In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Maxine Thévenot Biography

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Living in: United States
The versatile, engaging, and spirited Canadian-American conductor and educator Maxine Thevenot is driven by a passion for vocal music in all its forms and styles. Equally at home with repertoire from the classical canon and more contemporary compositions,

Thevenot's direction invariably shapes the music with illuminating and often profound effect, sculpting each phrase with intelligence and understanding. - Albuquerque Journal

A frequent champion of the music of our own time, she has conducted regional, national, and world premieres of works including those by Judith Bingham, Abbie Bettinis, Jake Runestad, Ola Gjeilo, Judith Weir, Cecilia McDowall, Arvo Part, Tarik O' Regan, James MacMillan, Joby Talbot, Philip Moore, Andrew Carter, Stephanie Martin, Andrew Ager, Falko Steinbach, Levi Brown, Sarah Quartel, Jenny Olivia Johnson, Zachary Wadsworth and Gabriel Jackson.

Thevenot is acknowledged as one who brings singers of all ages and abilities to artful performance through an understanding of the music and its context in the world around them. Her passionate artistry, combined with a pioneering desire to educate, unites music, art, and community and has led to her resurrecting and mounting large-scale choral works, including Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium, and creating the intergenerational, 45-minute performance project, A Children's Messiah by G. F. Handel.

Through her work with so many wonderfully imaginative and creative children, adults, and professional musicians, Maxine has demonstrated that the power of music combined with the goals of education, highlighting the values of diversity and social responsibility, can build up our society. One particular such event raised over $10,000 in a benefit concert for local charity Barrett House.

Dr. Thevenot frequently collaborates with New Mexico's finest orchestras offering moving and dynamic interpretations of standard large-scale choral repertoire. She has prepared choirs for the New Mexico Philharmonic (Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, Beethoven Ninth Symphony, Holiday Pops); Performance Santa Fe (Beethoven Ninth Symphony); The Figueroa Project (Bach Magnificat); and Santa Fe Pro Musica (Haydn Creation, Mozart's Requiem in d minor), for conductors Dante Anzolini, Grant Cooper, Joe Illick, Guillermo Figueroa, and Thomas O'Connor.