Louise Bessette
A versatile musician and a piano wizard, Louise Bessette is much in demand as a concert artist in Europe, America, and Asia. Numerous organizations and international competitions have seen 昀椀t to reward her talent, and her reviews are constantly laudatory. She has recorded a wide variety of repertoire both as a soloist and with chamber ensembles, appearing the world over with distinguished orchestras and by invitation to 昀椀rst-rate festivals. Many composers write especially for her. In 2019, Louise Bessette received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for Classical Music. The GGPAA are Canada’s highest honour in the performing arts. In 2016, she was honoured in London, University of Western Ontario, where she received the degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa, to celebrate her accomplishments as an internationally recognized performer.

As a pianist with an eclectic repertoire, and always eager to promote exchange with other art forms, Louise Bessette recorded works by Alkan and Grieg for a 昀椀lm soundtrack in 2009. “Hidden diary” by French 昀椀lm director Julie Lopes-Curval, starring Catherine Deneuve and Marie-Josée Croze, was presented as world premiere at the Festival des Films du Monde in Montreal (2009), and then in movie theatres all over the world. Louise Bessette received her tenth Opus Prize from Conseil québécois de la musique in 2021. In 2015, she was listed as one of Canada’s top 25 pianists by CBC Music. First Prizes at Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition (1981), Concours International de Musique Contemporaine (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1986), International Gaudeamus Competition (Rotterdam, 1989), Femme de l’Année at Salon de la Femme de Montréal (Arts category, 1989), Prix Québec-Flandre (1991), Member of the Order of Canada (2001), Of昀椀cier de l’Ordre national du Québec (2005), Canadian Music Centre Ambassador (2009), Louise Bessette has been a professor of piano at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal since 1996.

François Dompierre
is a writer, presenter, rambler, and baker; but 昀椀rst and foremost he is a composer and improviser. He began his career as an author-composer-performer and soon became an orchestrator, collaborating with Félix Leclerc, for whom he produced 昀椀ve albums, including Le Tour de l’Ile, and several other Québécois artists. Dompierre, a recording of his own compositions released in 1975, became a popular success. He composed scores for 昀椀lms directed by Jacques Godbout, Denys Arcand, Michel Brault, Claude Fournier, Francis Mankiewicz, Alain Chartrand, Denise Filiatrault, Claude Miller, André Melançon, Jean Beaudin, Claude Chabrol, and Léa Pool. As well as the music for Demain matin, Montréal m’attend, a musical comedy with text by Michel Tremblay, Dompierre has also written major concert works; a violin concerto; two piano concertos; the music for Les Glorieux, a piece honoring hockey players; and Vingt-quatre Préludes, recorded on the Analekta label by pianist Alain Lefèvre. In 2016, he wrote Concertango Grosso for pianist Louise Bessette (ATMA Classique 2016). His Fantaisie pour piano fantôme et orchestre was performed as an introduction to the Concours musical international de Montréal (2017). He composed Par quatre chemins for the New Orford String Quartet (ATMA Classique 2018). The album Phonèmes was recorded in Montreal’s Maison symphonique under the direction of the young orchestra conductor Francis Choinière and with Louise Bessette at the piano. (Classiques GFN 2022). François Dompierre is the author of two food books, published by Boréal; and of two biographies, published by Éditions La Presse: Monique Leyrac, le roman d’une vie (2019), and his autobiography, François Dompierre, Amours, délices et orgues. Récits d’une vie plurielle (2021). For 12 years he was a host on Radio-Canada’s ICI Musique. In 2019, the song L’âme à la tendresse, for which he wrote the music, was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. François Dompierre has received in 2016 the Tribute Award at the Gala du cinéma québécois of Québec Cinéma and he was a guest of honor at Montreal’s Cinemania Film Festival (2022). He is a Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade (2006), a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec (2014), and a Member of the Order of Canada (2014).