Talk: Music, Health and Wellness ^{Summer 2025}

Annie Saumier is a highly experienced arts and culture manager known for her expertise in music education, arts production and community development. Since 2019, she has served as Director of Education and Community for the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM), where she designs and manages initiatives focused on making symphonic music accessible to a broad audience and strengthening connections with the community.

Previously, she directed the Société pour les arts en milieux de santé (SAMS), where she contributed to the annual presentation of over 500 concerts in Quebec’s healthcare institutions. She has also held key positions at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, MusicFest Vancouver, Jeunesses Musicales Canada and the BRAMS research laboratory.

A graduate in Music Performance (saxophone) of the Université de Montréal, Annie also holds a graduate diploma in Management of Cultural Organizations and an MBA from Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) Montréal. She is certified in workplace mental health and mindfulness meditation, and is currently pursuing a graduate diploma in sustainable development.

Driven by values of inclusion and empowerment, Annie Saumier places education, social impact and community involvement at the heart of her work, together with her innovative vision of culture.

Mezzo-soprano Charlotte Gagnon is a versatile and adventurous opera artist, as well as an enthusiastic entrepreneur and administrator. In addition to performing regularly on Canadian stages in both opera and recital, Charlotte collaborates with many different artists on the creation of multidisciplinary projects, including Ceux qui répondent à l’écho (creation, 2023), an audiovisual musical and performative work, and R I T U E L (research/creation, 2021), a performative exploration of the contemporary sacred symbolism.

Passionate about arts outreach, she works at the Opéra de Montréal as Manager of Outreach and Education, directing several projects aimed at sharing the benefits of opera with all audiences. She specializes in the use of operatic singing techniques as a breathing and vocal rehabilitation process (RESPIRER, 2022–2025; La voix harmonisée, 2023–2025).

In 2024, in partnership with the AgeTeq laboratory, she created the Écho des plantes project, an opera co-creation workshop for children and teenagers whose goal is to relieve eco-anxiety in young people through creation and the music of plants. Cofounder, general and artistic director of Rigoletta, an organization dedicated to introducing children to the art of opera, Charlotte is committed to developing accessibility in classical music.