FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 18th, 2017

An Outstanding Piano Duo to Tickle the East Coast Ivories!

HALIFAX, NS – Duo Fortin-Poirier has been heralded as one of the most promising piano duos of its generation and is heading east to tour with Debut Atlantic from February 4th to February 19th, 2017. Featuring Amélie Fortin and Marie-Christine Poirier, their complementing artistic intuition, explosive playing style, and dynamic performances have been catching the attention of audiences and critics alike. The duo’s enticing program, Vingts doigts et un piano, will feature wonderful music by Liszt, Poulenc, Piazzolla and more. Performed with one piano, two heads, fours hands….and thousands of notes, you will no doubt be fascinated by the intensity, skill and remarkable complexity of these two artists!

Duo Fortin-Poirier will kick off its tour on Saturday February 4th in Mahone Bay, NS performing for Musique Royale. They then head to Corner Brook, NL to perform for the Rotary Arts Centre on Monday, February 6th. On Wednesday, February 8th the duo is back in Halifax, NS performing at The Music Room and on Friday, February 10th will appear in Dartmouth, NS for the Dartmouth Community Concert Association. On Saturday, February 11th the artists perform in Antigonish, NS for the Antigonish Performing Arts Series, and on Sunday will give a matinée performing in Amherst, NS for Music at Trinity. The duo will then spend time in New Brunswick performing for UNB’s Music on the Hill on Wednesday, February 15th and then for the Moncton Community Concert Association on Friday February 17th. The duo will finish their tour in Wolfville, NS with afternoon concert for Sunday Music in the Garden Room.

In addition to concert engagements, the duo will be working with young students and performing at schools throughout the region. The artists will also participate in a videoconference session hosted by Newfoundland’s Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation (CDLI) which reaches hundreds of students throughout Newfoundland and Labrador and will be available for public viewing around the globe. This session will take place on Friday, February 10th, 2017 at 11:30am AST / 12:00pm NL.

The CDLI session can be viewed live at: http://www.cdli.ca/backstage

Please see the enclosed list of tour dates and artist biography and come be dazzled by this dynamic duo at one of these exciting destinations on their Atlantic Canadian tour.
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One of the most respected music touring organizations in the country, Debut Atlantic’s first season in 1979 featured then-emerging and still-unknown artists, pianist Jon Kimura Parker, tenor Ben Heppner, and Canada’s Baroque orchestra Tafelmusik.

Full details on Debut Atlantic’s concert seasons and education programs can be found at www.debutatlantic.ca

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For further information, please contact:

Mhiran Faraday – Executive Director or
Erin Sparks – Program Officer
Debut Atlantic
902.429.6812
mdfaraday@debutatlantic.ca
erin@debutatlantic.ca

Tour Schedule – Duo Fortin-Poirier

Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia
11:00am, February 4th, 2017
Musique Royale
Cecilia`s Retreat
1199 Oakland Road
barbara.butler@ns.sympatic.ca
musiqueroyale.com

Corner Brook, Newfoundland
8:00pm, February 6th, 2017
Rotary Arts Centre
Lower level City Hall
709-630-0012
rotaryartscentre.yapsody.com

Halifax, Nova Scotia
7:00pm, February 8th, 2017
The Music Room Chamber Players Series
The Music Room
6181 Lady Hammond Road
902-429-9467
themusicroom.ca

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
7:30pm, February 10th, 2017
Dartmouth Community Concert Association
Woodlawn United Church
54 Woodlawn Road
info@dartmouthcommunityconcert.ca
dartmouthcommunityconcert.ca

Antigonish, Nova Scotia
8:00pm, February 11th, 2017
Antigonish Performing Arts Series
Immaculata Hall, St. FX University
902-867-3909
people.stfx.ca/msteinit/schedule.htm

Amherst, Nova Scotia
3:00pm, February 12th, 2017
Music at Trinity
Trinity St.-Stephen’s United Church
1 Ratchford Street
902-667-8483
tssuc.com/music-at-trinity

Fredericton, New Brunswick
7:30pm, February 15th, 2017
UNB Music on the Hill
Memorial Hall, UNB Fredericton
9 Bailey Drive
506-453-4697
www.unb.ca/cel/music

Moncton, New Brunswick
7:30pm, February 17th, 2017
Moncton Community Concert Association
First Church of the Nazarene
21 Fieldcrest Drive
506-852-4491
monctonconcerts.googlepages.com

Wolfville, Nova Scotia
2:00pm, February 19th, 2017
Sunday Music in the Garden Room
K.C. Irving Environmental Science Centre, Garden Room
32 University Avenue
http://artsacadia.acadiau.ca/Sunday_Music_in_the_Garden_Room.html

BIOGRAPHY
Duo Fortin-Poirier

Duo Fortin-Poirier, featuring pianists Amélie Fortin and Marie-Christine Poirier, has been heralded as one of the most promising piano duos of its generation. Both graduates of the Université de Montréal (Master and D.E.S.S.) under the direction of Jean-Eudes Vaillancourt and Paul Stewart, the two pianists won several awards and grants individually before making their debut as duettists in 2005. It was not long after that the natural connection between these two artists would lead them to become an extraordinarily powerful ensemble. Their complementing artistic intuition, explosive playing style and dynamic performances have been catching the attention of audiences and critics alike.

Since its creation, the Duo Fortin-Poirier has given many concerts in Canada as well as abroad. The two pianists have been awarded grants from the Office Franco-Québécois pour la Jeunesse (2005), the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec (2009-2010), the Canada Council for the Arts (2011-2013), and have won numerous prizes including First Prize at the Concours de Musique Clermont-Pépin, the Festival de Musique du Royaume as well as the Canada Music Competition.

At the international level, they were finalists in the Concours International de Piano à 4 mains de Valberg (France, 2009) and in the Liszt 200 Chicago International Piano Duos Competition (U.S., 2011). Their brilliant interpretation of John Corigliano’s Gazebo Dances also awarded them a special mention from the jury at the prestigious Concours Grieg – International Piano Competition in Oslo (Norway, 2010). Recently, they won the 2nd price at the Roma International Piano Competition (Italy, 2013).

Very active on the Canadian scene, Amélie Fortin and Marie-Christine Poirier created the Vingts doigts et un piano concert in 2008 and they have since performed it in every corner of Quebec. It was actually the first classical concert selected to take part in the Entrées en Scène Loto-Québec for the 2013-2014 season. Other highlights include a recent appearance at the prestigious Lanaudière Festival in the summer of 2015. In addition, Duo Fortin-Poirier was selected by both Debut Atlantic and Prairie Debut to tour in the 2016.17 season and will tour on the west coast of the United States in April of 2017.

The duo’s first CD, Vingt doigts et un piano, was released at the end of November 2013, and can be heard on Ici Radio-Canada Première, Espace Musique and Radio Classique Montreal and Quebec.