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Francis Choinière has been awarded the second annual Hnatyshyn Foundation – Christa and Franz-Paul Decker Fellowship in Conducting! Launched in 2017 in honour of the late conductor Franz-Paul Decker and his wife, Christa, this $15,000 fellowship is the result of a collaboration between the Schulich School of Music, the Decker family, and the Hnatyshyn Foundation, a charity founded by Canada’s twenty-fourth Governor General to support the development of young artists. All incoming Canadian students to the Schulich conducting program are considered for the Fellowship, which can be used to support tuition, expenses, and independent projects.

Francis Choinière has more than a few of these! He has spearheaded several standout concerts and organisations that take advantage of Montreal's unique musical scene. To name only a few of his accomplishments

• Screening Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with a live performance of Howard Shore's soundtrack with more than 250 musicians on the stage of the Salle Wilfrid Pelletier. Francis is co-founder and President of GFN Productions, which obtained the rights for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, to be performed in its entirety within the next 2 years.
• Co-founding the Orchestre Philharmonique et Choeur des Mélomanes (OPCM), producing and conducting several concerts each year as well as preparing the choir for major concert events at the Bell Center with world class artists such as Andrea Bocelli, Hans Zimmer, Ramin Djawadi and Sarah Brightman.
• Preparing the Choeur Fernand Lindsay for the Festival de Lanaudière and collaborating with renowned conductors such as Stephen Layton and Corrado Rovaris.

You can learn more about Schulich’s graduate-level conducting program here. Congratulations to Francis! We can't wait to see what else his career has in store.