1980 - takes up piano at age 5; later studies at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec, encouraged by his parents, both of whom are university educators.
1994 - spends a year studying the working methods of his hero, conductor Carlo Maria Giulini; takes up his first music-director post, of the Choeur polyphonique de Montréal, at 19.
1998 - becomes assistant conductor and chorus master of Opera de Montréal.
2000 - accepts post of music director of Orchestre Métropolitain, in spite of friends' warnings that the hometown job might stamp him as a merely local talent.
2003 - makes his first orchestral recording, of music by Nino Rota, for ATMA Classique.
2005 - conducts the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time; the following year, the players unanimously select him as the orchestra's next music director.
2007 - London Philharmonic Orchestra signs him as principal guest conductor.
2009 - debuts at the Metropolitan Opera with a new production of Carmen, seen and heard by millions through the Met's HD broadcasts (and now out on a DG DVD).
2010 - EMI releases his first album with the Rotterdam Philharmonic; the Philadelphia Orchestra selects him as only its eighth music director since the orchestra was founded in 1900.