Brisson

After studies in early music at the Université de Montréal, McGill University, the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Catherine Motuz and Charles Toet, Maximilien Brisson quickly established himself as one of the leading specialists of historical trombones. Active throughout Europe and North America, he has performed with the Freiburger Barockorchester, Akamus, Concerto Palatino, Collegium Vocale Gent, Quicksilver Baroque, Il Gardellino, Les Cornets Noirs, I Gemelli, Capella Pratensis, the Zürich Opera and the Toronto Consort, among others. He is a member of I Fedeli and ¡Sacabuche! and was, with the Consort laurentien, finalist at the prestigious YorkComp in 2019. His debut solo album with Christophe Gauthier and Luc Beauséjour, Scorrete lagrime mie, was released in November 2024.

A sought-after pedagogue. Maximilien is lecturer for baroque trombone at the University of the Arts Bremen and has taught masterclasses and workshops on both sides of the Atlantic. Also active as a scholar and editor, his current interests include the works of Lodovico Viadana, of Andreas Oswald and of František Ignác Tůma. He has presented papers on Viadana's solo motets at the MedRen 2019 musicological convention, and on Fermo Bellini's long-forgotten method for trombone at the Romantic Brass Symposium in Bern in 2023. He is currently leading a research project into the playing and sound characteristics of historical mouthpiece designs.

An accomplished leader, Maximilien made his conducting debut in 2011. In 2013, he led a critically acclaimed performance of Mahler’s Sixth symphony, incensed by the late reviewer Claude Gingras (La Presse) as “comparable to the best Mahler there is, both live and on disc”, who also added that “this reviewer was shaken by what he heard. He even had tears in his eyes. Because this Mahler’s Sixth, sometimes called the Tragic, is perhaps, indeed, the most moving of all and it was rendered in its full and terrifying dimension by this astonishing young conductor and all these musicians of his generation that he spurred at every moment.” He is now Artistic Director of the Viadana Collective, an ensemble formed of both major figures and rising stars of the Canadian and international early music scenes, which he led on its first European tour and critically-acclaimed debut CD recording for the label Passacaille in May 2023. He is also co-director of canticum trombonorum along with Tin Cugelj.