A Family Affair Tickets Date Sunday, May 11, 2025 Time 3:00pm Location St. Francis of Assisi, 20 Fairmont Avenue, Ottawa Event Details Musical talent often abounds in families. In A Family Affair the Ottawa Choral Society will offer scintillating pairings of works by husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, fathers and sons. The composers will include works created individually by Gustav and Imogen Holst; Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn; Franz Josef and Michael Haydn; Thomas and Randy Newman; and Lili and Nadia Boulanger. And the works of George and Ira Gershwin as respectively composer and lyricist, and poet Gabriel T. Guillaume with composer son Sydney Guillaume, will round out the program. Featured Artists Christopher Ducasse Assistant Music Director and Conductor Christopher is currently the Artistic Director of Ottawa’s Hypatia’s Voice; Concert Choir Conductor of the Ottawa Children’s Choir; and Conductor of Le Petit Choeur de Rosemère, a community north of Montreal. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Christopher holds a BA in Music from Silver Lake College of the Holy Family in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, where he studied under the mentorship Dr. Jean-Sébastien Vallée, a former artistic director of OCS. Read More Christopher Ducasse Assistant Music Director and Conductor Read More Gabrielle Gaudreault OCS Artistic Director Gabrielle Gaudreault is the Artistic Director of the Ottawa Choral Society and the Saint-Lambert Choral Society. She is also an instructor in the Choral Department at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, where she directs the choral ensembles and supervises the graduate students in choral conducting. A sought-after conductor, pedagogue and collaborative pianist, Dr. Gaudreault has previously served as Assistant Conductor to Maestro Kent Nagano at the Staatsoper Hamburg, Associate Conductor of the National Children’s Chorus in Washington, D.C., Artistic Director of the South Shore Children’s Chorus in Saint-Lambert, QC, Music Director of the St-Augustine’s Church Choir in St-Bruno, QC, and Apprentice Conductor of the National Youth Choir of Canada. In 2020, she co-founded CG Music Academy in Arlington, VA with her husband Chris. Gabrielle completed her Doctorate in Choral Conducting at McGill University in spring 2020 and holds an MA in Music Theory and Choral Conducting from Indiana University. Her research focuses on pedagogical approaches to the choral rehearsal and late-20th-century choral works by Québécois composers. Read More Gabrielle Gaudreault OCS Artistic Director Read More Scott Richardson Piano Scott Richardson is active in the Ottawa area as an accompanist and choir director. Scott grew up in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and studied music at Mount Allison University. He later completed a Ph.D. in English literature at the University of Ottawa. Scott currently conducts Atlantic Voices and Musica Viva Singers, and is the rehearsal pianist for the Ottawa Choral Society. He has also accompanied the Carleton University Choir, the Canadian Centennial Choir and the Ottawa Children’s Choir. As an organist and choir director, Scott has held various positions in the Atlantic Provinces and in Ottawa, and is now Music Director at Orleans United Church. Read More Scott Richardson Piano Read More