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Walter Boudreau |
 Biography |
Born in Montréal in 1947, composer and conductor Walter Boudreau has a catalog of some fifty compositions written for orchestra, various chamber ensembles, soloists, plus some 15 film scores and music for 2 ballets.
He studied piano and saxophone and was, by age 18, leading his own jazz quartet, with whom he also recorded his first LP. In 1968, with poet Raoul Duguay, he founded an odd thirty-three-member band called l'Infonie, that was described as somewhere between "happening, jazz, contemporary music and multi-media". Over a period of five years, L'Infonie gave no less than 200 concerts, recorded four albums, published a book and was the main subject of a film.
Attracted to writing, Walter Boudreau studied analysis with Bruce Mather at McGill University and then analysis and composition with Gilles Tremblay at the Montréal Conservatory of Music and Serge Garant at the University of Montréal.(1969-73) He was at that time particularly affected by the music of Edgar Varèse and the discovery of serialism through Anton Webern. . With numerous grants from the Canada Council , he went on to study both in Europe and in the US with Mauricio Kagel, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti, Olivier Messiaen, Iannis Xenakis and Pierre Boulez. After touring with Jeunesses Musicales du Canada and Vancouver based Festival Concert Society, Walter Boudreau attended private computer-music workshops at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and at the Center for Music experiment in San Diego.
In 1974, he won the first Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Young Composer's Award, the Jules-Léger Prize for new music in 1982, and the Grand Prix Paul-Gilson from La Communauté des radios publiques de langue française (CRPLF) Paris, 1991. Artistic director and principal conductor of la Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) since 1988, succeeding composers Serge Garant and Gilles Tremblay, his performance as artistic director was rewarded with the prestigious Grand Prix 1991 of the city of Montréal Art Council (CACUM). In 1990, he was chosen as the first Toronto Symphony composer-in-residence, for a three year term. During his mandate, four commissions were premiered by the orchestra. Walter Boudreau's music has been performed in Canada, the U.S, France, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Finland.
Walter Boudreau has received numerous commissions from orchestras, ensembles, soloists and music organizations among which: la Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), l'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, l'Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, la Société Radio-Canada (radio et télévision), radio-France, Evergreen Club, I Musici de Montréal, Musica Camerata Montréal, Days, Months and Years to come, Vancouver New Music, l'Ensemble International de Saxophones (Bordeaux), l'Ensemble de Cuivres d'Aquitaine, Paul-André Fortier Danse, McGill Percussion Ensemble, l'Ensemble d'Ondes de Montréal, le Quintette à Vent du Québec, le Trio Trois, Louis-Philippe Pelletier, la Philharmonie des Vents du Québec, Toronto Symphony, le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Musica Nova, etc.
Walter Boudreau has also conducted various ensembles and orchestras throughout Canada and abroad in the performance and the recording of new music, among which: l'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, le Choeur de Chambre de l'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, les solistes de l'Orchestre de Radio France, l'Orchestre Métropolitain, the Toronto Symphony, the McGill Symphony Orchestra, Esprit Orchestra, the National Arts Center orchestra, l'Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, l'Orchestre Mondial des Jeunesses Musicales, l'Orchestre de Radio- Canada à Québec et Montréal, the Vancouver New Music Ensemble, l'Ensemble de Musique Nouvelle de Liège, the Evergreen Club Gamelan and l'Ensemble de la SMCQ.
Between 1993 and 1998, Walter Boudreau led an ensemble of eight musicians and two singers (the"Dangerous Kitchen" ) under the auspices of l'ACREQ, dedicated to the exclusive performance of the music of Frank Zappa. A CD on Port-Royal label (Hommage to Frank Zappa) followed concerts in Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, Québec City, Dresden, Houston and Dallas.
Co-director with Denys Bouliane of the Québec Symphony Orchestra New Music festival "Musiques au présent",Walter Boudreau was awarded the Composer of the year Prix Opus 1998 and with Denys Bouliane, two Prix Opus 1999, for the Québec Symphony orchestra contemporary music festival, "Musiques au présent" and also the Prix Opus 2000 (musical event of the year) as co-director of the Symphony of the Millénium. (La Symphonie du Millénaire) In 1997 and 2002, the "SMCQ Live" and « Claude Vivier CDs, conducted by Walter Boudreau, won the Prix Opus of best album of the year.. (contemporary music category)
Again with co-director denys Bouliane, Boudreau founded a nem music festival-Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques (MNM- which held it's first edition in March 2003 to great success.
2003
