Denis Dion

Dion, Denis

Dion, Denis. Composer, b Quebec City 2 Sep 1957; B MUS (Laval) 1981, M MUS (Laval) 1983, DMA (Southern California) 1987. He studied with Alain Gagnon, José Evangelista, François Morel, and John Hawkins. In 1988, he resided in Europe on a grant from the Canada Council. He has won several awards, including CAPAC's Sir Ernest MacMillan Award/Fellowship three times, the first prize of the Canadian Federation of University Women's Creative Arts Award in 1983, the Robert Fleming Award for Young Composers in 1983, the ASCAP Foundation Grant to Young Composers Award in 1987 and the Phi Kappa Phi Award in 1988. In 1984 he was given the first composition prize by the Southwestern Youth Music Festival of Los Angeles for his piece Alinéa (1983). His output includes some 40 works which have been performed by the Contemporary Music Ensemble of the University of Southern California, the Kronos Quartet, and the Pasadena Chamber Orchestra, among others. He has received commissions from the Assn de musique actuelle de Québec (Au Pluriel, 1983), from the Canadian Federation of University Women (L'Arbre aux souhaits, 1984), from the CBC (Veuillez agréger les sentiments mes plus distincts, 1984, and Solimilitude, 1987), from the OJQ (Konzert, 1987), from the Quebec Symphony Orchestra (Autour de l'envers, 1990), and from Pierre Boulez and the Scotia Festival of Music (Virage protégé seulement sur feu vert clignotant, 1990, premiered in Halifax in 1991 by the Ensemble InterContemporain under Boulez). His Pas de Deux for violin and guitar (1981, Doberman-Yppan 1985) was recorded by Eugène Husaruk and Michael Laucke (RCI 583), and his Kant for guitar and chamber orchestra (1981) was recorded by Michel Langevin and a CBC ensemble under the direction of Giles Auger (RCI 625). Dion is an associate of the Canadian Music Centre.