2018 Emerging Artists Showcase: Mélisande McNabney

Harpsichordist Mélisande McNabney will perform as part of the Early Music America’s Emerging Artists Showcase, May 24-26, 2018, as part of the Bloomington Early Music Festival.

Mélisande McNabney performs keyboard music of all periods, on harpsichord, piano, and fortepiano. In 2015, she received the third prize at the International Competition Musica Antiqua in Bruges, Belgium. McNabney is a graduate of the Amsterdam Conservatory where she studied harpsichord, continuo, and fortepiano in the classes of Bob van Asperen and Richard Egarr. She was granted her Doctorate degree at McGill University in 2017, under the guidance of Hank Knox and Tom Beghin, thanks to the support of the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program. Currently based in Montreal, McNabney is regularly invited to play with ensembles such as Les Violons du Roy, Arion Orchestre Baroque, Les Idées heureuses, the Theater of Early Music, and Ensemble Caprice. She is a member of Pallade Musica and ensemble Les Songes, with whom she took part in numerous tours of Canada and the U.S. Mélisande McNabney has received scholarships from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Banff Centre, and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

 

2018 Showcase Program: A program of 17th and 18th-century French harpsichord music that is transcribed from or inspired by other instruments. Through original harpsichord music, transcriptions of lute, viola da gamba and orchestral works by French clavecinistes, as well as her own new transcriptions, Mélisande McNabney explores the acoustic and technical possibilities of the instrument. A rich and diverse sound portrait of the French harpsichord.