This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
Français (French)
Mécénat Musica 5NextGen program has invited founders/artistic/executive directors between the ages of 25 and 39 from Orchestre Agora, ArtCrush, Musique 3 Femmes, HausMusique, and Orchestre Philharmonique & Choeur des Mélomanes (OPCM) to become Ambassadors-in-Residence, working to create an initial $1 million endowment fund in perpetuity for each of their organizations.
As cellist and HausMusique Co-Artistic Director Cameron Crozman describes:
“Since its inception, the [Mécénat Musica] program has offered an unprecedented opportunity for Quebec-based organizations to encourage their community of visionary donors to support the creation of endowment funds … It starts with education: informing donors that there exists in Quebec a special additional tax credit for a “large cultural donation” usable only once in a lifetime—an additional 25 per cent, bringing the total tax credit for this kind of donation to nearly 75 per cent. To qualify for the matching program, an organization like HausMusique must ask individuals for donations of $25,000. It’s a large amount, but with this tax credit the actual cost comes to as low as $5,425. Then the matching kicks in: philanthropic families match these individual donations and then it’s further matched by the Quebec government, multiplying the impact of the original donation and creating a significant amount of capital.”
Through the support of an endowment fund, Mécénat Musica offers artistic organizations the opportunity “to help shape the future of classical music,” through the creation of a “long-term strategic vision,” with “a path to long-term security for the arts, independent of the fluctuations and reductions in public funding,” says conductor Francis Choinière, the OPCM’s co-founder and artistic director. The program also offers, according to tenor and OPCM Executive Director Sam Champagne, “the possibility to have access to the largest circle of cultural donors in Quebec.”
5NextGen Organizations
Orchestre Agora
Orchestre Agora “uses music as a tool for sustainable social change while presenting innovative and daring concerts,” according to Executive Director Jean-Frédéric Caron. The ensemble, conducted by Nicholas Ellis, was founded in 2013. Their biennial Gala de la Terre raises money for environmental and humanitarian causes. The orchestra offers concert-workshops with the Montreal Detention Centre, music lessons and mentorship with Musique à l’Unisson, and music programs with the Espace Transition project of Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine. According to Caron, the orchestra strives for its musicians to “combine musical excellence with positive concrete impact … building a future where music plays an essential role in social transformation.” Upcoming concerts include a collaboration with 9e Musique@17h and HausMusique at Montreal’s Art Deco Le 9e Grande Salle dedicated to Beethoven (Nov. 4), the work of singer-songwriter Émile Proulx-Cloutier (Nov. 14), and Mozart and his Muses with Les Violons du Roy and soprano Sarah Dufresne (Feb.12 & 14).
Find Orchestre Agora at www.orchestreagora.com.
ART CRUSH | ENSEMBL’ARTS
According to visual artist Avery Zhao, its artistic director and founder, “ART CRUSH | Ensembl’arts is Quebec and Canada’s first cultural organization dedicated to uniting music, dance, and visual arts in performance. Our mission is to create transformative artistic experiences through three key areas: performance, research and creation, and community engagement.” The ensemble was founded in 2013, and offers a concert series that seeks to connect instrumental music, live visual arts, and dance. They have held cultural mediation projects with Centre du jour St-James and Pavilion Lise Watier, including workshops on self-perception, reaffirmation, resilience, and engagement for people from vulnerable communities. ART CRUSH has a multi-year mentorship project with the Nova Scotia Talent Trust. In 2026, ART CRUSH will deepen its collaborations in Quebec, Nova Scotia and Ontario, and in 2027, will undertake new multidisciplinary projects across Europe – starting in Vienna and the Netherlands.
Find ART CRUSH | Ensembl’arts at www.artcrushshow.com.
Musique 3 Femmes
As described by Artistic and General Director Kristin Hoff, “Musique 3 Femmes is a contemporary opera company dedicated to amplifying the work of female and non-binary creators in opera. We commission, develop, and produce new works, with a focus on nurturing emerging composers and librettists. Our goal is to help … [tell]stories voiced by artists who have not yet been heard on operatic stages, in alignment with our deeper commitment to equity and representation.” Founded in 2018, Musique 3 Femmes works with universities across Canada to facilitate creation workshops, and in 2023, awarded $50,000 in their third Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes. To date, 11 new contemporary Canadian operas have been created by Musique3Femmes. In February of this year, Musique3Femmes held an opera creation forum in collaboration with Opéra de Montréal and March, they presented Nanatasis-Opéra en trois légends by Alejandra Odgers and Nicole O’Bomsawin, as well as Love Songs by Ana Sokolović.
Find Musique 3 Femmes at www.musique3femmes.com.
Photo: Antoine Saito
HausMusique
HausMusique is a series of chamber music concerts hosted in the Grand Salle Le 9e in Montreal’s Eaton Centre. Inspired by 19th-century German hausmusik, the group aims to deliver a living room concert, “up-close-and-personal” energy, says co-artistic director and pianist Meagan Milatz. Alongside cellist Cameron Crozman, Milatz aims to “bring people into the world of the music they are hearing,” with audience and musician socialization after each performance. HausMusique was originally called Concerts Noncerto, founded by composer and recorder player Matthias Maute in 2016, and taken over by Milatz and Crozman in 2021. This season, in addition to their Nov. 4 Beethoven concert with Orchestre Agora, HausMusique will host pianist Ilya Polataev and flutist Ariane Brisson in a Greek myth-inspired program (Jan. 6), clarinetist James Campbell for Brahms and Beethoven trios (April 7), and violinist Andrew Wan playing Ravel and Debussy (June 2).
Find HausMusique at www.hausmusique.com.
Orchestre Philharmonique & Choeur des Mélomanes
Orchestre Philharmonique & Choeur des Mélomanes (OPCM), co-founded by conductor and Artistic Director Francis Choinière in 2016, seeks to “inspire a new generation of mélomanes (music lovers) to present large-scale symphonic and vocal works,” says Executive Director Sam Champagne. OPCM also presents master classes, workshops, and offers scholarships. Their 80-member choir has performed with artists such as Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, and Hans Zimmer. This season, OPCM will perform Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Orff’s Carmina Burana with soprano Aline Kutan, tenor Spencer Britten and baritone Hugo Laporte (Nov. 7), Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Respighi’s The Pines of Rome (March 1), and Turandot in concert with singers Aviva Fortunata, Andrew Haji, Colin Ramsey, John MacMaster, Sydney Baedke, Mikelis Rogers, Sam Champagne, Spencer Britten, and Matthew Li (May 9 & 10).
Find Orchestre Philharmonique & Choeur des Mélomanes at www.opcmelomanes.ca.
5NextGen Impact
Before their partnerships with Mécénat Musica, these 5NextGen institutions were at different levels in their development. Mécénat Musica’s endowment model provided the means for HausMusique’s operations from the very start. For ART CRUSH, “before joining Mécénat Musica we had no endowment strategy at all—it simply wasn’t on our radar. We were focused on the short term, finding funding project by project. …We shifted to communicating a long-term vision for financial sustainability,” says founder Avery Zhao. Similarly, Orchestre Agora did not previously have endowment funds, but have now made changes in their governance, operations and internal processes. Additionally, Musique 3 Femmes only became a nonprofit after partnering with Mécénat Musica, and registered as a charitable organization three years into their collaboration.
All of the organizations have surpassed their goals of $1,000,000 in endowment funds, with both Musique 3 Femmes and OPCM reaching $1,500,000, while Orchestre Agora’s fund has a market value of $2,500,000. As Kristin Hoff, Sam Champagne, Jean-Frédéric Caron, and Zhao concur, the endowment fund offers long-term stability, and allows artistic risk-taking. “This stability empowers leadership to focus on vision rather than survival, creating the conditions for enduring growth and innovation in the arts,” says Hoff. “Mécénat Musica has permitted us to sharpen our philanthropic reflexes,” adds Caron. “For the community, Mécénat Musica has strengthened the cultural and artistic ecosystem of Montreal, Quebec, and Canada as a whole. It has provided artists with financial tools and knowledge that would never have been within our frame of reference otherwise. It is a bold and forward-thinking initiative that has helped safeguard the livelihoods of countless artists, with ripple effects that will be felt for generations,” says Zhao.
Many of the 5NextGen ambassadors cite building donor relationships as a key highlight of the Mécénat Musica program. “As a 5NextGen artist with Mécénat Musica, I was quickly brought into the fold of donor families that were inside the Mécénat Musica circles,” says Hoff. “Through Mécénat Musica’s support, I was able to attend many functions, concerts, and galas that allowed me to meet people with relatively large amounts at the ready to support culture in Quebec. These are all wonderful people who I enjoy spending time with. As the relationships have grown, their support of me and Musique 3 Femmes has been steadfast and deeply appreciated. I didn’t know it could work this way before the partnership with Mécénat Musica. It is very meaningful and impactful.” Similarly, Meagan Milatz says, “One of the most beautiful consequences that I have experienced has been the opportunity to develop deep relationships with our individual donors, who get to know our HausMusique projects intimately and know that they are contributing in a hugely impactful way…forever. For me, these relationships are the most rewarding part about a life in the arts.”
In addition to institutional growth, Mécénat Musica’s 5NextGen program has allowed for personal artistic growth, as leaders and as donors. Hoff describes the experience as “transformative,” saying, “Through this initiative, I’ve gained access to a wealth of expertise … resources that have been instrumental in … strengthening the company’s infrastructure.” Zhao also highlights the ability “to open the circle wider by inviting first-generation immigrants and a broad range of artists into the program as donors themselves, many of whom had never imagined themselves in a major donor role. Many of these first-time donors discovered that philanthropy is not reserved for ‘someone else,’ but is something they, too, can embrace and integrate into their legacy.” Milatz adds that, “In making use of this additional tax credit for a large donation specifically to support culture, this essentially means that a person has more ‘say’ as to where their tax money is going!”
This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
Français (French)
