Rachel Martel

Martel, Rachel

Rachel Martel. Pianist, teacher, b La Tuque, Que, 12 Mar 1939; premier prix piano (CMQ) 1959. She studied 1953-6 at the École supérieure de musique de Nicolet and 1956-9 at the CMQ with Guy Bourassa. In 1959 she obtained the Prix d'Europe and a Canada Council scholarship. She worked in Paris with Yvonne Loriod and in Karlsruhe, Germany, at the Badische Hochschule für Musik, from which she graduated in 1963. She received the special interpretation prize for her performance of Kelsey Jones'Passacaglia, the Canadian set piece in the first (1961) JMC National Competition, and toured for the JMC in 1962-3 and 1966-7. With Pierre Morin she premiered André Prévost'sCello Sonata in Paris in 1962. Appointed coach-accompanist at Laval University in 1967, she also has accompanied Pierre Boutet, Chantal Masson, the violinist Liliane Garnier-Lesage, and the clarinetist John Van Bockern; with the soprano Ginette Duplessis she premiered Jacques Hétu'sLes Clartés de la nuit in Quebec City in 1973. She returned to France in 1968 to study harpsichord with Robert Veyron-Lacroix in Nice. A pianist often praised by critics for the elegance and musicality of her playing, Martel has performed also as a harpsichordist on CBC radio and TV. In 1964 she made the LP Oeuvres pour flüte et piano with her husband Roger Cantin (Radio-Marie RM-36503).