Christopher Palameta

Oboe and artistic direction

Born in Montreal and currently residing in Paris, oboist Christopher Palameta performs with many of the world's finest period ensembles. These include Il Pomo d'Oro and Accademia Bizantina in Italy; The Gabrieli Consort in the UK; Pygmalion, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Les Siècles, and La Grande Ecurie in France; La Petite Bande and Vox Luminis in Belgium; Die Kölner Akademie in Germany; Capella Cracoviensis in Poland; and various other ensembles such as the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Ensemble Arion (Canada), the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Suomalainen Barokkiorkesteri (the Finnish Baroque Orchestra) and MusicAeterna (Perm, Russia). With these orchestras, he has toured on five continents and recorded over fifty discs for the Sony BMG, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, CPO, BIS, Alpha, Naxos, ATMA, and Analekta labels.

An ardent defender of unexplored repertoire for the oboe, Palameta founded the chamber collective Notturna in 2006 as a platform to excavate forgotten literature for his instrument. His solo discography includes solo suites by Marin Marais (nominated for a Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik or German Record Critics’ Award), sonatas by Janitsch, Krause and Graun for the ATMA and Sony labels, and solo oboe concertos by Molter with Die Kölner Akademie for the ARS label.

Christopher took his graduate degree from McGill University in historical oboes, where he studied with the late Bruce Haynes and the late Washington McClain. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the Royal Academy of Music in London where his research on the oboe under Berlioz is supported by the Maple Leaf Trust (Canadian Centennial Fund). A recipient of several research grants from the Conseil des arts et des letters du Québec, he has been invited to speak at conferences on historical performance practice in Oxford, Vienna and Lyon. He teaches historical oboes at the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki University of Arts).

christopherpalameta.com

Photo credit: Pierre-Etienne Bergeron