Robert Lemay

Biography

Sample Works

Robert Lemay has composed many works and received numerous international awards. Among recent honors include the second prize from the International Competition Prize Luxembourg 2007 and the second prize from the Kazimierz Serocki 10th International Composers’ Competition 2006. Other international prizes include the first prize from the 2004 Harelbeke Muziekstad Wind Ensemble Competition in Belgium. The first prize was given by the city of Harelbeke with 10,000 Euro for his piece, Ramallah for saxophone alto and wind ensemble. In addition, Lemay received the first prize at the “El Ruiseñor Grave” in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1998, three prizes from the CAPAC (presently SOCAN).

His music, which often employs virtuoso performance techniques, is characterized by an imaginative and unconventional use of the concert hall space. Lemay has been performed in Canada, the United States, Asia (Japan and Thailand), Europe (France, Denmark, Spain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, and Belgium), and in South America (Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela). Many of his pieces have also been broadcast on Société Radio-Canada, CBC, Bavarian State Radio, European Broadcasting Union (Luxembourg), and Polish National Radio. By 2009, his music has been released commercially on seven different CDs, including Débâcle on the Atma label by Estria Woodwind Quintet. His piece Mitsu no kisetsu for mezzo-soprano and baritone saxophone is published by the Éditions Jobert in Paris. Four of his saxophone pieces, including the 5 Études pour saxophone alto, are also published by the Éditions Fuzeau in France.

Saxophone is dominant in his entire oeuvre. Lemay has written for performers such as Daniel Gauthier, Jean-François Guay, Rémi Ménard, Jean-Michel Goury, Serge Bertocchi, Susan Fancher, Jean-Marie Londeix, Le Quatuor de Saxophones Nelligan, Danish Saxophone Quartet, Xasax, Cuarteto de Saxofones Italica, José Antonio Santos Salas, Miguel Romero Moran and Stéphane Sordet. Robert Lemay also wrote pieces for notable musicians such as Yoko Hirota, (piano), Yang Jing (pipa), Jean-Guy Boisvert (clarinet), James C. Lebens (trombone), Michel Bettez (bassoon), Christian Robinson (violin), Ensemble vent et percussion de Québec, Ensemble Clavivent, Ensemble Percumania, Estria Woodwind Quintet, Ensemble Musica Nova, Sudbury Symphony Orchestra, Molinari String Quartet, Trielen Trio and the New Music Ensemble of the Glenn Gould School.

Lemay holds a doctorate degree in composition from the Université de Montréal where he studied under Michel Longtin, and a master’s degree from Université Laval with François Morel. He also studied at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and has worked with David Felder and taken part in seminars with Brian Ferneyhough, Louis Andriessen, and Donald Erb. In France, he worked with François Rossé in Bordeaux and Georges Apergis at the ATEM in Paris.

Presently, Robert Lemay teaches at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. He is the President and the Co-artistic director of the 5-Penny New Music Concerts in Sudbury.

2009

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