Clermont Pépin (May 15, 1926 – September 2, 2006) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and teacher who lived in Quebec.

Early life and education

Jean Joseph Clermont Pépin was born in Saint-Georges,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

in 1926. Pépin studied with influential Canadian composers

Claude Champagne Claude Champagne (27 May 1891 – 21 December 1965) was a French Canadian composer, teacher, pianist, and violinist. Early life and education Born as Joseph-Arthur-Adonaï Claude Champagne in Montreal, Quebec, Champagne began piano and theo ...

(Montreal) and Arnold Walter (Toronto), and at the

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship. Hi ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

from 1941 to 1944 with Rosario Scalero. He composed music for a film in 1948. In 1949 he won the

government study grant

Prix d'Europe The Prix d'Europe is a Canadian study grant that is funded by the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec of the Government of Quebec. Established in 1911, the award has been distributed annually to a single individual through competition wi ...

as a pianist, which afforded him the opportunity to study several years in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

(1949-1955). During this time he studied composition with

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably ''Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 to ...

and

André Jolivet André Jolivet (; 8 August 1905 – 20 December 1974) was a French composer. Known for his devotion to French culture and musical thought, Jolivet drew on his interest in acoustics and atonality, as well as both ancient and modern musical influe ...

, and analysis with

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...

at the same time as

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mont ...

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

, and

Serge Garant Albert Antonio Serge Garant, (September 22, 1929 – November 1, 1986) was a Canadian composer, conductor, music critic, professor of music at the University of Montreal and radio host of ''Musique de notre siècle'' on Radio-Canada.

. His work was also part of the music event in the art competition at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

Career

In the 1950s Pépin's compositions were performed by a number of symphony orchestras. He taught at the

Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal The Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal (CMQM) is a music conservatory located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In addition to the Montreal region, the school takes in students from nearby cities, including Granby, Joliette, St-Jean, S ...

from 1955 to 1964 and later served as director from 1967 to 1973. His pupils included

François Dompierre François Dompierre C.M. (born July 1, 1943) is a Canadian musician, songwriter and composer, best known as a composer of film scores.André Gagnon André Gagnon (2 August 1936 – 3 December 2020) was a Canadian pianist, composer, conductor, arranger, and actor, known for his fusion of classical and pop styles,Jean-Pierre Thiollet, ''88 notes pour piano solo'', Neva Editions, 2015, p.16 ...

, André Prévost,

Jeannine Vanier Marie Antoinette Jeannine Vanier (b. 21 August 1929) is a Canadian composer and organist who was born blind. Vanier was born in the Laval-des-Rapides neighbourhood of Laval, Quebec, to Émile and Alice Laurin Vanier. Her father was an engineer. S ...

, Jacques Hétu, Silvio Palmieri and

Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux (9 August 1938 – 2 February 1985) was a Canadian composer and music educator who played an important role in the contemporary classical music scene of Canada and France from the late 1960s through the mid-19 ...

. Pépin was best known for his String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4, his Symphonies Nos. 3 (''Quasars''), 4 (''La messe sur le monde'') and 5 (''Implosion'') and his ballets ''L'Oiseau-phénix'' and ''Le Porte-rêve''. Pépin's work was performed regularly on CBC Radio in the 1980s. He was named to the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

in 1981. In 1985, he established the Concours de Musique Clermont-Pépin to encourage the development of artists from the

Beauce Beauce may refer to: * Beauce, France, a natural region in northern France * Beaucé, a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department, Brittany, France * Beauce, Quebec, an historical and cultural region of Canada ** Beauce (electoral district), a fed ...

region of Quebec. In 1990, he was named an officer of the

National Order of Quebec The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as ''l'Ordre national du Québec'', and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is an order of merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Gove ...

. He died of

liver cancer Liver cancer (also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy) is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary (starts in liver) or secondary (meaning cancer which has spread from elsewhere to th ...

in 2006, aged 80.

Honors

*1949 -

*1952 - Prix du Centenaire de l'Université Laval *1955 - Prix international de composition de Radio-Luxembourg *1970 -

Prix Calixa-Lavallée Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who als ...

*1970 -

Bene merenti de patria Bene merenti de patria is a silver medal created in 1923. It is awarded by the Quebec patriotic Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society to a "compatriot having rendered exceptional services to the homeland". Laureates *1924: Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie *1924 ...

*1981 - Officer of the Order of Canada *1990 - Officer of the National Order of Quebec

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pepin, Clermont 1926 births 2006 deaths 20th-century Canadian composers 20th-century musicologists 20th-century Canadian male musicians Canadian male composers Canadian music academics Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal faculty Deaths from cancer in Quebec Deaths from liver cancer Musicians from Quebec Officers of the Order of Canada Officers of the National Order of Quebec Olympic competitors in art competitions People from Saint-Georges, Quebec