Bernard Labadie is internationally recognized as one of the foremost conductors of the Baroque and Classical repertoire. He is founder and Music Director of Les Violons du Roy and the choir La Chapelle de Québec, both of whom are based in his hometown of Québec City. With these ensembles he has toured extensively to major venues including Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Concertgebouw, the Barbican Centre, and has appeared at the Whitsun Festival (Salzburg). Labadie was Principal Conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York from 2017-2025.    

Recent and upcoming guest appearances include the Canadian Opera Company, The Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Boston Baroque, NDR Radiophilharmonie (Hanover), National Symphony (Washington), Orchestre National de Lyon, National Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa) and Chicago Symphony. 

In North America Labadie has conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Boston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and New World, among others. Internationally he has led performances with the Royal Concertgebouw, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Academy of Ancient Music, The English Concert, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Royal Scottish National, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, Helsinki Radio Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony (Cologne) and HR Symphony (Frankfurt). 

Labadie’s discography includes several award-winning recordings on Dorian, ATMA, Erato/Warner Classics, and Hyperion. Highlights include Handel’s Apollo e Dafne and Mozart’s Requiem with Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec both of which received Canada’s Juno Award. 

In recognition of his artistic achievements, Labadie has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec and a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres du Québec.  

Karen Gomyo, ‘a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity’ (The Chicago Tribune), possesses a rare ability to captivate and connect intimately with audiences through her deeply emotional performances. With a flawless command of the instrument and an elegance of expression, she is one of today’s leading violinists, collaborating with some of the most esteemed conductors, including Semyon Bychkov, Jakub Hrůša, Gustavo Dudamel, John Storgårds, Fabio Luisi, Gustavo Gimeno, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Karina Canellakis, Andrew Manze, Constantinos Carydis, Jun Märkl, Cristian Măcelaru and Xian Zhang.

Highlights of her most recent seasons included debuts with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart, Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orquesta Nacional de España, Orchestra RAI Torino, BBC Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic and Warsaw Philharmonic, as well as returns to the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Karen’s 2026/27 season will bring highly anticipated returns to the Czech Philharmonic under Semyon Bychkov, Bamberg Symphony under Krzysztof Urbański and Mozarteumorchester Salzburg under Dima Slobodeniouk, as well as debuts with the Galicia Symphony under Otto Tausk and the Kraków Philharmonic with Sascha Goetzel. Her North American season begins with the world premiere of a new violin concerto by Samuel Adams with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Elim Chan. Further ahead, Karen will return to the Dallas, Utah, Oregon and Vancouver Symphonies, as well as the Aspen Festival and Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. In Australia, Karen will join the Australian Chamber Orchestra for the ACO On The Pier Festival, curated by composer Samuel Adams and will return to the Sydney Symphony together with conductor Bernard Labadie.

As a passionate chamber musician, Karen has performed with artists such as Olli Mustonen, Leif Ove Andsnes, Enrico Pace, James Ehnes, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Daishin Kashimoto, Amihai Grosz, Emmanuel Pahud, Alisa Weilerstein, Julian Steckel, the late Heinrich Schiff, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth and guitarist Ismo Eskelinen, with whom she recorded the duo album Carnival on BIS Records.

She is also a champion of the nuevo tango music of Astor Piazzolla, having collaborated with Piazzolla’s longtime pianist and tango legend Pablo Ziegler, as well as with bandoneon players Héctor del Curto, JP Jofre and Marcelo Nisinman. In 2021, Karen released A Piazzolla Trilogy (BIS Records), recorded with the Strings of Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and guitarist Stephanie Jones.

With a strong commitment to contemporary music, each season, Karen performs a work written by a living composer. Most recently, she has given the US premieres of Samy Moussa’s Violin Concerto Adrano with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Matthias Pintscher’s Concerto No.2, Mar’eh, with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., under the composer’s baton and Xi Wang’s YEAR 2020: Concerto for Violin, Trumpet and Orchestra with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, conducted by Fabio Luisi. In 2018, she performed the world premiere of Samuel Adams’s Chamber Concerto with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen, written for her and commissioned for the CSO’s MusicNOW 20th anniversary series.

Born in Tokyo, Karen began her musical career in Montréal and New York. She studied under the legendary pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School before continuing her studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the New England Conservatory with Mauricio Fuks and Donald Weilerstein, respectively. She also studied privately for a formative period in Vienna with Heinrich Schiff. Karen participated as violinist, host, and narrator in a documentary film produced by NHK Japan about Antonio Stradivarius, The Mysteries of the Supreme Violin, which was broadcast worldwide on NHK WORLD.