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The Canadian bass-baritone, Normand Richard, graduated from l'Université de Moncton where he studied with Martine Leblanc. From 1992 to 1995, he was a member of the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, where he was awarded the Louis Quilico Prize.
Normand Richard is known as a concert artist and has been a regularlyfeatured artist at the Festival International de Musique Baroque de Lamèque, NB since 1994 up to and including this past summer . He has sung with numerous orchestras including the Symphony New Brunswick, Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestre symphonique de Laval and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal where he made his debut in W.A. Mozart's Bastien et Bastienne and returned this past season to sing in W.A. Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor.
Normand Richard has participated in numerous recordings on Radio Canada and CBC and is a featured soloist on five compact disc recordings. In May 1997, on the Opéra de Montréal stage, he performed the cycle for baritone and orchestra, Hiver dans l'âme, by Quebec composer André Prévost, conducted by Joseph Rescigno.In both 1996 and 1997, he toured France with conductor Hervé Niquet.
On the Opéra de Montréal stage, Normand Richard has performed roles in Georges Bizet's Carmen, Andrea Chénier, Werther, The Student Prince, Urbain, The Consul, Suzanna, La Cenerentola and most recently, the Marquis in Francis Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmélites. He has also toured with Les Jeunesses musicales du Canada, singing the roles of Escamillo in Carmen, Germont in La Traviata and Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. In the spring of 2000, he returned to sing the Marquis in Les Dialogues des Carmélites. Last season's engagements included J.S. Bach masses and cantatas for Hervé Niquet and Ensemble Arion, a summer engagement with the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 for l'Orchestre Métropolitain and Les Concerts symphoniques de Sherbrooke, various performances with the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Messiah with the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, W.A. Mozart's Missa Brevis with the Ottawa Choral Society and J.S. Bach's cantatas with Grupetto Ensemble of Ottawa.He returned this season to the Ottawa Choral Society to sing in J.S. Bach's Magnificat (BWV 243).
Normand Richard has participated in several projects promoting Canadian music, appearing as soloist on the Société Radio-Canada's recording of Imagerie by Hector Gratton and also on a recording for the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal of Le Chant de la Jérusalem des terres froides featuring Abenaki religious music from colonial times.In a more contemporary vein, he has performed Invocation à la mer, written for him by New Brunswick composer Jean-François Mallet; Hiver dans l'âme on the stage of L'Opéra de Montréal, a song cycle for baritone and orchestra by André Prévost and Claude Vivier's Journal with the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec. |
