Lise Beauchamp Listening Zone

The coup de coeur of Lise Beauchamp

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4

My first encounter with the work…
I first discovered this piece in secondary 4 or 5. My big brother Benoît (six years older than me) had a very nice collection of vinyl LPs. He introduced me to all kinds of music, not just classical but also pop (Harmonium, Supertramp), jazz (Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck) and more. He had wide-ranging tastes and shared his discoveries with his little sister. Every time I hear or play Mahler’s 4th, I become 16-17 again, bubbling with enthusiasm for life and music!

My favourite passage
The very beginning of the symphony. It’s soft, mysterious… and then the violins play the theme and you’re transported into a magical world of incredible beauty.

My favourite recording
The recording my brother had was conducted by Rafael Kubelik on Deutsche Grammophon. Buy you can watch this performance with Claudio Abbado at the Lucerne Festival.

Principal oboe with the Orchestre Métropolitain and the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, Lise Beauchamp is considered one of the top oboists in Canada. Her sensitive and expressive playing is regularly praised by critics. She was also principal oboe of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra in 1988.

Lise Beauchamp studied at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal under Bernard Jean. After obtaining her university degree and first prizes in oboe and chamber music in 1985, she trained with Elaine Douvas at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where she completed her master’s studies in 1990.

An enthusiastic educator, she has taught at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal for more than 20 years. She also taught at the Faculty of Music of the Université de Montréal from 1995 to 2016. Since 2015, she has been a guest instructor at the Domaine Forget International Music and Dance Academy.