Michel Cardin - Guitar

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Recognized in the music world as one of today's best lutenists, Michel Cardin has developed a multiple career as a teacher, a performer, a musicologist and a producer. He is currently full professor at the Department of Music of the University of Moncton (Canada ), with a PhD equivalence status, and has made twelve compact discs of solo Baroque lute music. This series of recordings, consisting for the most part of world premieres, is dedicated to Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750), the undisputed master of the instrument. The enormous enthusiasm for these recordings, shared by critics and the general public alike provides unambiguous justification for the re-discovery of such a great composer. The complete twelve-volume recording of the London Manuscript is now done.

He obtained a 'First prize' diploma from the Montreal Conservatory in 1978 in guitar performance, solfège, harmony and counterpoint. His list of teachers is impressive, with Stephen Fentok, Alexandre Lagoya, Alirio Diaz, Alberto Ponce, John Mills, Oscar Ghiglia for guitar and Toyohiko Satoh, Patrick O'Brien, Nigel North, Robert Barto, Jakob Lindberg, William Christie (at the Paris Conservatory) for instruction in lute and continuo on theorbo. Along with radio and television performances ("Les beaux Dimanches", etc.), he has given concerts in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax and the Maritime provinces, in addition to Rabat, Casablanca, Milan, , Heidelberg, Stüttgart, Tokyo, Paris and France plus New England, where he has been regularly invited (French Lute Society, Caen Festival, Massachusetts and Rhode Island Universities, Williams College, etc.).

He has at the same time taken part in important shows in Atlantic Canada, such as the Concert for the Bicentennial of New-Brunswick, the Concert for the Acadian World Congress, as well as appearances at the Éloizes and ECMA Awards annual events. His recordings have received 15 nominations and two awards at events of this kind and have been among the Discs of the Week and the Best buys of the Year on CBC-FM. Rick Phillips's Sound Advice program gave them a '5 stars out of 5', and The London Manuscript, Vol 5, won the OPUS award 1998 for Best album of the tear-solo & small ensembles. Vol. 1 took second place in the international "Top Ten" classical albums of the year (orchestras & soloists) in Voir magazine, 1994. M. Cardin was awarded the Geocities Vienna 2000 Award for outstanding artistic merit for the new millennium, the Éloize Award 2001 for best international exposure, two Étoiles Awards (classical album and artist of the year 2001), and the prestigious Excellence in Music prize from the Government of New-Brunswick.

Michel Cardin has recently acquired experience as a recording producer and has published regular musicological articles in European, American and Asian periodicals. In addition he realized a computer-assisted transcription into modern notation of one of the Christmas Oratorios by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. A Silver Medalist of the Royal Society of the Arts, he was a jury member for the Canada and New-Brunswick Councils.