughout his career, he has maintained his passion for the guitar, both in performance and by incorporating the electric guitar into many of his compositions. He is proficient in several musical styles and plays both acoustic and electric guitar. He owns several different guitars, which he enjoys blending to create the desired sound and style.

Frehner's musical compositions have been commissioned and performed by numerous renowned orchestras and ensembles, including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, the New Juilliard Ensemble, Soundstreams, Almeida Opera and Aldeburgh Productions, Continuum New York, the Stuttgart Chamber Choir, and the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal.

Paul Frehner is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Music at Western University, where he teaches composition and electroacoustic music.

Stéphanie Bozzini is a multi-faceted modern-day violist, with significant contributions in various musical fields ranging from historically informed performance to new music improvisation. She is a founding member of Quatuor Bozzini, a new music ensemble that celebrated its twentieth year in 2020. Noted for its recordings and concerts in The New York Times and The Guardian, Quatuor Bozzini’s prizes include the 2018 Opus Prize for Artist of the Year, and finalist in the Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal 2012.

With Quatuor Bozzini, she has appeared at many major festivals in Europe and the Americas. The quartet’s numerous recordings, from their label Collection QB, have garnered myriad prizes, nominations and acclaimed critics most notably from the Conseil québécois de la musique, as well as the 2009 German Recording Critics’ prize.

Her playing is often characterized as supple and intense, with the deep and rich sonorities so prized in a chamber musician. Collaborations outside the quartet include larger ensembles (Arion, Les Violons du Roy, Tafelmusik, Tonhalle Orchestra, SMCQ), and solo engagements in Europe (HCMF, UK; Ostrava Days Festival, Czech Republic; NY MUSIK, Sweden) and the USA (REDCAT CalArts, Los Angeles). Stéphanie Bozzini teaches viola at Concordia University, and coaches the next generation of composers and performers via the Quatuor Bozzini’s Performer’s Kitchen, Composer’s Kitchen, and Bozzini Lab.

Reuven Rothman began his musical studies at the age of 8 on classical guitar. He started playing Double Bass at 12, continuing on to the University of Toronto, McGill University, and the Conservatoire de Québec à Montréal. Beginning in 2018, Reuven added cello to his instrument repertoire. Concert, recording, and tour highlights include the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Taylor’s Theatre of Early Music, Ensemble Caprice, Aradia Ensemble, Quatuor Bozzini, and a JUNO with the Ottawa Bach Chorale.