Denys Bouliane

Denys Bouliane, composer (b at Grand-Mère, Qué 8 May 1955). After attending Laval University, where he studied composition with Jacques HÉTU, he moved to Germany to study with Mauricio Kagel and then with György Ligeti. He has received numerous composition prizes, including two in 1982 from the CBC and the Gaudeamus Foundation in Holland for Jeux de Société, a Prize of the Performing Rights Organization of Canada for Douze Tiroirs de demi-vérités pour alleger votre descente, the 1987 Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music for À propos ... et le baron perché? and a 1989 West German radio prize for Le Cactus rieur et la demoiselle qui souffrait d'une soif insatiable. He was named composer of the year by the Canadian Music Council in 1983, and accepted the prestigious Foërderpreis from the city of Cologne in 1985. In 1991 his musical achievements were recognized when he received the Serge Garant Award of the Nelligan Foundation in Montréal. The Quebec Music Council awarded him in 1999 with the Opus prize "Musical Personality of the Year."

From 1992 to 1995 he was composer-in-residence of the ORCHESTRE SYMPHONIQUE DE QUÉBEC, and from 1995 to 1996 he assumed the same role for the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1995 he was appointed Professor of Composition at McGill University. He currently acts as music director of the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble and artistic director of MusicMarch, an annual international festival organized by McGill's Faculty of Music, the SOCIÉTÉ DE MUSIQUE CONTEMPORAINE DU QUÉBEC, the ORCHESTRE SYMPHONIQUE DE MONTRÉAL, CBC and Radio-Canada. In 1998-99 he was artistic coordinator of Québec's musical participation at Radio France's Festival Présences 1999. He was co-Artistic Director with Walter BOUDREAU of the Millennium Symphony in Montreal (2000) and the new international biennial Montréal-nouvelles musiques (2003). Until 2006 he will be the Composer-in-Residence and guest conductor at the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. He has been a regular conductor of the Ensemble Xxe siècle of the OSQ and for the music festival Québec Musiques au present. Bouliane founded the New Music Symposium at Domaine Forget in 1995, and currently serves as co-Artistic Director. His writings have been published in several specialized journals. Recent works include the concerto for bass clarinet Le sexe des anges (2000), the chamber work Qualia sui (2001) and Quatuor à cordes (2002)

Bouliane's music - inspired by sources as diverse as Gregorian chant and jazz - has been described as "magic realism." His works are regularly performed and broadcast in North America and in Europe.

Author CLAIRE VERSAILLES Revised: RACHELLE TAYLOR and ALEXIS LUKO