Renée Morisset

Renée Morisset. Pianist, teacher, born St-Damien-de-Bellechasse, near Quebec City, 13 Jun 1928, died Québec City 3 May 2009; deuxième prix piano (CMM) 1946, premier prix piano (CMM) 1947. After studying piano 1932-3 at the Notre-Dame-du-Perpétuel-Secours convent, Renée Morisset took lessons 1937-44 from Henri Gagnon in Quebec City. She studied under Germaine Malépart 1944-5 at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec and 1945-8 at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal (CMM). She also worked at the CMM with Louis Bailly and John Newmark (chamber music), and Georges-Émile Tanguay (theory). She continued her training with Malépart privately until 1950. Morisset gave recitals in public and on radio and in 1950 was a soloist with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra in concertos by Bach and Mozart. That year she married the pianist Victor Bouchard, and from then on her career was linked professionally with that of her husband. They studied in Paris 1950-3 and formed a two-piano team that soon gained an international reputation. She taught 1955-66 at the Jeunesses musicales of Canada Orford Arts Centre and was a member of juries for the 1968 Montreal International Music Competition, the 1985 International Bach Piano Competition, the Canada Council, and other competitions and granting bodies. Appointed members of the Order of Canada in 1981, Victor Bouchard and Renée Morisset were elevated to the rank of officers in 1985, and were made Chevaliers of the Ordre national du Quebec in 1994. In 1997 they were made members of the Academie des Grands Québecois, and in 2004 they received the Prix de la Fondation from the Quebec Symphony Orchestra. In 2008, a book about the couple Le Grand Duo: Bouchard et Morisset pianistes duettistes by Carole Bessette was published by Instant Meme.

For the discography and details of the Bouchard and Morisset two-piano team, see Victor Bouchard.

Author Gilles Potvin