Toll-free: 877-809-7288 x. 2 | karine[at]oc[dot]ca

Karine Breton has an in-depth knowledge of the artistic and administrative workings of the Canadian orchestral sector, built over two decades of hands-on involvement.

A graduate of McGill University, where she earned a Bachelor of Music in performance with great distinction, and of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she completed a Master’s degree, she held the positions of second bassoon (for 12 seasons), musician personnel manager (5 seasons) and tour manager (2 seasons) with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra (TBSO).

On the management side, she has distinguished herself within several major cultural and educational organizations. Notably, she worked for 13 seasons at Orford Musique as student concerts coordinator, served as artistic operations coordinator for the Orchestre symphonique de Sherbrooke (OSS) for 5 years, and collaborated with the Orchestre symphonique de Laval (OSL) as artistic operations project officer for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Deeply committed to making music accessible, she also coordinated the secondary-school stream of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s (OSM) El Sistema program.

Still very active today as a freelance bassoonist and contrabassoonist with numerous orchestras, primarily in Quebec, she continually deepens her sector-wide perspective. Driven by curiosity and a desire to further explore the relationships between the arts and the community, she is currently pursuing a part-time Graduate Diploma (DESS) in music mediation at the Université de Montréal.

Karine is based in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Karine lives and works in Sherbrooke, on Ndakina — the traditional and unceded ancestral territory of the W8banaki (Abenaki) Nation. She gratefully acknowledges the Abenaki peoples, past and present, as the enduring stewards of this land.