Musicians of 5ilience

Thomas Gauthier-Lang

Saxophone and artistic director

Thomas Gauthier-Lang is a saxophonist, performer, and improviser driven by the exploration of the saxophone’s role in contemporary music, specifically in the realm of contemporary aesthetics. Fascinated by the chameleon nature of the saxophone, he cultivates a kaleidoscopic sound palette through mastery of extended techniques and a growing experience in interpreting new music repertoire. His involvement in contemporary music is characterized by a questioning of conformity and norms. As an organizer, this perspective guides his programming choices, in which he creates spaces beneficial to the artistic and individual flourishing of those involved. Based in Montreal, he has collaborated in the creation of over 15 works internationally over the past few years. Additionally, as a teacher for the past decade, he encourages his students to become aware of their own expressive potential.

Thomas collaborates with a new generation of composers such as Alexandre David, Romain Camiolo, Simon Bourget, Florence Tremblay, Salomé Perli, and Gabo Champagne, all of whom are exploring new projects. He is also a member of the Bakarlari soloists collective as a musician for their 2022-2023 season and part of the administrative team of the Montreal Contemporary Music Laboratory. Recently, he joined the group Crushhh at the intersection of pop, disco, and funk and initiated the 5ilience reed quintet as artistic director.

Thomas holds a Master’s degree in performance from the University of Montreal under the guidance of Jean-Francois Guay, and completed further studies at the Pôle Supérieur of Paris-Boulogne Billancourt in France with Jean-Michel Goury. His practice has been influenced by the teachings of saxophonists such as Marie-Bernadette Charrier, Pierre-Stephane Meuge, Marcus Weiss, Louis-Philippe Bonin, Vincent Le Quang, and Jean-Marc Bouchard.

Thomas collabore avec une nouvelle génération de compositeurs·rices tel·le·s qu’Alexandre David, Romain Camiolo, Simon Bourget, Florence Tremblay, Salomé Perli et Gabo Champagne, toustes en exploration de nouveaux projets. Il fait également partie du collectif de solistes Bakarlari en tant que musicien pour leur saison 2022-2023 et de l’équipe administrative du Laboratoire de musique contemporaine de Montréal. Tout récemment, il rejoint le groupe Crushhh à la croisée du pop, du disco et du funk et initie le quintette à anches 5ilience en tant que directeur artistique.

Thomas détient une maîtrise en interprétation de l’Université de Montréal sous la direction de Jean-François Guay avec un perfectionnement du Pôle Supérieur de Paris-Boulogne Billancourt en France auprès de Jean-Michel Goury. Sa pratique est influencée par les enseignements de saxophonistes de renoms tels que Marie-Bernadette Charrier, Pierre-Stéphane Meugé, Marcus Weiss, Louis-Philippe Bonin, Vincent Lê Quang et Jean-Marc Bouchard.

Gwénaëlle Ratouit

Bass clarinet

Gwénaëlle Ratouit is a versatile clarinettist, active as a chamber and orchestral musician in Montreal. Today, her curiosity leads her to perform in a variety of projects combining classical and contemporary music in Europe and Canada. 

After several years of musical studies in France, where she honed her skills with soloists from the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, including Richard Rimbert, Gwénaëlle developed her musical personality and refined her playing with Martin Carpentier at the Université de Montréal, where she obtained her master’s degree in performance. She also holds a French teaching diploma and a bachelor’s degree in musicology. 

Winner of several prizes and bursaries, she notably won the Premier Prix Julie Sirois organized by le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne on two consecutive occasions, in 2021 and 2022.

Playing from Eb clarinet to bass clarinet, Gwénaëlle is a permanent member of contemporary music ensembles le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and Paramirabo, and is a member of the reed quintet 5ilience. She can be heard playing classical repertoire with the Ad Hoc wind octet and she has taken part in numerous recordings for emerging artists and film music composers in Quebec. She also performs as a substitute with symphony orchestras and wind ensembles in France and Canada. 

Highly committed to the transmission of knowledge, she currently teaches clarinet and bass clarinet in secondary schools.

Mariane Pellerin

Clarinet

Mariane studied at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal with Jean-François Normand, where she completed her master’s degree with distinction in April 2022. She was a prize winner at the Festival Concours de Musique de Sherbrooke, Cégep en Concert, and a concerto soloist with the Orchestre Symphonique des Jeunes de Sherbrooke. She has participated in the Orford Music Academy, Domaine Forget, and Berlin Opera Academy. She frequently joins the clarinet sections of the Orchestre Symphonique de Sherbrooke and the Orchestre Symphonique de la Côte-Nord.

Mariane co-founded the Ensemble Cabestan, a quintet with strings with whom she has played all around Québec. She is also a member of  5ilience, the first reed quintet in Quebec, playing primarily new music for this relatively new chamber ensemble formation.

Alongside her professional activities, Mariane also co-founded the instagram account @clarinulles with her clarinet colleagues from the Conservatoire, which now has more than 1000 followers.

Her mission is always to spread good vibes and good jokes in every setting she comes into contact with. Her interest in chamber music and small ensembles encourages her to maintain good relationships with her colleagues and always have fun.

Léanne Teran-Paul

Oboe

Léanne obtained a master’s degree with distinction in oboe and chamber music in 2022 in the class of Lise Beauchamp, at the Montreal Conservatory of Music. With the aim of specializing in orchestral repertoire, she subsequently studied with Vincent Boilard at the University of Montreal.

In 2019, she took part in the TD tour of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. She currently holds the position of principal oboe of the Drummondville Symphony Orchestra as well as the position of second oboe of the Quebec Philharmonic Orchestra. As a freelancer, she joins several ensembles in the province, including the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Obiora ensemble, the Côte-Nord Symphony Orchestra, the Estuaire Symphony Orchestra and the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean Symphony Orchestra.

Although passionate about orchestral music, Léanne enjoys exploring many other genres. She participated in the recording of the album L’Autre by the singer Mathilde Duval-Laplante, released in 2021, and very often touches on contemporary music, notably with the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and the ECM+, which invited her to participate in the Génération PLUS! concert as a chamber musician. Finally, she teaches oboe to high school students in several musical schools as well as at the college level, at Lionel-Groulx College.

Alex Eastley

Bassoon

Alex Eastley is a Montreal-based bassoonist who performs in a wide range of styles, including classical, contemporary and free improvisation, contemporary and free improvisation. A graduate of McGill University and the Curtis Institute of Music, she was interim second bassoon of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal for the 2018/19 season and was previously principal bassoon of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2018. She has performed with orchestras around the world, including the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Hallé, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne.

In the field of improvised music, Alex has performed with the London Improvisers Orchestra (UK), the Dutch Impro Academy in Amsterdam, Vitamin-S in Auckland, and at the Audio Foundation in Auckland. Alex taught at the Curtis Institute of Music’s Young Artist Summer Program (YASP) from 2016 to 2020 and was on the faculty of the institution’s inaugural “Curtis Mentor Network” program in 2020 and 2021. She has been a lecturer at the University of Manitoba and Memorial University (NL), and a member of the faculty at Brandon University (MB) from 2014 to 2018.