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Gentiane MG

Pianist and composer Gentiane MG has established herself as an important voice as a Canadian jazz composer. She made a powerful impression on Montreal’s jazz scene with her two albums for piano trio, Eternal Cycle (2017) and Wonderland (2019). MG is releasing her third album with this ensemble, Walls Made of Glass, on September 23, 2022. MG’s trio has received several awards, including the OPUS Award for Discovery of the Year (2020), the CBC/Radio-Canada Jazz Award (2018) and the François-Marcaurelle de la GMMQ Award (2017). Eternal Cycle was highlighted by CBC Music as one of 10 outstanding Canadian jazz albums of 2017. MG has played in Canada, Mexico, China, Ivory Coast, and Germany  alongside musicians such as Christine Jensen, Andre White, Yannick Rieu, Jim Doxas, , Jean-Michel Pilc and Ira Coleman, and released a duo album entitled Convergence with saxophonist Frank Lozano.

Early on, while studying and performing works from the great classical composers such as Bach, Chopin, Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, and Scriabin, MG was already beginning to experiment with creating music, seeking an outlet for self expression. A growing interest in improvisation led her in her late teenage years to shift her focus towards jazz, studying the masters of the tradition such as Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea. 

MG’s music reflects her early development as a classical pianist and improviser, incorporating the aesthetics of impressionism with the improvisational approach and rhythmic sensibility of contemporary jazz. Her compositions come together in a deeply personal universe shaped with contrasting colours, memorable melodies and intricate tensions that bring expressivity, vivacity, dream and mystery to a compelling acoustic landscape. In her trio, she is joined by bassist Levi Dover and drummer Louis-Vincent Hamel, two important voices  of the Canadian creative jazz scene, who contribute their original voices to her music. Over several years of performing and touring together, the band has developed its own language, transcending genre and striving for creative freedom.

In addition to her artistic career, MG is an in-demand teacher. She has shared her experience and knowledge with students from all over the world, having been a course lecturer at McGill University and a guest lecturer at institutions such as the University of Veracruz in Mexico. She has also maintained her private teaching studio for the last 15 years. 

 

Awards

Révélation Radio-Canada/CBC Jazz Award

2018-2019 OPUS Prize: Discovery of the Year

2020 François-Marcaurelle of the GMMQ Award


Tags

38
Album Review

Mathieu Soucy: Recollecting

Read "Recollecting" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Guitarist Mathieu Soucy, a 2019 graduate of Canada's McGill University, in Montreal, hits the ground running with a splendid debut album, Recollecting, on which he guides a talented quartet of young musicians through seven of his engaging compositions plus Thelonious Monk's “Reflections" and the well-traveled Rodgers and Hart standard, “Where or When" (sung by Humber College alum Caity Gyorgy). Gyorgy is heard on one other number, “Thinker and a Fool," a bright samba whose cryptic lyric is ...

10
Album Review

Gentiane MG: Walls Made of Glass

Read "Walls Made of Glass" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Montreal-based pianist Gentiane Michaud-Gagnon, aka Gentiane MG, got her start in music with the classical side. It was Bill Evans' Portrait In Jazz (Riverside Records, 1960) that nudged her in the direction of the possibilities that improvisation offered. With this in mind, it seems fitting that the cover art for her third album release--Walls Of Glass--features a photo of a serious-looking artist gazing... where? Inward? Outward? Maybe both at the same time, as it was with Bill Evans on the ...

9
Interview

Quiet Knowing: The Music Of Gentiane MG

Read "Quiet Knowing: The Music Of Gentiane MG" reviewed by Kerilie McDowall


My first impression upon hearing Gentiane MG's work for the first time was that her writing is phenomenally brilliant. She is a standout talent. Michaud-Gagnon's music flows masterfully with poise and grace. She commands the piano with elegance, subtlety, and a refined quiet knowing. Her music and artistry are mysteriously intriguing, with the enchanting deep influences of the great impressionistic French composers like Ravel and Debussy from cultural roots lying deep within Gentiane's sublime approach. Phenomenally arranged sound ...

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"Gentiane’s music is mysteriously intriguing, with the enchanting deep influences of the great impressionistic French composers like Ravel and Debussy from cultural roots lying deep within her sublime approach."             
- Kerilie McDowall / Award-Winning Rythm'n'ing Radio Host

"Through the piano, Gentiane MG transcends emotions and thoughts to plumb the unknown."  —Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen, 2017

"This album, with its many different ways of interpreting it, has such depth and talent that it is undoubtedly a significant testimony of an ever-evolving prodigy."  —Tony Tremblay, Radio-Canada, 2019

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Primary Instrument

Piano

Location

Quebec

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

I teach piano and / or composition in person in Montreal or online. Contact me at [email protected] for more info, it will be a pleasure to talk about music! Best, G.

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Show Yourself

Independent
2023

buy

Walls Made of Glass

Three Pines Records
2022

buy

Recollecting

Inner-Bop Records
2022

buy

Convergence

MCM Records
2020

buy

Wonderland

Effendi
2019

buy

Eternal Cycle

Arté Boréal
2017

buy

The Moon, the Sun, the Truth

From: Walls Made of Glass
By Gentiane MG

Thinker and a Fool

From: Recollecting
By Gentiane MG

Lennie's Changes

From: Recollecting
By Gentiane MG

Videos

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