Clermont Pépin

Clermont Pépin

Clermont Pépin, composer, pianist, teacher, administrator (b at St-Georges-de-Beauce, Qué 15 May 1926). First taught composition by Claude CHAMPAGNE, Rosario Scalero and Arnold Walter, he won the 1949 Prix d'Europe as a pianist and studied composition, theory and piano in Paris. He taught at the CONSERVATOIRE DE MUSIQUE DU QUÉBEC in Montréal, where he was director 1967-73, and in Québec City. He was vice-president (1966-70) and president (1981-83) of the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada (CAPAC, which merged with PROCAN in 1990 to become SOCAN, a Canadian composers' rights and licensing body), and national president of JEUNESSES MUSICALES DU CANADA (1969-72).

Pépin's major works include Guernica, a symphonic poem; Quasars, Symphonie No 3; La Messe sur le monde, Symphonie No 4; Cycle Éluard; and a series of works called Monade. His monumental La Messe sur la monde was commissioned by Radio-Canada and premiered by the ORCHESTRE SYMPHONIQUE DE QUÉBEC in 1993. He won the 1970 PRIX DE MUSIQUE CALIXA-LAVALLÉE and in 1980 founded Les Éditions Clermont Pépin.

He is fascinated with new techniques in writing music, and all that surrounds them. He was one of the founders in 1965 of a study group focused on the future, the Centre d'études prospectives du Québec, of which he became president. Pépin was admitted as Officer to the Order of Canada (1981) and to the Ordre national du Québec (1990).