The very talented violinist Angèle Dubeau confided as she has rarely done during her career, at the microphone of Richard Martineau and Sophie Durocher.

In a new episode of the Apéro piquant podcast, she notably remembered the comment, not very skilful, of a journalist who had written, he was almost 50 years old: “she plays wonderfully, she plays like a man”. Still too young to understand the essence of this sentence, Angèle Dubeau however kept it in mind for a long time.

Today, the violinist who founded the women's ensemble La Pietà, made up of 12 musicians, says she is proud and "happy to play like a woman". Her ensemble, with whom she collaborates for her records and tours, is also celebrating its 25th anniversary on Friday at the Maison symphonique. “Today when I realize that 25 years ago of La Pietà, I find that it is a nice snub to make him to this journalist”, she underlined.

The seventh in a family of eight children, the violinist began playing at the age of four and attending the conservatory at the age of eight. But the word prodigy has always been banished from his vocabulary. “Yes I started young and yes I was not deprived, it goes without saying, the talent was there and everything, but like in everything, there is work. And I worked hard. I was a woodcutter. I worked very hard on my instrument. There is nothing for free”, she said at the microphone of Richard and Sophie.

On listening platforms, Angèle Dubeau enjoys a certain success. Among other things, she has accumulated more than 22 million plays on the piece Spiegel im spiegel, published on the mini album Arvo Pärt: Portrait, in 2010.

During her interview with the Martineau-Durocher couple, the musician also admitted that despite all the love she has for her music and her instrument, a 1733 Stradivarius designated Quebec national heritage since the 1970s, the violin has sometimes been heavy in his life, but it is the tour and the conquest of a new audience that has allowed him to keep his feet on the ground.

In 1981, while studying in Romania under the dictatorial regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu, she remembered having slept with her tuque and mittens in the middle of winter because there was no heating or hot water. , but also that the food was terrible and that his room was full of microphones.

And if she stayed so long in this country under this regime, it was for the love of music. She also confided that at that time, she wanted to "brew" her Romanian friends who had stopped dreaming. "I quickly realized that it was better not to say anything, and I couldn't do anything anyway. It was an incredible dictatorship,” she added.

The musician also said that she felt the emotion of people, in silence and excitement when she is on stage and that is what feeds her. “When I play, I try to imagine my sound going around each person, giving everyone a big hug. I want to wrap them with my violin sound. I in return receive their happiness. I see it, but I feel it,” she said.

Angèle Dubeau and her ensemble will celebrate the 25th anniversary of La Pietà on Friday, May 13 at the Maison symphonique de la Place des Arts.