In addition to innumerous awards and honours, Stéphane Tétreault is the recipient of the prestigious 2019 Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts and was a nominee for the Oscar Morawetz Award for Excellence in Music Performance from the Ontario Arts Council. He is also the laureate of the 2022 Prix Opus for “Performer of the Year,” awarded by the Conseil québécois de la musique, accompanied by a Canada Council grant. In 2018, he received the Maureen Forrester Next Generation Award in recognition of his sensitivities with music, enviable technique, and considerable communication skills.
In 2016, Stéphane made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Nézet-Séguin and performed at the prestigious Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland. During the 2017-2018 season, he took part in the Orchestre Métropolitain’s first European tour with Maestro Nézet-Séguin, performing the Elgar Cello Concerto at the Kölner Philharmonie (Cologne), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), and the Philharmonie de Paris. He also made his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor John Storgårds.
Stéphane has shared the stage with renowned violinist and conductor Maxim Vengerov, pianists Alexandre Tharaud, Jan Lisiecki, Louis Lortie, Roger Vignoles, Marc-André Hamelin, and John Lenehan, as well as conductors Michael Tilson Thomas, Paul McCreesh, John Storgårds, Rune Bergmann, Kensho Watanabe, and Tung-Chieh Chuang, among many others. He has also taken part in numerous masterclasses, notably with cellists Gautier Capuçon and Frans Helmerson.
His debut CD, recorded with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra under conductor Fabien Gabel, was selected as “Editor’s Choice” in the March 2013 issue of Gramophone magazine. His second album, featuring works by Haydn, Schubert, and Brahms with pianist Marie-Ève Scarfone, was named Gramophone’s “Critic’s Choice 2016” and recognized as one of the year’s best recordings. In 2017, Stéphane collaborated with harpist Valérie Milot and violinist Antoine Bareil on a third album devoted to trios for violin, cello, and harp. All three recordings received nominations for Classical Album of the Year at the ADISQ Gala.
In 2022, he released Transfiguration, a new collaboration with Valérie Milot featuring works by Marjan Mozetich, Caroline Lizotte, Alexandre Grogg, Kelly-Marie Murphy, and François Vallières. The album was nominated for Classical Album of the Year at the 2023 ADISQ Gala and won the Prix Opus for Album of the Year, awarded by the Conseil québécois de la musique. In the following years, he released two albums as part of the Images oubliées project with pianist Olivier Hébert-Bouchard. This project, which explores the world of Claude Debussy through original transcriptions for cello and piano, was nominated for Album of the Year and Concert of the Year at the 2024 Prix Opus.
For more than eight years, Stéphane has also collaborated closely with bandoneonist and composer Denis Plante. Together, they released Suite Tango (2021) and Stradivatango (2024) — a vibrant meeting of Argentine tango and cello, marked by a rare musical chemistry and warmly praised by critics both in Canada and internationally.
Stéphane was a student of the late cellist and conductor Yuli Turovsky for more than 10 years. He holds a master’s degree in Music Performance from the University of Montreal.
He plays the 1707 “Countess of Stainlein, Ex-Paganini” Stradivarius cello, generously on loan from Mrs. Sophie Desmarais.
© Suzanne Boyer / Stéphane Tétreault (translation by Stéphane Tétreault)
