Music

The 'Vera Choir' started 10 years ago and with time grouped about 50 members, from various nationalities, cultures and ages.The 'Vera Instrumental Ensemble' is comp

osed of professional musicians who have attained the highest awards at major musical conservatories and universities.
Gilles Hainault, Music Director of I.D.E.A.L. composed most of the music pieces recorded on these CDs. He also harmonized and arranged melodies and themes by Peter Deunov.
Peter Deunov (1864-1944), a Bulgarian philosopher and composer was an accomplished violinist and composed hundreds of melodies and songs that became spiritual exercises in the school he founded at the turn of the 20th century. These simple but beautiful melodies were inspired from traditional Bulgarian folk music or from ancient sacred themes.

 Musicians of the Vera Choir & Instrumental Ensemble

Gilles Hainault, M.A. in Music and Director of the  is an accomplished composer, musician and choral director. Gilles Hainault has created and directed several choirs and given many seminars and workshops in choral singing. Gilles Hainault has been directing  the Vera Choir and instrumental Ensemble since its beginnings in 1993.

Alain Courmont graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (France), Alain Courmont won First Prize in cello and chamber music. He worked as an international soloist and cello teacher (Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique in Paris and Conservatoire Régional in Chalon-sur-Saône). He was also a soloist with the Paillard Chamber Music Orchestra. Alain Courmont recorded several pieces.

Sophie Gamache discovered music at the age of 6, when she began to study the piano in her hometown of St. Jean, Quebec. In 1980 Sophie Gamache received her laureate in piano interpretation. Since then, Sophie Gamache devoted herself to the art of singing. Sophie Gamache graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor in voice interpretation and earned her Masters at Laval University in Quebec. Her passion for opera led her to pursue her studies in different voice techniques and styles in France, Germany and Italy. In 1991 she won 1st prize in a National Canadian Music Competition. A Soprano Coloratura, Sophie Gamache performed on Radio and Television and participated in many Opera productions. Sophie Gamache also took part in various concerts in North America as a soloist and with the Vera Choir. Sophie Gamache is now teaching voice and directing various choirs at the  IDEAL Society in Jaffray, BC.

Mr. Guillaume Courmont graduated in Music Composition from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. He has taught music and choral singing at the Boston Music Education Collaborative and was trained in Indian Classical music at the Viswa Bharati University in India. Guillaume Courmont is the Director of the I.M.A.G.E. School Association and of the IDEAL Society. Music and Arts Summer Camp.

Nadia Navarro is a Performer, Violin Instructor and Program Coordinator of the I.D.E.A.L Summer School of Music.

She graduated with several honours awards at major Conservatories in Europe. Her passions are flute, violin, solfège, dance, and drawing. Violin, the dearest to her heart, brought her from Brussels to Boston, MA, to the New England Conservatory, where she earned a bachelor’s degree of Violin Performance in 1998. There she also studied Indian Classical and traditional Asian music. She taught violin, choral singing and general music at the Boston Music Education Collaborative.

Ms Navarro has been a member of the Symphony of the Kootenays. She has participated in numerous concerts and recordings with the Vera Instrumental Ensemble and Choir, concerts given in Canada and USA, in particular at the United Nations in New York.

Locally, Ms Navarro is very active sharing her musical gifts with the community. She offers private violin lessons, theory classes and chamber music to children and adults from Jaffray, Cranbrook, Kimberley, Fernie and Sparwood. For four years she has served the Jaffray Elementary School, teaching and directing the School Choir. She has also taught Choir and Band at the Fernie Academy.

 Yolaine Hames graduated in flute performance at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec and has a B.A. in Music therapy from the University of Quebec in Montreal. She has been teaching flute and recorder for 15 years and currently teaches flute and recorder in Fernie and has created the Fernie Chamber Orchestra. She takes part regularly in the recordings and activities of the Vera Choir and Instrumental Ensemble.

Lubka Amigues has a Master of Arts degree in General Psychology at the California Institute for Human Certified Coach in NLP. She has been studying voice with Sophia Hoffman since 1998. Before that she studied voice extensively at the University of Quebec in Montreal. She studied the art and theory of traditional and classical Indian Singing and Philosophy at the Vishwa Bharati University in India. In 2008 she won first prize at the East Kootenay Music Festival.

Philippe Lucotte began playing the violin at the 6 years old.  After having obtained unanimously a gold medal at the Conservatoire national de région de Dijon, he studied with Christian Ferras in Paris. 

 Graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon in 1987, he played first violin at the opera house under the direction of John E Gardiner, and also with the Chamber orchestra « Les Solistes de Lyon ». It created and was solo violinist for the Orchestra Camerata of Burgundy which is now under the musical direction of Régis Pasquier.

 It took part in many orchestra and chamber music international tours.  Holder of the most advanced teacher’s diploma in France, he now teaches at the Conservatoire National de Montpellier, and then of Dijon. He now continues his career as a teacher at the Conservatoire National de Besançon in France.  He is soloist for the Orchestra of Dijon and currently continues his career as violinist and soloist at the Orchestra of Besancon. 

 Having been formed at the Russian and American Schools, his play reflects a harmonization of these two traditions while remaining faithful to the great French violin tradition