“It must be mentioned that Mélisse Brunet was able to share with everyone all her natural delicacy thanks to her extremely precise conducting and deep musical sensibility. This evening of music was of an uncommon emotional intensity. The symphonic repertoire conducted with such mastery by Mélisse Brunet […] literally hypnotized the audience.”
“Mélisse Brunet conducts with round and precise gestures in the first half, and with firm and passionate gestures for the rest of the concert. Under her baton, the orchestra wins the audience’s heart with a romantic and moving interpretation, producing a very homogenous sound.”
“All of this was performed crisply and with great care by the Eugene Symphony under the baton of guest conductor Mélisse Brunet, a French-born […] force at the podium.
[…] there is a showmanship quality to her conducting that I found appealing. It was a delight to watch her embrace the orchestra as well as the music in almost athletic terms, using all of the podium, it seemed, to communicate with the musicians.”
Wynton Marsalis : “It was an absolute pleasure working with Mélisse Brunet on my trumpet concerto. She had the orchestra prepared, engaged and ready to play despite not getting the music until the (very) last minute. Eternally grateful.”
Mélisse Brunet led the ensemble with conviction… and repeatedly found moments of scoring and melody that can only be described as delicious.
“On Thursday, I started getting messages directly from musicians, and on Friday, about Mélisse’s qualities as a conductor,” McLeod said. “There was unprecedented response, spontaneous response from the musicians telling me that I needed to come and hear her and meet her […]”
It would allow a majority of the jury to not forget to notice that Brunet and Dubitsky make music in a very determined and pertinent way.
Brunet, Dubitsky, Zeniodi, Sułkowska-Migoń et Slusarczyk are the five names to remember from this competition.
Notably here the French Mélisse Brunet, last candidate to conduct on Friday, who energized an exhausted orchestra and interpretatively recreated Louise Farrenc’s 2nd Symphony like nobody did.
A skilled and polished conductor with an excellent pedigree… Brunet led the orchestra with panache and clarity…