Thomas Roy Rochette

Photo by John Jauener

Thomas Roy Rochette

A native of Québec City, bassoonist Thomas Roy-Rochette joined the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra as Second Bassoon in 2023. He studied with Mélanie Forget and Richard Gagnon at the Conservatoire de musique de Québec and with Daniel Matsukawa at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In the fall of 2022, Thomas won the Orchestre symphonique de Québec Foundation Prize, and performed as a soloist with the orchestra. He also received first prize in the Pentaèdre-Youkali Competition. An active orchestral musician, Thomas has appeared in internationally renowned performance venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, the Berlin Konzerthaus, and the Maison symphonique in Montréal. Additionally, he performed as the Principal Bassoon in the Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s recently released recording of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, under the baton of Osmo Vänskä. He also regularly performs as a substitute musician with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec.

This past summer, Thomas joined NYO Canada as the Michael Measures 2nd prize winner. Previously, he has attended many summer festivals including the Père Lindsay Summer Program and Domaine Forget Academy, and he has appeared as a member of NYO Canada as the recipient of their Award of Excellence in 2019 and 2021. While attending those programs, he had the privilege of working alongside acclaimed bassoonists including Kathleen McLean, Mathieu Harel, Michael Sundell, Gilbert Audin, and Christopher Millard.

In 2016, Thomas participated in the televised Virtuose Classical Music Competition, hosted by Gregory Charles on ICI Radio-Canada. When he is not busy practicing or making reeds, Thomas enjoys long-distance running and reading fiction novels.

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