Dina K Photography

Geneviève Leclair

PRESSE

« Geneviève Leclair knowingly conducted the performance, realizing the subtle, as well as the dramatic tensions  of Hannah’s emotions.  » 


Jim Lowe

    Rutland Herald

28 novembre 2020





INTERVIEW: American Prize Winner 

Geneviève Leclair on Conducting  


Basil Considine

Twin Cities Arts Reader

30 avril 2017



On  Entering the World of Ballet Conducting: An 

Interview with Geneviève Leclair


Carla DeFord

Critical Dance

28 août 2013




« Our dancers always feel they have an ally and an artist supporting and guiding them when Geneviève is in the pit. This kind of connection between the orchestra and the stage allows great performances to happen; moments of trust and daring that are unique to live theater. »


Christopher Stowell

Associate Artistic Director

National Ballet of Canada




« Ms. Leclair displays a great deal of magic on the podium, something most community orchestras do not get a chance to experience. It makes the rehearsals something special to participate in.[…] I have been playing trombone for thirty years, with many amateur ensembles, and she is the finest orchestra conductor I have ever had. »


robert Piankian

bass trombonist

Parkway Concert Orchestra




« Geneviève is a rare breed. There are very few orchestral conductors of her caliber and unique abilities. She is a truly world class musician and conductor who has a head for budgets and marketing, the people skills for teaching fundraising, recruiting and to be an outstanding colleague, and the intellectual acuity and pedagogical prowess to be a faculty member at an academically challenging institution. You simply need to observe her working with student musicians and you will see how they are drawn to her. »


Dr. Patrick M. Jones

CHANCELLOR

PENN-STATE SCHUYLKILL UNIVERSITY




« Ms. Leclair mainlined a technique that was clear and easy to follow. This inspired a musical security within the orchestra  as well as a shared  artistic involvement with her and us. Personally, the sheer joy and enthusiasm on her face always made me eager to play my part in the ensemble. Before my harp cadenzas, she would gesture and smile as if inviting me to ‘take a turn’  - which made me simultaneously alert and relaxed. »


Cynthia Price-Glynn

Harpist, retired

Boston Ballet Orchestra




« Having attended this event since 2014, I have to say that the star of this year’s show was Geneviève Leclair, assistant conductor of the Boston Ballet Orchestra, who guest conducted the NEC ensemble. There were also several memorable dancers, but the award for sustained achievement in music performance, including Act III of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty and excerpts from Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet, goes to Leclair, who conducted the orchestra with such verve and precision that its members sounded not like the students they are, but like seasoned professionals. 


In addition to being essential to the audience’s enjoyment of the program, the music was an absolute gift to the dancers because it gave them the structure and direction they needed. Leclair’s confident dynamics and tempos, crisp rhythms, and crysstalline phrasing created powerful momentum. Moreover, each style in the Tchaikovsky score was vividly realized - from the meowing of Puss in Boots and the White Cat, to the chirping of the Bluebird, to the stirring rhythms of the polonaise and mazurka. How wonderful  for the dancers to be supported by music of such high caliber. »


Carla DeFord

Critical Dance

18 mai 2016





« One of the chief joys of the Boston Ballet production of The Nutcracker is the live music played by its orchestra of over 50 members. For this performance, Assistant-Conductor Geneviève Leclair was at the podium, and the orchestra was in top form. Everything on stage, from Fresi’s spectacular jumps to Ellis’ ecstatic stretches in the air high above her partner’s head, was accomplished in collaboration with Leclair and the superb musicians of the Boston Ballet Orchestra.


Carla DeFord

Critical Dance

17 décembre 2015





« Prokofiev’s score is an immense and complicated one, and the Boston Ballet, under the baton of principal conductor Jonathan McPhee, on March 14, and assistant conductor Geneviève Leclair, on March 21, gave it great vitality. The fulfillment of the spell at midnight, with its clanging percussion and enormous blasts from the low brass, was especially dramatic. The orchestra has only two rehearsals per production, but consistently produces performances of the highest caliber. Dancers of the company, one and all, are privileged to work with such a distinguished group of musicians. »


Carla DeFord

Critical Dance

21 mars 2014





«  The 58-piece amateur orchestra [Parkway Concert Orchestra] is now in its 71st season. Since 2013, it has been under the baton of Genevieve Leclair, who has raised the level of the orchestra to new heights. »


Muriel Porter

New Pond Village Journal

Novembre 2015





« Leclair drew an absolutely ravishing performance from the National Academy Orchestra and the Andante cantabile sang and danced like a choir of angels and cherubim. »


Hugh Fraser

9 août 2010





« Unter-Konductor Geneviève Leclair took the podium for the sprightly & bright Rossini overture to his Italian Girl in Algiers ». […] Leclair brought out every nuance of the piece and bestowed such an impacting aspect to her reading that I could smell the salt air. »


Danny Gaisin

Ontario Arts Review

24 juin 2010





« Throughout, the corps and the orchestra were of a piece: not openly virtuosic, not hard-edged, not drill-sergeant precise, but ample, accomplished, gracious and suggestive - Balanchine (and Hindemith, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky) with a human face. (And, on Sunday, a woman’s face in front of the orchestra: assistant conductor Geneviève Leclair leading an impeccable performance of Theme and Variations.) »


Jeffrey Gantz

The Boston Phoenix

13 mai 2010




« The matchmaker or introducer was Sergei Prokofiev’s deceptively uncomplicated classical symphony. This short four-movement work was directed by apprentice conductor Geneviève Leclair. The lady shows no musical temerity; rather she demonstrates a light touch that cloaks a firm hand over the orchestra. The reprised theme of the opening movement led to a most precise and detailed string handling of the larghetto that was exquisite. Leclair’s gavotte and exhilarating finale were a captivating contrast of tempi and musical message. »


Danny Gaisin

Ontario Arts Review

27 juin 2009




« The National Academy Orchestra under the energetic baton of Geneviève Leclair, apprentice conductor, unleashed the romance in Pushkin’s folkloric tale ‘Ruslan and Ludmilla’. […] This was portrayed through an orchestral performance that was stirring and arousing from beginning to end. Energetic rhythmic precision married with expressed relaxed and flexible lyrical moments on both the conductor and orchestra’s parts drew the curtain to a close with a happy ending. »


Kamara Hennessy

Ontario Arts Review

22 juin 2009