Brahms’ sacred masterpiece reimagined in motion.
“Skeels delivers a creation of rare beauty and emotional depth.”
—La Presse, Montréal
Created for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Requiem marked an ambitious and luminous undertaking: a full-length choreography set to the entirety of Johannes Brahms’ monumental Ein Deutsches Requiem. Premiering in March 2023 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier with a full 65-member orchestra and choir, the work gathered forty of the company’s dancers in a creation of breathtaking scope.
Rarely attempted by choreographers due to its intricate musical structure, Brahms’ Requiem found in Skeels an interpreter unafraid of its challenges. His response is at once athletic, sensitive, and exquisitely musical—each phrase of movement tracing, countering, or expanding the score’s emotional currents with striking clarity. The result is a work that feels inevitable, as if the music itself demanded this choreographic incarnation.
“A masterful blend of Brahms’ solemn music and Skeels’ contemporary choreography.”
— matTv.ca
“Andrew Skeels has crafted ensemble movements of astonishing precision… striking!”
— lesartsze.ca
“Andrew Skeels’ poignant creation evokes the memory of our departed, who, even long after their death, remain alive within us.”
—— lesartsze.ca
— matTv.ca
“The stage fills with up to forty dancers, embodying the chaos, pain, and loss of grief — and the fragments of hope that pierce through it.”
Requiem (2023)
Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal
Choreography – Andrew Skeels
Costumes & Sets – Marija Djordjevic
Music – Johannes Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem
Les Grands Ballets Canadiens
Artistic Director – Ivan Cavallari
Executive Director – Marc Lalonde
President Emeritus – Constance V. Pathy, C.M., C.Q., DMus.
Founder – Ludmilla Chiriaeff
Artistic Director Emeritus – Gradimir Pankov
Orchestra & Choir – Les Grands Ballets Orchestra (65 musicians) & Choir
Conductor – Adam Johnson
Soloists – Jacqueline Woodley (Soprano), Dominique Côté (Baritone)
Board of Directors / Production Team
Production Director – Stéphan Pépin
Technical Director – Benoit Archambault
Stage Manager – Ariane Roy
Ballet Masters – Hervé Courtain, Marina Villanueva, Ivan Cavallari
Artistic Coordinator – Steve Coutereel
Head of Wardrobe – Mélanie Ferrero
Head Stage Carpenter – Kenneth Gregg
Head of Accessories – Pierre Berthiaume
Head Lighting Technician – Patrick Carrière
Electric Assistant – Dominic Drouin
Head of Sound – Aidan MacCormac
Head of Costumes – Denise Morin
Resident Lighting Designer – Marc Parent
Premiere Cast
Soloist dancers featured in Requiem at the world premiere (March 23–26, 2023):
Jean-Sébastien Couture
Étienne Delorme
Vanesa G. R. Montoya
Mai Kono
Tetyana Martyanova
Stephen Satterfield
Yui Sugawara
Rose TrahanIt