Hélène Collerette

Hélène Collerette is a leading violinist, an established orchestral player who has also appeared widely as a soloist across France and in her native North America. Collerette has a substantial discography focusing on 20th century music. Collerette was born in Chicoutimi, in northern Quebec, Canada, in 1968. She studied with Langis Breton at the Conservatoire de Chicoutimi (now the Conservatoire de musique de Saguenay), graduating in 1987. Collerette went on to the Conservatoire de Lausanne in France, where her teacher was Pierre Amoyal, earning a licentiate degree there in 1990, and to the Université de Montréal, studying with Vladimir Landsman and earning a master's degree in 1993. Well before her graduation in Chicoutimi, Collerette had already, in 1983, formed the Trio Nelligan with cellist Annie Gadbois and pianist Sandra Murray. That group lasted until 1988, and in 1995, Collerette became part of another chamber group, the Quatuor Renoir. Collerette served as first violinist and soloist in the Orchestre de Mulhouse in France from 1992 to 1994, and with the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon in 1995 and 1996. In 1996, she became a member of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, where she remained violinist and "super soliste" as of the early 2020s. Collerette has also performed with a variety of other orchestras, including the Violons du Roy in Quebec City, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and the Munich Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared on several Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France recordings as a violin soloist; her recording debut came in 2003 on an album on which the orchestra backed soprano Barbara Hendricks. In 2018, Collerette made her solo recording debut with pianist Anne Le Bozec on an album of violin sonatas by Florent Schmitt, Albert Roussel, and André Prévost on the Signature label, following that up with an album of works by Bartók, Ravel, György Kurtág, and Bruno Coulais in 2021. The following year, she was heard on violist Vinciane Béranger's album Rebecca Clarke: Works for Viola.
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