Payare Conducts Poulenc and Sibelius

^2026-2027

With his innate musicianship, gift for communication, and irresistibly joyous spirit, conductor Rafael Payare is Music and Artistic Director of both Canada’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) and California’s San Diego Symphony (SDSO), as well as Principal Conductor of Virginia’s Castleton Festival and Conductor Laureate of Northern Ireland’s Ulster Orchestra. Payare is celebrated for his expertise in late Romantic repertoire while also cultivating the next generation of composers with regular commissions and performances of new works. A veteran of Venezuela’s El Sistema program – in which he began playing horn at the age of 14 – and 2012 first prize winner at Denmark’s Malko Competition for Young Conductors, Payare remains dedicated to inspiring younger musicians, regularly working with youth orchestras and establishing mentorship programs like El Sistema OSM and the SDSO Conducting Fellowship. Payare resides in San Diego and Montreal with his wife, acclaimed cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and their two young children.

Jean-Willy Kunz was appointed in 2013 as the first organist in residence of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. In addition to playing both with the Orchestra and in recital, he sees to the development and showcasing of the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique, Casavant Frères’ opus 3900 installed at the Maison symphonique in Montréal.

His performances with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal include concerts conducted by Rafael Payare, Kent Nagano, Masaaki Suzuki, Leonardo García Alarcón, Gabriel Thibaudeau, François-Xavier Roth, Vasily Petrenko, Juraj Valčuha, Paul McCreesh, John Storgårds, Dalia Stasevska, Carlo Rizzi, and David Zinman. He has also performed as a soloist with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, les Violons du Roy, the Trois-Rivières Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Regina Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Fabien Gabel, Bernard Labadie, Michael Willens, Alain, Trudel, Stéphane Denève, Gemma New, Kerem Hasan, JoAnn Falletta, and Gordon Gerrard.

At the Maison symphonique, Kunz has premiered numerous pieces for organ and orchestra, and for solo organ, by Tod Machover, John Rea, Samy Moussa, Harry Stafylakis, Matthew Ricketts, Gabriel Thibaudeau, Régis Campo, and Maxime Goulet. A highlight among his many solo performances on the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique was a recital presented in 2017 in collaboration with the NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency, during which a live audio-video duplex with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station allowed for the first ever Earth-Space organ duet.

Jean-Willy Kunz’ interest and versatility in different styles of music are reflected in the various projects he has been involved with for several years, and which shed new light on the pipe organ, including jazz music in duo with Branford Marsalis and with the Ensemble InSpirations, pop music with Rufus and Martha Wainwright, stage music with the Cirque du Soleil, contemporary music with the Quebec Contemporary Music Society and the Quatuor Bozzini, and baroque music with the Ensemble Caprice and Les Boréades.

His discography includes many recordings which reflect the broad range of his musical influences. His most recent CDs include a solo organ album Jean-Willy Kunz au Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique; Impressions with the Ensemble InSpirations (organ, clarinet, saxophone, trombone, double bass, and percussion); Symphonie et créations pour orgue et orchestre with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (which was awarded a Juno in 2016); and The Pipes are Calling for organ and trombone; Punkt with Pierre Lapointe; André Gagnon Baroque for harpsichord and symphony orchestra.

Jean-Willy Kunz studied with Louis Robilliard and with Mireille Lagacé, before completing a doctorate in organ performance at McGill University with John Grew. In 2018, he completed an MBA at HEC Montréal. He is organ professor at the Conservatory of Music in Montréal and artistic director of the Canadian International Organ Competition.