orn in Québec City, Philippe Magnan is a multifaceted artist, as comfortable in the Baroque repertoire as in Contemporary music, and equally at home on all the instruments of the oboe family. Mr. Magnan is also enjoying a Baroque Oboe career, and he studied this instrument in Europe with Ku Ebbinge and Paul Dombrecht. Philippe Magnan teaches oboe at the Conservatories of music in Québec City and in Rimouski.

He studied at the Quebec Conservatory, where he was awarded in 1984 a Premier Prix in Oboe, a Premier Prix in Chamber music and the Gérard-Bastien Prize.  He went on to pursue specialised studies in Europe with Heinz Holliger in Freiburg (Germany) and Thomas Indermühle in Rotterdam (Netherlands).

Since winning the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition in 1982, the prestigious Toulon International Competition (France) in 1984 and the Prix d'Europe in 1987, Philippe Magnan has pursued an active solo career.  He has appeared with numerous Canadian symphony orchestras, with the Cannes Symphony (France), the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Violons du Roy chamber orchestra, I Musici de Montreal string orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Quatuor Claudel, the Borealis string Quartet, Les Idées heureuses, Masques Ensemble, etc.  He also performs frequently as a recitalist, and as such, he has participated in two complete tours for Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, and has performed in Boston, Paris, Gent, Prague, Stuttgart, Rotterdam, Toronto, Montréal, Québec, Ottawa, Vancouver, etc.  He has also taken part in many broadcasts on both the French and English networks of the CBC.

Also an active chamber musician, Philippe Magnan has participated many times in international music festivals in Canada, such as the Lanaudière International Music Festival, the Québec International Summer Festival, the Vancouver International Chamber Music Summer Festival, the Hornby Festival Society (BC), as well as in the Ste-Pétronille International Summer Music Festival (QC), the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival (Canada) and at the Summer Festival at Domaine Forget of Charlevoix in Québec.

In 1992, Philippe Magnan gave the premiere performance of Double éclat for Oboe d'amore and English horn by Quebec composer Alain Perron, with the Orchestre de chambre de Radio-Canada conducted by Simon Streatfield. Renowned Canadian composer John Rea has written his duo Submergé for him and pianist Louis-Philippe Pelletier; this work was premiered in Montréal in May 2002 and was performed again in Ottawa in August of the same year.  Furthermore, French flautist and composer Raymond Guiot has written 2 works dedicated to Philippe Magnan, in a savvy jazz style: Le Virtuose hockeyeur and Charlevoix-Atmosphère, both edited at the Éditions Lemoyne (Paris, France).

For the past five years, Mr. Magnan has received generous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts as well as from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, and the City of Québec, in order to support his artistic projects.  Upcoming engagements include performances in North America and Europe (Belgium, France and Czech Republic), as well as a second BC tour and a Prairie Debut tour with pianist Jamie Parker, a pan-Canadian tour on the Baroque Oboe with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in the Fall of 2003, a tour with Atlantic Debut in 2005 with pianist Jeremy Thompson, and a first US tour with the Gideon String Trio from Prague.

To add to his numerous activities, Philippe Magnan founded the Quebec Oboe Band in 2002. This double-reed ensemble has found a residence in Salle Dina-Bélanger in Sillery.

Discography-Videography

Philippe Magnan's first recording is a solo oboe and piano LP, which he recorded at the age of 24 for RADIO-CANADA INTERNATIONAL.  Later on, he recorded his own arrangement of Antonino Pasculli's Grand Concerto on themes from I Vespri Siciliani for Oboe and string orchestra with I Musici de Montreal conducted by Yuli Turovsky on the CHANDOS label.  This CD was released in 1999 and has since been acclaimed world-wide, both by the press and the public.  As well, the Canadian Foundation BRAVO!FACT from Toronto produced a video in October 1997 with Mr. Magnan, performing the well-known "Marche Turque" by Mozart.  A new solo album for Oboe, English horn and piano, on the PELLEAS label (for sale here via email, 23.00 $ can.) has been released in the Fall of 2002.

CD CHANDOS - 9662

"Pasculli's Gran Concerto gets a super-charged performance from oboist Philippe Magnan, whose rapid passage works, wide register leaps and final salvo are truly amazing."

Lloyd Dykk,
Vancouver Sun, 1999

"Philippe Magnan makes his instrument sing most eloquently and throws off the more difficult florid passages of the work with seemingly effortless ease."

Ian Lace, Classical CD Review,
Music on the Web (UK), 1999