Olga Ranzenhofer - violin, artistic director
Olga Ranzenhofer graduated with an Artist Diploma from the University of Cincinnati after studies with the renowned professor Dorothy DeLay and members of the LaSalle String Quartet. Principal second violin of the Orchestre Métropolitain from 1989 to 2001, Olga Ranzenhofer founded in 1997 the Molinari String Quartet. Olga Ranzenhofer was concertmaster of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec from 1994 to 2004 and held the same position with the Montreal Chamber Orchestra from 1987 to 1995. She has participated in many concert tours and recitals, television and radio broadcasts and compact disc recordings in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. She was also a member of the Morency String Quartet from 1987 to 1997.
Olga Ranzenhofer is recognized as a leader in contemporary music in Québec and has commissioned many works for violin and piano and for string quartet. In November 2000, she was awarded the Opus Prize of Personnality of the Year by the Quebec Music Council. In the fall of 2009, she was named Canadian Music Centre Ambassador in recognition of her exceptional contribution to the Canadian music scene over the years. The Quebec Music Council awarded her the Artistic Director of the Year Opus Prize in February 2025, for her work for the 2023-24 season of the Molinari Quartet.
Antoine Bareil – violin
Concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Laval, member of the Quatuor Voxopuli, Antoine Bareil is justly portrayed as a charismatic musician by The Montreal Gazette.
In 2001, an impressed jury unanimously awards Antoine Bareil le prix avec grande distinction du Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec, along with his post graduate diploma. Having thus completed his studies at the Conservatoire de Trois-Rivières, the violinist sharpens his musical skills in Austria at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg.
Soloist, he is invited by numerous orchestras, in Canada and abroad. His timeline of concerts in no less than fifteen countries, his collaboration with internationally acclaimed composers and musicians, are best remembered for his 2002 performance of Philip Glass’ works in the composer’s presence, his 2003 performance of the mythical Karlheinz Stockhausen Helicopter String Quartet along with the Stadler Quartet, and more recently his appearance in Poland as a special guest of the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition.
Composer and musical arranger, he has two short films and a dozen albums to his credit. Among the latter, the first of the three CDs recorded and produced with his former group Quartango wins the Juno Award 2015 for best instrumental album.
Antoine Bareil performs on an 1840 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin and a François Nicolas Voirin bow, both graciously lent by Canimex inc. Drummondville (Qc) Canada.
Cynthia Blanchon – viola
As a guest professor of viola and chamber music, as well as co-director of the string department at the University of Montreal, Cynthia participates in a variety of chamber music projects. In 2025, she joined the Molinari and Voxpopuli quartets and performs regularly with the Montreal ensemble collectif9. A sought-after chamber musician, she has been invited to numerous festivals such as the Colorado Music Festival, Orford Musique, the Festival de Lanaudière, Music & Beyond, the Festival Classica, the ProMusica series, the Concerts aux Îles du Bic, the Rencontres musicales de Laterrière, the Rencontres musicales de Haute-Provence, and the Festival Entre Vents et Marais in France.
In addition to her teaching activities at the University of Montreal, she has given masterclasses at the University of Ottawa, the Pôle Supérieur de Paris (PSPBB), the PESMD in Bordeaux, and the CRRs in Toulouse and Montpellier. In the summer season, she also teaches at Orford Musique, Music at Port Milford, and the CAMMAC Festival. A graduate of the CNSMD in Lyon, she went on to study at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, then with Jutta Puchhammer and Juan-Miguel Hernandez at the University of Montreal, where she obtained her doctorate.
She currently plays on a viola made for her by Fabienne Gauchet and a bow by Arnaud Suard.
Pierre-Alain Bouvrette – cello
A graduate of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in 1995, where he was awarded First Prize with unanimous distinction, Pierre-Alain Bouvrette continued his studies in the United States on a full scholarship at the prestigious Eastman School of Music, earning a Master’s degree in Performance and Literature. He later completed an Artist Diploma at the Longy School of Music in Boston.
Since 2008, he has been a member of the Molinari Quartet, an ensemble devoted to the major string quartet repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Quartet’s work has been widely acclaimed, garnering numerous Prix Opus, as well as a nomination at the International Classical Music Awards for their complete recording of Sofia Gubaidulina’s string quartets. In 2017, the ensemble received the ECHO Klassik Award for its interpretation of the complete quartets by György Kurtág.
Pierre-Alain Bouvrette has also performed with renowned ensembles such as Les Violons du Roy and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. His work with the Molinari Quartet has brought him to major festivals across Europe, Asia, Central America, and North America, actively contributing to the international promotion of Québécois and Canadian string quartet repertoire.