Jean Piché

Piché, Jean

Piché, Jean. Composer, teacher, b Trois-Rivières, Que, 21 Apr 1951. B MUS (Laval) 1975, MA (Simon Fraser) 1980. While studying Communication arts at Laval University, he undertook electroacoustic studies with Nil Parent and Marcelle Deschênes, which he pursued in Vancouver at Simon Fraser University with Barry Truax. He also collaborated on the World Soundscape Project directed by R. Murray Schafer. He then worked at Stanford U in California and at the Institute for Sound Research in Utrecht. In 1978 he won the CBC National Competition for Young Composers with his composition for tape La Mer à l'aube (1976). In 1981 the jury for the UNESCO International Tribune for Composers commended his piece Ange (1979) for voice and tape. After working three years for the Canada Council, Piché joined the Faculty of Music at the U. de Montréal in 1988. He was the director general of the festival Montréal Musiques actuelles, the eleventh edition of New Music America, a collection of musical creations of all styles, which was held from 1 - 11 November 1990. Dramatic, spectacular and sometimes humorous, the works of Piché, often commissions, in particular from the NMC, the Vancouver New Music Society and the Canadian pavilion at Expo 86, have earned him admiring reviews. His work is directed towards electroacoustics: Patchwork (1975), Heliograms (1977, issued in 1982 on micr. Mel. SMLP-4045 with La Mer à l'aube, Ange and Rouge, for percussion and tape), Of Nights and Horses (1984), Twilight Fields (1985) and Taxis to Burning Sky (1988, issued in 1990 on CD 4-ACM 37). He also uses tape combined with an acoustic instrument : Trois versions de l'affaire (1975) for 'cello and tape, Steal the Thunder (1984) for timpany, gongs and tape (issued in 1986 on LP and CD Centredisques CMC-2786 with percussionist Beverley Johnston), In Vertical Fire (1984) for six 'cellos and tape (the version for tape only was issued in 1990 on CD UMMUS UMM-101) and Sleight of Hand (1985) for oboe and tape. In 1989 Piché began to devote himself to the creation of a body of interactive works for computer and instrumentalists under the title musiques virtuelles. He is an associate of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community.