Marion Portelance | The “king’s cellist” charts her path

Standing out on the London classical Music scene is the challenge of Marion Portelance, the young Quebec cellist invited to play at the coronation of King Charles III. After two years at the Royal College of Music in London, the 25-year-old musician is making her way and has just set foot in the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

The connection is not optimal, but good enough to hear Marion Portelance apologize on the other end of the line. The young cellist is not in London, where we had met in a café in Finsbury Park, but somewhere at sea off the Spanish coast.

It was mid-November, just days after the deadly floods in Valencia, Spain. Bad weather was now hitting the south of the Iberian Peninsula. “I'm really sorry, but I'm stuck here,” she repeats, in a heartbroken tone.

The young musician was not on vacation on this liner: playing on cruise ships is one of the types of commitments that allows her to earn a living, now that she has left the Royal College of Music, a prestigious school where she spent the last two years.

“I still do a little bit of everything, I’m lucky,” says the woman who also plays with symphony orchestras and chamber music ensembles.

On ships, she and her pianist colleague rely on well-known works, such as The swan of Saint-Saëns or theHail Mary by Schubert. Or on pieceshow off that capture attention,” she adds, citing The flight of the bumblebeea frenetic and virtuoso piece lasting a minute and a few seconds.

“Every time I play in this context, it reminds me why I do this job. We receive extraordinary comments from people, it touches me a lot,” says Marion Portelance.

A ticket to London

Marion Portelance's name circulated in the Quebec media in the spring of 2023, when she performed at the coronation of King Charles III. Did this commitment help her in the pursuit of her career? The young woman hesitates. The scope of the event gave it “credibility,” she muses. “I have the impression that what I am doing at the moment, I have built it up over the years,” she emphasizes, however, “and it really has little to do with this event. »

A very shy child (“I found the other children cute,” she recalls with a laugh), she fell in love with classical music very early on. She is a “product” of the music programs of the Quebec public system: primary at Le Plateau school, secondary at the Joseph-François-Perrault high school and post-secondary studies at the Montreal Conservatory of Music where she obtained a 2nd grade diploma.^e cycle in 2022.

It was under the advice of her Montreal mentors, cellist Carole Sirois and double bassist Joel Quarrington, that she decided to try her luck in London. In just one audition, she caught the ear of Melissa Phelps, professor at the prestigious Royal College of Music [RCM, qui choisit soigneusement ses élèves].

“She really impressed me,” says Melissa Phelps, sitting with a cup of tea at her west London home. I had only heard her online, you know, before I said yes, but she did a really good audition. Very classy. » The momentum was mutual. “In just one session, Melissa changed my sound,” recalls Marion Portelance. Just talking to me about bow angle and how to feel my weight in my hand and arm. »

“I don't choose people just because they have extraordinary talent,” explains the woman who was her teacher, “it has a lot to do with what I perceive of them as a person. » She describes her Quebec student as a sparkling woman, appreciated by everyone.

Her father, Roger Léger, confirms that having a big head is not his daughter's style. “She is aware that not everyone is as privileged and surrounded as she is,” he says. Her mother, Mona Portelance, notes that this lack of pretension makes the young musician an open artist. “Sometimes there is something elitist in the classical world. We're not like that, she says, and Marion isn't either. »

A foot in a prestigious orchestra

“I don't know many people who do so many different things,” confirms Amadea Dazeley-Gaist, one of the three young musicians with whom Marion Portelance shares an apartment north of Finsbury Park, in London. Elite musicians tend to focus on one or two types of music, she explains. However, her Quebec roommate plays solo, with symphony or chamber orchestras and collaborates with pop artists…. notably with Alicia Keys.

Being a young musician in London “is a lot of psychological pressure”, according to Amadea Dazeley-Gaist, because once you leave school, you have to make your way. Talent is not always enough, notes Florence Lockheart, editor of the magazine Classical Music. She sees more and more young musicians relying on social networks “to get noticed, even people who are important in the classical world”. This pressure is added to the inevitable pressure of performing well in an audition. An ordeal that is always “hard on the nerves,” admits Marion Portelance.

Her confidence was at an all-time low when she auditioned for the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). “It worked,” she rejoices on the other end of the line. The first round was blind, so I could really tell myself that all that mattered was how I played. » She had less luck with the London Symphony Orchestra: stress took over in the second round and she did not perform up to her talent.

Its testing by the LPO constitutes an important step, according to Melissa Phelps, who adds that her former student is still in the beginning stages. The stakes are nevertheless high: a position for life within this prestigious group. “I trust life and I consider myself lucky,” says Marion Portelance, who played with the LPO for the first time in the middle of December. I am ready to go wherever I have opportunities. That's a bit like life as a musician: we go where life takes us. »

Marion Portelance will perform in Montreal on April 23, 2025 in duo with pianist Emmanuel Laforest as part of Les Mélodînes.

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