Geneviève Leclair

  BIOGRAPHY

Geneviève Leclair is an active guest conductor with organizations across Canada, the United States and the U.K., in symphony, ballet and opera, as well as Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music where she has been teaching conducting since 2016. Highlights of the 2024-25 season include debuts with Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Houston Ballet and Regina Symphony Orchestra.


She was Principal Guest Conductor with Orchestre Classique de Montréal in 2022-2023, Assistant Conductor and Guest Conductor for Boston Ballet from 2010 to 2017, Music Director of Parkway Concert Orchestra from 2013 to 2019, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Conductors Guild from 2017 to 2020.


Geneviève’s performances have been hailed as “impeccable” (Boston Phoenix), “ravishing” and of “exemplary pacing and reading” (Hugh Fraser) while her conducting style is praised for its “verve and precision”, “confident dynamics and tempos, crisp rhythms, and crystalline phrasing creat[ing] powerful forward momentum” (Carla DeFord).


A passionate advocate of collaborative and engaged arts, Geneviève premiered Saskatoon Symphony’s segment of The [uncertain] Four Seasons, a global initiative towards climate change action initiated in Australia ahead of the COP26 climate summit. She also curated a program on insect conservation for Wellesley Symphony in collaboration with the Sudbury Valley Trustees. With Orchestre Métropolitain, she premiered a triptych of pieces about acceptance based on a children’s book character with vitiligo, The Cloud Shoveler. In 2020, she conducted the Québec premiere of Laura Kaminsky’s opera As One - the story of a transgender character - with Orchestre Classique de Montréal in a live stream that has since been broadcasted on OuTV to rave reviews. In addition to these projects, she maintains an extensive schedule as guest conductor with orchestras such as The National Ballet of Canada, Calgary Philharmonic, Spartanburg Philharmonic, Northern Ballet, Orchestre Symphonique de Sherbrooke, Jeunesses musicales Canada, Symphony New Hampshire, Symphony New Brunswick


Her extensive ballet repertoire of over 50 ballets includes most of the main Romantic and 20th century masterpieces, among which fifteen Balanchine ballets, Cranko’s ROMEO AND JULIET and ONEGIN, Kylian’s SYMPHONY OF PSALMS, Lander’s ETUDES, McGregor’s CHROMA, Neumeier’s NIJINSKY and THE THIRD SYMPHONY OF GUSTAV MAHLER, Nureyev’s SLEEPING BEAUTY and DON QUIXOTE, Petipa’s SLEEPING BEAUTY, LA BAYADÈRE and SWAN LAKE, Wright’s GISELLE, Ashton’s CINDERELLA.


Geneviève was awarded the 2017 American Prize in 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. 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 Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.

Dina K Photography