Marie-Hélène Breault is renowned as an expressive flutist with a round-yet-sophisticated sound, impeccable technique and unmatched accuracy on the flute, piccolo, alto flute, and bass flute.

As a soloist and chamber musician, she participated to productions by several ensembles, organizations and festivals, including Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, Erreur de type 27, Codes d’accès, Innovations en concert, Centre Montréal arts interculturels, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Le Vivier, Jeunesses musicales Canada, Domaine Forget International Festival and Festival des musiques de création.

Since the beginning of her career, Breault has been distinguishing herself by her remarkable interpretations of major works by 20^th– and 21^st-century composers. Notably, she has performed, from memory, the 33 minutes of the staged version of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Kathinkas Gesang als Luzifers Requiem for flute and electronics on several occasions. She has also performed Pierre Boulez’s Le Marteau sans maître, as well as several works by Edgar Varèse, Tõru Takemitsu, Kaija Saariaho, Claude Vivier, Gilles Tremblay, Denis Gougeon, Ana Sokoloviç, John Rea, Marc Hyland, Yves Daoust, Gilles Mottet, Jacques Hétu, Robert Aitken, and Barbara Assiginaak, to name a few. She has also premiered works by Katia Makdissi-Warren, Taylor Brook, Cléo Palacio-Quintin, Terri Hron, Danielle Palardy-Roger, Marie-Pierre Brasset, Evelin Ramon, Analía Llugdar, Martijn Voorvelt, Andrew Staniland, Emily Hall, Gabriel Evangelista, and René Orea.

Her repertoire also includes several works from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern eras, ranging from Bach and Telemann to Poulenc and Debussy while taking in Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Reinecke, Nielsen, Jolivet, Hindemith, and Prokofiev. For works from certain eras and styles, she may play with a metal or wooden mouthpiece or even use the traverso, a flute instrument she is growing very fond of.

As an ensemble musician, she has been playing with the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec for some twenty years and has also been heard regularly with the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal and in the musicals Mary Poppins (Just for Laughs) and Les Misérables (Capitole de Québec). On a more sporadic basis, she has performed as a member of Bradyworks, Oktoécho, the Drummondville Symphony Orchestra, the Longueuil Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre Nouvelle Génération for a few concerts. She was also involved in several dance, theatre, circus, and movie projects. She has recorded for various Canadian labels, including Collection QB (DAME), Empreintes DIGITALes, Atma, Centredisques, Simone Records and the NFB, and performed at various festivals across Canada and in the United States, France, Germany, England and Mexico. Several projects that were graced with her flute playing have been finalists and winners of the Conseil québécois de la musique’s Opus Award.