Gabriel Charpentier

Gabriel Charpentier

Gabriel Charpentier, composer, poet, artistic adviser (b at Richmond, Qué 13 Sept 1925). He studied piano with Jean PAPINEAU-COUTURE, the Benedictine monks in Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, and in France with Norbert Dufourcq, Annette Dieudonné and Nadia Boulanger. From 1953 to 1980 he was Music Programs co-ordinator and consultant for the television service of Société Radio- Canada. Charpentier was drawn to the theatre, to which he contributed several works and incidental pieces, notably for the Stratford Festival's Shakespeare, Webster and Molière productions, and for the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, where he was resident music director from 1959 to 1972. He continues to compose extensively for the stage. Charpentier wrote the texts of Pierre Mercure's Dissidence and Cantate pour une joie, and translated R. Murray SCHAFER's Toi/Loving and Beauty and the Beast. Other works include compositions for chamber ensembles, solo instruments, voice and choir. His opera Orphée I was commissioned for the inauguration of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa (1969). One of his recent compositions is the massive Messe de Saint Jean Baptiste et de Sainte Cécile for soloists, choir and orchestra (1997).

Charpentier is a member of the artistic committee for a performing artists' centre in Brussels and an executive member of the Comus Music Theatre Foundation. He has also served as artistic director of the Pro Musica Society (1979-81).