Experienced musician and composer Lionel Hamel has many years of experience on the Canadian and American music scene.

Since 2004, as a guitarist, he has been an integral part of the musician team for Cirque du Soleil’s KA, presented at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas. He cumulated 7,500 active performances over a period of 16 years. He has also participated in the development and coordination of all technical and musical aspects of the show since its inception. While still actively involved on stage in Las Vegas, he also devoted himself to managing his company, 39K Productions which specializes in music composition, mixing, sound design and special effects for corporate videos, children’s videos and short films.

His passion for music and the stage developed as a child when he formed Explosion, a Quebec band, with his two best friends, who were already well-known in Quebec show business: Marc Déry and Alain Quirion. The band was regularly invited to open for well-known artists, such as Chatelaine, and to play at weddings or on television for broadcaster Télé-Métropole, on channel 10. The band also shot a full story with Radio Canada Television, titled Mordicus.

The beginning of the 80’s was marked by a tour of Quebec’s bars and clubs alongside popular bands of the time, including Fizz, Zane and The Next.

Back in Canada in the 90’s, after a long stay in England, Lionel deepened his production knowledge, becoming a second engineer at the Saint-Charles music studio in Longueuil. He was involved in renowned productions such as Épopée Rock on TVA, Nelligan (the musical), various television productions, and the recording of a jazz album under musical direction from John Gilbert.

With his expertise in sound engineering, he collaborated on several tours across Quebec, Western Canada, Belgium and France by bands and artists such as Zébulon, Thérese Montcalme, Les Frères à Cheval, QRN, and Le Grand Manège. Meanwhile, he joined the band Les Headlines as a guitarist, and recorded a radio single that was premiered at the Montreal Spectrum, then rebroadcast on Radio Canada.

He has participated in many shows as a guitarist/singer, sharing the stage with International and Canadian artists, including Celine Dion, Sylvain Cossette, Luc de La Rochellière, Plume Latraverse and Marc Dupré, namely under the musical direction of drummer Serge Lapointe.

Over two decades of his career, he was fortunate to work with great composers such as Les Frères Grand as their guitarist/vocalist and sound engineer. He was also invited to work as part of DayDream, a band with Sylvain and Dominique Grand, then moved on to projects such as: Budweiser, La vie d’artiste, Atlanta Olympics 1996 (Radio Canada), Cirque du Soleil (Solstrom), McDonalds, Loto-Québec, and more.

His experience has enabled him to collaborate on producing prestigious albums by Roch Voisine, Sylvain Cossette, Pascale Picard, Dralion from Cirque du Soleil, and feature films such as Bob Million (France/Quebec coproduction), and 2 Secondes, a film by Monon Bian.

He won the American Silver Ace Award at the 2010 Las Vegas International Film Festival for his production work on the music of the short film Whatever It Takes by Michael Tushaus.

In 2013, he was invited to perform as lead guitarist in the first performance of “One Night for One Drop” for the benefit of the Guy Laliberté Foundation, held at the Bellagio’s ‘0’ Theatre, in Las Vegas.

Through his companies, 39K Productions and Québexican Publishing, his creations can now be seen and heard internationally.