Stellar: the Organ’s Balancing Act ^2025-2026

After travelling the world and its cabarets, Rosalie Beauchamp co-founded Le Monastère in 2016, driven by a bold ambition: to fill a glaring gap in their city of heart, Montreal. Although the city was proclaimed the capital of the circus arts, it offered little visibility to independent artists, who were all too often anonymous in the big companies. The public, for its part, had limited access to a truly diversified offering.

Our dream? To create a place where artists could express themselves in a raw, sincere and unfiltered way. A space where the artist is not just a performer, but the author of his or her work. Located in a church dating from 1864 on rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest in Montreal, this NPO invites the public to plunge into an accessible, rich and warm universe, where the contemporary circus deploys all its creative force.

Le Monastère, circus in its purest form.

Jean-Willy Kunz is the organist-in-residence of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. A member of the OSM since 2013, he studied at the Conservatoires de musique in Grenoble, Lyon, and Montreal, as well as at McGill University. In 2011, he was awarded the Richard Bradshaw Audience Prize at the Canadian International Organ Competition. He has performed as a soloist with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Les Violons du Roy, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and has premiered numerous works by notable composers. 

In addition to his orchestral career, Jean-Willy is also an organ professor at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and serves as Artistic Director of the Canadian International Organ Competition.