Gilbert Patenaude

Patenaude, Gilbert
Gilbert Patenaude. Conductor, composer, b Montreal 30 Apr 1947; BA (Montreal) 1966. Following piano and organ studies at the École Vincent-d'Indy, he studied voice with Pierre Mollet, orchestral conducting with Rémus Tzincoca and analysis with Gilles Tremblay at the CMM. He received further training in orchestral conducting at the Académie internationale d'été in Nice, France (1976), and in orchestral opera accompaniment with the Hilversum Orchestra in Holland (1980). He was a member and music director 1974-8 of the vocal quartet Les Troubadours de Terre des hommes, and music director 1976-86 of the Choeur Vaudreuil-Soulanges, with whom he recorded the LP Au coeur du Québec: nos meilleurs chansonniers (1986, SNE-526). He was appointed director of the Petits chanteurs du Mont-Royal in 1978. The latter ensemble premiered his cantata Pâques in 1986. Patenaude represented the CBC three times at the Rencontres internationales de chant of the Communauté des radios publiques de langue française: in Lausanne (1981), Brussels (1983), and Montreal (1985) where he conducted the premiere of his work De race surhumaine with the Orchestre métropolitain and 400 choristers.

Also committed to musical activities in the city of Laval, he has served as conductor of the Laval Symphony Orchestra (1984-7) and the Symphonie des Mille-Îles (1987-91, a youth orchestra), and as music director of the Théâtre d'art lyrique de Laval (beginning in 1986); as well, he has been founding director of the choir of the Mille-Îles school board (from 1987) and the girls' choir L'Art qui chante au féminin (from 1988). His Messe liturgique pour choir, organ and brass received its first performance at the Montreal Olympic Stadium in 1982, on the occasion of Brother André's beatification. His opera Pour ces quelques arpents de neige (libretto by Thérèse Tousignant) was premiered 1989 by the Théâtre d'art lyrique de Laval which staged the work in France and Belgium that year. Patenaude has orchestrated Maurice Blackburn's opera, Silent Measures.

Author Lorraine Lafetière

Bibliography

Sarrasin, Francine. 'Gilbert Patenaude: un homme-orchestre québécois,' Aria, vol 13, Spring 1990