December 11, 2025
ELECTROCHOC No 2
Instrumental Synthesis
Evening with Nicolas Bernier, Myriam Boucher, Mélanie Bourassa & David Caulet
Conference 7:30pm / Concert 8pm
4750, Av. Henri-Julien
Get your tickets
For this carte blanche to Nicolas Bernier, the artist invites you to spend an evening in the company of his fantastic guests: Mélanie Bourassa on bass clarinet, Myriam Boucher on audiovisual cocreation, and David Caulet on saxophone. Common to all three duos will be Bernier's modular synthesis.
In recent years, after a decade devoted primarily to audiovisual projects, Bernier has refocused his practice on instrumental performance. Largely improvised (or “comprovised”), the music of the three duos is sure to fill the Conservatory's multimedia room with distinctive sounds.
Program
1 • Super scintillant (25 minutes)
Music infused with a certain mysticism. World premiere.
Mélanie Bourassa : bass clarinet
Nicolas Bernier : modular synthesizer
2 • Les corps flottants (10 minutes)
To handle heavy objects as if they could float in the sky. World premiere.
Nicolas Bernier & Myriam Boucher : visuals and modular synthesizer
3 • Melt mauve (around 25 minutes)
Free jazz reminiscences melting into a melancholic syrup of crackling textures and velvety fries.
David Caulet : soprano saxophone
Nicolas Bernier : modular synthesizer
NICOLAS BERNIER
Nicolas Bernier is a professor of composition and sonic arts at the Faculty of Music of University of Montreal. With more than twenty awards from prestigious competitions in both music and contemporary arts, his work frequencies (a) won a Golden Nica in 2013 from Ars Electronica, one of the most important awards in the field of digital arts. In 2019, he published the book Sur le diapason with Presses du réel, which concludes the frequencies cycle of works. That same year, his audiovisual work entitled structures infinies was nominated and exhibited in London as part of the Aesthetica Art Prize. From May 2025 to September 2026, his flagship work, the installation frequencies (light quanta), is on display at the ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien in Germany. A copy of this same work is also part of the permanent collection of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ).
For more than two decades, his work in sound performances and installations has been presented around the world in institutions such as Ars Electronica (Austria), Sónar (Spain), Mutek (Canada), DotMov Festival (Japan), L.E.V (Spain), ZKM (Germany), and Transmediale (Germany).
MYRIAM BOUCHER
Sound and visual composer Myriam Boucher is a professor and researcher at the University of Montreal. Her sensitive and multifaceted work explores the intimate relationship between music, sound, and image through audiovisual performance, VJing, ensemble music, and in situ projects. Her research and creative activities integrate composition, improvisation, deep listening, sound ecology, and immersion. Her research focuses on the perception of audiovisual works and multidisciplinary concerts combining sound, music, image, and musicians, with the perspective that art can transform reality and generate new forms of sensitive representations.
MÉLANIE BOURRASSA
Mélanie earned a Prize with High Distinction from the Conservatoire de musique de Québec, a doctorate in performance, and furthered her studies in Europe and Chicago. Mélanie teaches at Laval University and Cégep de Ste-Foy, and is a Buffet-Crampon and Silverstein artist. She performs regularly with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, the Orchestre Métropolitain, among others, and throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe.
She is a scholarship recipient from the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec, Domaine Forget, and the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). She won first place in the Canadian Music Competition in chamber music and an Opus Award in 2015. She has served on several juries, including the CALQ and the Canadian Music Competition. Mélanie founded the Canadian Bass Clarinet Association and directs the Canadian Center of Excellence for Bass Clarinet.
DAVID CAULET
He trained as a saxophonist, and his artistic journey
has led him to explore several musical cultures. Ska, punk, salsa, and funk in the 1990s, then jazz, improvised music, and electronic music at the turn of the 2000s. Strongly guided by improvisation, his creative work is influenced by these various trends and navigates around this musical crossroads. Through several projects, he has collaborated and recorded with various musicians such as J.F. Oliver, O. Lété, C. Lété, D. Fournier, R. Bottlang, R. Charmasson, G. Pansanel, and others.
Now based in Montreal, he is pursuing a PhD in Composition and Sound Creation at the University of Montreal and, in recent years, has devoted himself almost exclusively to electronic music and composition.
In recent years, after a decade devoted primarily to audiovisual projects, Bernier has refocused his practice on instrumental performance. Largely improvised (or “comprovised”), the music of the three duos is sure to fill the Conservatory's multimedia room with distinctive sounds.
Program
1 • Super scintillant (25 minutes)
Music infused with a certain mysticism. World premiere.
Mélanie Bourassa : bass clarinet
Nicolas Bernier : modular synthesizer
2 • Les corps flottants (10 minutes)
To handle heavy objects as if they could float in the sky. World premiere.
Nicolas Bernier & Myriam Boucher : visuals and modular synthesizer
3 • Melt mauve (around 25 minutes)
Free jazz reminiscences melting into a melancholic syrup of crackling textures and velvety fries.
David Caulet : soprano saxophone
Nicolas Bernier : modular synthesizer
NICOLAS BERNIER
Nicolas Bernier is a professor of composition and sonic arts at the Faculty of Music of University of Montreal. With more than twenty awards from prestigious competitions in both music and contemporary arts, his work frequencies (a) won a Golden Nica in 2013 from Ars Electronica, one of the most important awards in the field of digital arts. In 2019, he published the book Sur le diapason with Presses du réel, which concludes the frequencies cycle of works. That same year, his audiovisual work entitled structures infinies was nominated and exhibited in London as part of the Aesthetica Art Prize. From May 2025 to September 2026, his flagship work, the installation frequencies (light quanta), is on display at the ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien in Germany. A copy of this same work is also part of the permanent collection of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ).
For more than two decades, his work in sound performances and installations has been presented around the world in institutions such as Ars Electronica (Austria), Sónar (Spain), Mutek (Canada), DotMov Festival (Japan), L.E.V (Spain), ZKM (Germany), and Transmediale (Germany).
MYRIAM BOUCHER
Sound and visual composer Myriam Boucher is a professor and researcher at the University of Montreal. Her sensitive and multifaceted work explores the intimate relationship between music, sound, and image through audiovisual performance, VJing, ensemble music, and in situ projects. Her research and creative activities integrate composition, improvisation, deep listening, sound ecology, and immersion. Her research focuses on the perception of audiovisual works and multidisciplinary concerts combining sound, music, image, and musicians, with the perspective that art can transform reality and generate new forms of sensitive representations.
MÉLANIE BOURRASSA
Mélanie earned a Prize with High Distinction from the Conservatoire de musique de Québec, a doctorate in performance, and furthered her studies in Europe and Chicago. Mélanie teaches at Laval University and Cégep de Ste-Foy, and is a Buffet-Crampon and Silverstein artist. She performs regularly with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, the Orchestre Métropolitain, among others, and throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe.
She is a scholarship recipient from the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec, Domaine Forget, and the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). She won first place in the Canadian Music Competition in chamber music and an Opus Award in 2015. She has served on several juries, including the CALQ and the Canadian Music Competition. Mélanie founded the Canadian Bass Clarinet Association and directs the Canadian Center of Excellence for Bass Clarinet.
DAVID CAULET
He trained as a saxophonist, and his artistic journey
has led him to explore several musical cultures. Ska, punk, salsa, and funk in the 1990s, then jazz, improvised music, and electronic music at the turn of the 2000s. Strongly guided by improvisation, his creative work is influenced by these various trends and navigates around this musical crossroads. Through several projects, he has collaborated and recorded with various musicians such as J.F. Oliver, O. Lété, C. Lété, D. Fournier, R. Bottlang, R. Charmasson, G. Pansanel, and others.
Now based in Montreal, he is pursuing a PhD in Composition and Sound Creation at the University of Montreal and, in recent years, has devoted himself almost exclusively to electronic music and composition.
Nicolas Bernier
Credit : Isabelle Gardner