Dominique Bellon is an oboist, professor and specialist in performance psychology who divides her time between Saint-Donat-de-Montcalm, Montreal and Richmond, Kentucky. Her love for collaborating with musicians from everywhere has led her to perform regularly in the US, Mexico, and Canada. She co-directs and performs in Bach to Now, a chamber music concert series in Lexington KY that focuses on music for voice and instruments from the Baroque period to the present. In 2023, she performed several concerts in Guanajuato, Mexico, including performances with Ensamble Pegasus and Confluencias musicales. In 2021, her trio, Favonian Winds, was a finalist for the American Prize in Chamber Music. She is a member of the Lexington Chamber Orchestra and has held positions with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the Orquesta sinfonica de Guanajuato. Ms. Bellon also plays in several musical ensembles in Quebec.

Dominique Bellon’s love of Saint-Donat and her desire to encourage the development of a musical community in the region led her to create MusiNature Saint-Donat. She also wanted to share the skills she has developed over the years. Dominique has been a professor at Eastern Kentucky University for the last ten years, but since the pandemic she has been teaching entirely online. Her current appointment involves coordinating courses in music history and literature that are designed mainly as enrichment courses for the university's general education curriculum. Dominique has also taught at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory in Toronto and at the University of Ottawa. Her doctoral research on the application sports psychology to music performance has led her to give lectures on this subject at several Canadian and American universities as well as for professional organizations. She holds a doctorate in performance (oboe) from Arizona State University, a master's degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory, and a bachelor's degree with honours in composition from McGill University.

Lorraine Gariépy is well known in the choral world both as a conductor and as an accompanist. She has worked with more than twenty choirs. She was also the recipient of the Gilles-Breton Prize in 2018 in recognition of her unconditional support for the Quebec choral world." She obtained her bachelor's degree in piano performance (G. Manny), and her master's degree in vocal accompaniment (L.-A. Baril) from the University of Montreal. She then received her master's degree in choral conducting at the University of Sherbrooke (N.Paiement). For more than 25 years, Lorraine has collaborated with more than twenty choirs as a pianist or conductor, including: Musikus Vivace, Grand Chœur de Montréal, Chœur de La Prairie, Continuo, les Petits Chanteurs de Laval and les Voix Boréales (concerts and tours and also for choral conducting classes at the University of Sherbrooke (10 years). From 2008 to 2010, she was a guest pianist and conductor in Toulouse (Eurochorus) where she conducted Rachmaninoff's Vespers and Mendelssohn's Elijah. She conducted the Chœur classique des Basses-Laurentides from 2013 to 2019. She has directed the Chorale Chantevoix du CHUM since 2005 and since September 2014, she has directed the Chorale Les Myosotis and Midissimo. In 2015-2016, she was a lecturer for the University of Sherbrooke, teaching conducting and rehearsal technique. Since last September, she has directed the Musikus Vivace! Choral Group of Holy Saviour.

Thomas Couvillon is a composer and university professor from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His Acadian last name is a transformation of “Quévillon” As a composer, Thomas Couvillon likes to work collaboratively with performers. Whether in the United States, Mexico or Quebec, many of his works are written for particular performers or ensembles. He also specializes in the composition of chamber music works. Thomas has composed works for large ensemble. Recently, his piece Rivers, Mountains, Dreams, commissioned by the Eastern Kentucky University band, was performed at the Peabody Conservatory (Baltimore).

In the past two years, Thomas has had commissioned works performed at the American String Teachers Association conference (Louisville, Kentucky), the International Double Reed Society conference (Boulder, Colorado), and two chamber music concerts “Confluencias Musicales” in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Thomas is currently Professor of Theory and Composition at Eastern Kentucky University. His deep attachment to Quebec leads him to spend several months a year in Saint-Donat. His compositions are often influenced by the natural beauty of the region. One of his recent pieces, “Rivière du Diable,” commissioned by the Lexington Chamber Orchestra, is inspired by the course of the Diable River which has its source in an isolated and inaccessible lake north of Mont Tremblant Park.

Thomas is excited to participate in the creation of MusiNature Saint-Donat and to teach there this summer. He is also looking forward to contributing to the 150th anniversary of Saint-Donat by composing a piece for his orchestra which will be performed next August.

Paul Frehner is a composer, guitarist, and pianist. He began his musical career playing guitar in progressive rock and folk bands in the Montreal area. He then studied classical guitar, followed by piano and composition at McGill University, where he earned a PhD in composition in 2004. Throughout his career, he has maintained his passion for the guitar, both in performance and by incorporating the electric guitar into many of his compositions. He is proficient in several musical styles and plays both acoustic and electric guitar. He owns several different guitars, which he enjoys blending to create the desired sound and style.

Frehner's musical compositions have been commissioned and performed by numerous renowned orchestras and ensembles, including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, the New Juilliard Ensemble, Soundstreams, Almeida Opera and Aldeburgh Productions, Continuum New York, the Stuttgart Chamber Choir, and the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal.

Paul Frehner is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Music at Western University, where he teaches composition and electroacoustic music.

Concertmaster of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Québec and a member of the Drummondville, Laval, and Trois-Rivières Symphony Orchestras, Caroline Chehadé is a sought-after professional violinist. She plays with several other ensembles, including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, I Musici de Montréal, the Orchestre Métropolitain, and as a chamber musician with Quatrouvailles. She has won several competitions, including the Prix d'Europe and several editions of the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank Competition. As a result, she was awarded the use of the Windsor-Weinstein Stradivarius violin for a period of three years. Caroline completed her studies at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, unanimously winning the Prix avec Grande Distinction. She then perfected her art in New York, at the Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College. Originally from Montreal, she enjoys playing chamber music and teaching.