* En anglais uniquement
Hélène Collerette is a leading violinist, an established orchestral player who has also appeared widely as a soloist across France and in her native North America.
Collerette has a substantial discography focusing on 20th century music.
Collerette was born in Chicoutimi, in northern Quebec, Canada, in 1968. She studied with Langis Breton at the Conservatoire de Chicoutimi (now the Conservatoire de musique de Saguenay), graduating in 1987.
Collerette went on to the Conservatoire de Lausanne in France, where her teacher was
Pierre Amoyal, earning a licentiate degree there in 1990, and to the Université de Montréal, studying with Vladimir Landsman and earning a master's degree in 1993. Well before her graduation in Chicoutimi,
Collerette had already, in 1983, formed the Trio Nelligan with cellist Annie Gadbois and pianist
Sandra Murray. That group lasted until 1988, and in 1995,
Collerette became part of another chamber group, the
Quatuor Renoir.
Collerette served as first violinist and soloist in the Orchestre de Mulhouse in France from 1992 to 1994, and with the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon in 1995 and 1996. In 1996, she became a member of the
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, where she remained violinist and "super soliste" as of the early 2020s.
Collerette has also performed with a variety of other orchestras, including the
Violons du Roy in Quebec City, the
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and the
Munich Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared on several
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France recordings as a violin soloist; her
recording debut came in 2003 on an album on which the orchestra backed soprano
Barbara Hendricks. In 2018,
Collerette made her solo recording debut with pianist
Anne Le Bozec on an
album of violin sonatas by
Florent Schmitt,
Albert Roussel, and André Prévost on the Signature label, following that up with an album of works by Bartók, Ravel, György Kurtág, and Bruno Coulais in 2021. The following year, she was heard on violist
Vinciane Béranger's album
Rebecca Clarke: Works for Viola. ~ James Manheim