Marlène Ngalissamy, bassoon

Born in Moscow, Marlène Ngalissamy moved to Canada at the age of 10 and began learning the bassoon three years later. She quickly developed a deep passion for the instrument and was accepted at the Montreal Conservatory of Music in the class of Mathieu Harel.

Winner of the first prize in the Canadian Music Competition (2012), she performed the W. A. Mozart bassoon concerto with the gala orchestra in Toronto. As a soloist, she performed with the Metropolitan Orchestra of Montreal, the Montreal Youth Symphony Orchestra and the orchestra of the Conservatory of Montreal. She played with different orchestras in Quebec such as The Metropolitan Orchestra of Montreal, les Violons du Roy and The Montreal Symphony Orchestra as both substitute bassoon and contrabassoon.

In February 2014, Marlène gave a recital at the Red Path Hall at McGill University as part of the Montreal High Lights Festival. The performance was recorded and broadcasted on CBC radio2. She is also a finalist of the MegQuigley bassoon Competition 2015.

One of the eight laureates of the Developing Artist Grant of the Hnatyshyn Foundation (2013), Marlène completed her Bachelor degree at the Montreal Conservatory with Mathieu Harel and Stéphane Levesque and attended the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Daniel Matsukawa.