Pianist, improviser and composer
For more information on the conference-concerts Music and the Brain and Musique et IA, check the Calendar page.
Training
I began my musical training at the age of 9 with the musician Päquerette Fiset in Sorel. At the age of 15, I discovered the American pianist Keith Jarrett who would have a profound influence on my inspiration and my musical direction. A few years later, I also became friends with François Bourassa and together we developed a love for jazz and improvised music. At McGill University, I also took theory and interpretation courses while continuing my studies in physiology. It was then a self-taught passion that took off late in life. Encouraged by sound editor and musician Guy Pelletier, I began my first recordings at the dawn of his 50th birthday. In a style inspired by Debussy, Ravel and Jarrett, my improvisations are unique musical journeys. A passion that I also share on stage in my conferences and shows on Music and the Brain.
Solo piano albums
In 2013 and 2014, I launched three albums – Soleil Levant, Fleur de sel and Métamorphoses – on Bandcamp. Recorded at the Chapelle historique du Bon Pasteur and in the studios of Guy Pelletier and Claude Champagne, these albums are suites of improvisations, spontaneous compositions.
New recordings
In January and February 2021, I entered the Tempo studio to record a new album “ Voyages« , et produire album compilation intitulé « Inspirations ». With the help of renowned sound engineer Claude Champagne, I tried to transpose into music the feelings that surrounded me and that affected us all during the pandemic: the need for peace and a beneficial escape.
In March 2023, I released a new album of intimate music recorded at home by sound engineer Simon Goulet. Among the pieces, there is a tribute to the composer Philipp Glass and a piece to support Ukrainians in this difficult conflict with Russia.
Some images taken during the recording and mixing of the Inspirations and Voyages albums at Studio Tempo in Montreal. Exceptional work by sound engineer Claude Champagne.
These two albums were successful and were broadcast on Radio-Canada in three shows:
Les saisons de Francis
with Francis Reddy on ICI Musique, Saturday November 20, 2021
Toute une musique
with Marie-Christine Trottier on ICI Musique, April 5, 2022
Rêveries
with Julie-Christine Parent on ICI Musique, Sunday April 17, 2022
Movie soundtrack
La légende du piano blanc
The adventure of this film lasted almost five years. It was a meeting of ideas between Guy Pelletier, Pierre Bündock and myself around the subject of German prison camps in Quebec during the Second World War. I composed the theme of the film and improvised the script sequences even before filming, a process rarely used in cinema. I also played the lead role in the film.
It is the fictional story of a German prisoner musician who escapes to join his daughter still in Germany. The soundtrack was nominated in the film music category at the International Sound and Film Festival in 2018. The pieces Les lettres perdues and La légende du piano blanc sont particulièrement évocatrices.
The PianoDalissimo 3-D project
At the same time as the production of The Legend of the White Piano, we also worked on a 3D film project. With the help of cameraman and editor Alain Baril, we shot scenes for a musical film about the Catalan surrealist painter Salvador Dali. It is the story of Dali's chance meeting with a young man pianist who turns out to be his son. A project that never came to fruition but which allowed us to work in an unusual medium that was, to say the least, technically demanding.
Collaborations
L’harmonie des sphères
In 2018, Pierre Bündock and I set out to make an album of improvised music and compositions dedicated to science through a mixture of piano and electronic music, L’harmonie des sphères is intended to be a musical reflection on themes as diverse as the disappearance of monarch butterflies, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the exploration of the abyss and the life of Einstein, for which Pierre Bündock composed a moving song. We were inspired by the deep connections that exist between creative processes in art and science. A beautiful trip….
URNOS
URNOS is a scientific hoax. The composer André Hamel had the genius to invent a theatrical and musical work around a ritual of a people who does not exist, the Urnosean people. A sumptuous staging, convincing and magnificent costumes, and invented instruments bring to life this funeral ritual ceremony central to the culture of URNOS. So I open the show as a science popularizer with a long presentation of the facts.
In the 1940s, American and British archaeologists made an astonishing discovery that would shake up the worlds of archeology and anthropology. This is the discovery of an unknown civilization in the Indus Valley region more than 3,000 years ago. Even more striking, these people were the first to develop a form of musical notation. This show is therefore a transcription in modern notation of one of the musical fragments found.
Presented for the first time at Usine C in 2004 with the anthropologist Bernard Arcand, I resumed production in February 2011 as part of the Montréal Nouvelles Musiques festival of the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec in a co-production of the MMM, the Nef and Unlimited Sound Spaces. The show was so convincing that it fooled more than one person. La Nef did an incredible job of making this performance believable. Moreover, URNOS was awarded an Opus prize in 2011 by the Conseil québécois de la musique in the “Concert of the year – Current music, electroacoustic” category.
Soudcloud
To listen to my music continuously on Soudcloud, here are some pieces taken from albums and other unpublished pieces: