Marie-Nicole Lemieux

Contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux first gained widespread attention in 2000 after securing a series of competition wins, foremost among them the top honor at Brussels’ Queen Elizabeth Competition, where she also received the distinguished lieder prize. From that point forward she has maintained a steady presence on concert platforms and operatic stages while contributing to numerous recordings for Analekta, Virgin Classics, and Naïve. Her song repertory spans lieder and mélodies by Brahms, Mahler, Reynaldo Hahn, and Enescu, while her operatic roles encompass works by Gluck, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and additional composers. Concert and sacred engagements have concentrated on Baroque and early Classical scores by Handel, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, Mozart, and others, forming a substantial body of work. In 2019 she released the album Mer(s), featuring music by Elgar, Chausson, and Joncières.

Born in Dolbeau, Quebec, Canada, on June 26, 1975, Lemieux began intensive vocal training in 1994 at the Conservatoire de musique de Chicoutimi under Rosaire Simard, later continuing at the Conservatoire de musique de Montreal with Marie Daveluy. Her June 2000 victory at the Queen Elizabeth Competition followed earlier successes at the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières Competition in March and the Jeunesses Musicales du Canada National Competition in May.

Her debut solo album appeared on Cypres in November 2000, presenting Berlioz’ Les nuits d’été alongside lieder by Mahler and Wagner. She made her operatic debut in 2002 as Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare at the Canadian Opera, where both critics and audiences responded warmly. In 2004 Analekta issued her well-received recording of Brahms lieder. During the pivotal year 2005 she portrayed the title character on Naïve’s acclaimed release of Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso and made a critically praised debut at the Staatsoper Berlin in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria.

Her first American recital occurred in 2007 in Overland Park, Kansas, accompanied by pianist Daniel Blumenthal; the following month she appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in J.S. Bach’s Magnificat. She has continued performing as a choral soloist and in opera houses across Europe and North America. Naïve’s 2010 release Ne me refuse pas, devoted to French opera arias, earned a finalist nomination for the Gramophone Award. In 2015 she issued Chansons perpétuelles with pianist Roger Vignoles on Naïve and was appointed to the Order of Canada. Lemieux made her Metropolitan Opera debut in a 2019 staging of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. That same year Erato released Mer(s), recorded with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine conducted by Paul Daniel. She returned to Erato in 2020 for a star-studded account of Handel’s Agrippina.