Nicolas Ellis opens Lanaudière festival with Orchestre de l'Agora's ambitious staging of Stravinsky

Nicolas Ellis, musical director of the Orchestre national de Bretagne, opens the Festival de Lanaudière on Saturday night for the second time, conducting his Orchestre de l'Agora in a new staging of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps as part of the Gala de la terre.

The 34-year-old Quebec conductor will approach the work with fresh perspective this time. In 2013, Ellis directed the Orchestre de l'Agora—then a fully volunteer student ensemble of 100—in their first-ever Sacre, a performance he recalls as audacious. "We knew it was completely disproportionate. Maybe we'd fail, but we'd live something incredible," Ellis said. That 2013 performance remains indelible for him; Saturday's concert will bring maturity and scale.

For Ellis, the Agora symbolizes "coming home." He has watched the ensemble evolve from a student project into a professional orchestra, and each Agora project serves as "a personal laboratory" where he experiments with repertoire and the concert experience itself. "I'm constantly trying to rethink how we present classical music," he said.

Meanwhile, Ellis's three-year tenure as musical director in Brittany—which begins its first fully self-directed season in September—has opened European doors. His appointment coincided with signing with the Askonas Holt agency, generating invitations across France and Europe. He has recently conducted the orchestras of Bordeaux, Hamburg, Norwegian radio, Polish radio, and Tampere in Finland. He returns to Sydney Opera and makes his debuts with the San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl. His American citizenship has also aided U.S. opportunities. His wife joins him in Rennes in November as he tests a full year abroad.