Marlène Ngalissamy is the Principal Bassoon of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, commencing at the start of the 2025/26 season.
Prior to her position in Toronto, she was the principal bassoon of l'Orchestre Symphonique de Québec from 2022–2025 and was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
Marlène has been invited to perform as guest principal bassoon with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Jupiter Chamber Players (New York), Les Violons du Roy, Ensemble Obiora (Montréal), and the Chineke! Orchestra (London, UK), with whom she performed at the Royal Albert Hall and the Wigmore Hall and recorded works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in 2021. She has also joined the sections of l'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, and many other ensembles throughout the US and Canada. As a soloist, Marlène has appeared with the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Edmonton Symphony, the Ontario Pops Orchestra, as well as the Montreal Conservatory Orchestra and the Youth Orchestra of Montreal.
Marlène studied with Mathieu Harel and Stéphane Lévesque at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, before completing a post-graduate diploma at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Daniel Matsukawa. She was awarded first prize at the Canadian Music Competition (winds category) in 2012, is a past laureate of the Hnatyshyn Foundation (which allowed her to buy her first bassoon) as well as a recipient of the Arkadin Fomin scholarship. In 2016, she was a finalist in the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and the International Bassoon Orchestral Excerpts competition in 2020.
She is an alumna of the Domaine Forget, Orford, and Marlboro Music Festival summer programs as well as the Pacific Music Festival in Japan and the National Academy Orchestra in Hamilton, Ontario. She has also participated in solo and chamber music master classes in France at the Pablo Casals Festival and at the ISA - International Music Academy in Vienna.
Marlène has given master classes at McGill University, the University of Ottawa, the Conservatoire de Musique de Québec and online with Bassoons Without Borders. She has been invited to perform and coach at the Scotia Music Festival and the Domaine Forget chamber orchestra program. Since 2023, she has been a faculty member at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
Marlène is of Afro-Russian descent and immigrated to Canada at age 10 with her family. In her spare time, she enjoys experimenting with various cuisines (both cooking and eating), watching reality TV shows, spending time in nature, and, of course, making reeds!