Formed in 2003, the Quatuor Despax a group of four siblings, Cendrine, Jean, Maxime and Valérie Despax are all avid classical music performers born and raised in Gatineau.
Born into a musically-oriented family, all four siblings fell in love with music and played music from young age. Both their parents are musicians. Their father, who passed . . .
away a few years ago, played the guitar and was a composer and a conductor. “Our dad was the main one who pushed us to play music,” said Maxime. Their mother is a pianist, and still is but doesn’t play as much. She also teaches music lessons at an elementary school in Gatineau.
Although they love playing and experimenting with different genres, the band has always gravitated towards classical music, and they enjoy sharing their love for it and changing people’s minds about classical music for people who might not have thought they liked the genre, said Cendrine.
They pull inspiration from their mentors and other performers who they enjoy watching. One they mentioned was the Dover Quartet. “As classical musicians what we love to do is, when you hear other people play, and they play so well you want to match their playing,” said Maxime.
Throughout their careers, they have performed in many festivals in Ontario and Quebec such as the Westben Festival near Toronto, Chamberfest City Series in Ottawa, and Les Concerts Ponticello in Gatineau. They are also internationally known and have played venues in Italy, France and Colombia and varied from playing packed halls to hearing hundreds of spectators, to more intimate shows.
Their debut at Café Downtown was on Thursday, Nov. 18. They said playing in smaller venues feels like going back in time to the ways music used to be listened to in the salon. They personally enjoy it because it’s more “intimate” said Valérie. They met Remi Bertrand, owner of the café after one of their performances. After posting photos from a concert in Ottawa, a series called Candlelight Concerts, Bertrand reached out to the ensemble on their Facebook page and asked if they would come and perform at his café.
The Gatineau based quartet played in Fort Coulonge for an audience of about 20 people. They played a range of genres that kept the audience engaged and unable to peel their eyes off the performers. There were moments when the audience almost held their breath as the music would slow down and then speed up again taking people on a journey with them.
In the summer of 2006, they won the Concerts aux Îles du Bic competition and from 2011 to 2013 they were in residence at Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church in Montreal.
Being musicians, they all feel a need to improve and hone their craft. Maxime said “progress never stops and you are in a constant state of learning.”
“That’s why for us being musicians is one of the best jobs in the world because it feels like more than a job. It feels like a way of life,” he said.
Maxime is currently living in Toronto and working towards his Ph.D. at University of Toronto in music and aspires to teach music once he graduates. “I want to become a professor because I love teaching; I love passing down knowledge,” he said.
Jean, a father of two, currently composes music and hopes to take his talents to the big screen and compose for movies and video games. He also aspires to compose electronic dance music and while he sees himself continuing to play his violin, producing music is his passion.
As a father he hopes he can encourage his kids to play music, “it’s not that I will force them; I will just make sure that they follow a good path,” said Jean.
As for Cendrine, she hopes to be able to continue to play in orchestras, as a freelancer and with her siblings. But she also wants to create a space to bring more classical musicians from all over, “to show the people that you don’t need to go out to find quality of music,” she said.
Valérie hopes to continue to travel and play music because every chance she gets is an opportunity to become better. “There is always something to learn,” she said.
The siblings all agree, following in their parents’ footsteps and becoming musicians, makes their parents happy “because it’s our own choice” said Cendrine, he emphasized that they got into music willingly out of love for it.
When asked to recall a moment they knew they wanted to play as a quartet, ironically it started with a fight and deciding they were not going to play together. But that was short-lived because Maxim said, “within the hour we all came back together saying like we can’t fathom the fact of not playing together. It’s part of our identity.” He continued and said the idea of not playing together was what solidified their decision, and from then on they were sure they had to stay as a band.
They all echoed the sentiment that one of their favourite things to do was play together. When asked why, Jean looked at the table with his brother and sisters he said, “I never feel the same way with other musicians. They are the best. With my siblings, I can say anything. So, it’s more direct and we can deliver the best of our work because we can speak very honestly,” he said.
The quartet hopes to continue to perform well into their old age and 20 years later they wish to still be playing alongside each other said Cendrine.
