Madeleine Owen

Madeleine Owen performs regularly as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist. She can be heard in concert series such as the Montréal Symphony’s Virée classique, the Lamèque, Montréal and Boston early music festivals and with groups such as Scaramella (Toronto), ¡Sacabuche! (Sackville), Per Sonatori (Regina), Les plaisirs du clavecin (Gatineau), Camerata Nova (Winnipeg), Hélios Baroque Opera (Boston), the Toronto Masques Theatre and the Central City Opera (Colorado). In 2015 she was assistant music director to Timothy Nelson for the COSI (Centre for Opera Studies in Italy) production of Monteverdi’s l’Incoronaziane de Poppea in Sulmona Italy.

Artistic director Montréal early music group, Ensemble La Cigale, since 2007, Madeleine Owen has established a reputation as a talented programmer, pairing exhaustive research into little-known repertoires and a unique ability to bring these to original programmes that have popular appeal with audiences. The ensemble is often featured in concert series and festivals and pursues a wide variety of musical activities. Ensemble La Cigale performs frequently in concert series of all sorts in Québec, Ontario and the Maritimes. In their quest to share their musical passion, the group has performed outdoors on Rigaud Mountain (International Walking Day), in a gallery of modern art and in a Montréal beauty salon. In April 2015, the ensemble received support from the Canada Arts Council to perform at the Agapé sacred music festival in Saltillo Mexico. The ensemble returned to Mexico in October 2015 to perform at the Festival Cultural Sinaloa, the fall of 2016 to perform at the Festival Amado Nervo in Nayarit. In 2018, they were invited a second time to the Agapé Festival.

In 2013, La Cigale released a first CD, Tiorba Obbligata, with an unusual programme of early Italian works featuring the theorbo as an obbligato instrument. Several pieces on the CD were world premiere recordings and La Cigale is one of the rare groups to make this repertoire their own. Tiorba Obbligata was nominated in Québec for a “Prix Opus” in the category of Disc of the Year—medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical music. The group's second disc, Up in the Morning Early, which features Baroque music of Celtic countries was released to international praise in January 2017 on the Canadian Leaf Music label.

Her wide-reaching musical curiosity leads Madeleine Owen beyond the bounds of Baroque music. She is a member of Trio Folia- Canada’s only professional Romantic guitar ensemble. In 2017, Madeleine Owen was awarded a grant by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec in order to pursue research into parallels in performance practice between the theorbo and Baroque cello. She is currently pursuing this research and studying Baroque cello with Elinor Frey.

Madeleine Owen has been a dedicated teacher for twenty-five years. She recently became the lute professor at the Cégep Marie-Victorin. Her solo concert for young audiences, Lute, Friend of Kings, is produced by Les Jeunesses Musicales du Canada.