André Laplante, (born November 12, 1949) is a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

( Québécois) pianist. He received a 2004 Juno Award for the 2003 recording ''Concertos: Music of Jacques Hétu''. He is considered to be a

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

specialist and is also much associated with the music of

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

Education and early career

Born in

Rimouski Rimouski ( ; ) is a city in Quebec, Canada. Rimouski is located in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, at the mouth of the Rimouski River. It has a population of 48,935 (as of 2021). Rimouski, whose motto is ''Legi patrum fidelis'' (Faithful to ...

, Quebec, Canada, Laplante began studying piano at seven and continued after 1964 at the École Vincent-d'Indy with Natalie Pépin and Yvonne Hubert. In 1965 he won the

Montreal Symphony Orchestra The Montreal Symphony Orchestra () is a Canadian symphony orchestra based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The orchestra’s home is the Montreal Symphony House at Place des Arts. History Several orchestras were precursor ensembles to the curren ...

(MSO) Matinées prize for young performers, and in 1968 he took first prize at the MSO Concours and the Quebec Music Festivals. He continued his studies during 19701971 in New York at the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

with Sascha Gorodnitzki and, with the aid of Canada Council grants, during 19711974 in Paris with

Yvonne Lefébure Yvonne Lefébure (29 June 1898, Ermont – 23 January 1986, Paris) was a French pianist and teacher. Born in Ermont, she studied with Alfred Cortot at the Conservatoire de Paris, taking a ''premier prix'' in piano and numerous other subjects. She ...

. He worked again in 19761978 at Juilliard with Gorodnitzki. By this time he had performed as soloist with several Canadian orchestras, and in 19741975 had toured for the Jeunesses musicales of Canada (Youth and Music Canada).

Career from 1978 to present

Laplante was awarded 3rd prizes at the inaugural edition of the Sydney Competition and the XV Long-Thibaud Competition. He shared second place with French pianist Pascal Devoyon at the 1978

International Tchaikovsky Competition The International Tchaikovsky Competition is a classical music competition held every four years in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia, for pianists, violinists, and cellists between 16 and 32 years of age and singers between 19 and 32 years of ...

. Laplante made his debut at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

on October 21, 1978. He has received two

Felix Awards Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

for his recordings. At the award ceremonies of 2004, Laplante received a

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

in the category Classical Album of the Year – Large Ensemble or Soloist(s) with Large Ensemble Accompaniment for the recording ''Concertos: Music of Jacques Hétu''. The same album was placed on the ''

Fanfare A fanfare (or fanfarade or flourish) is a short musical flourish which is typically played by trumpets (including fanfare trumpets), French horns or other brass instruments, often accompanied by percussion. It is a "brief improvised introdu ...

'''s best discs list for 1996. He was awarded the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

on October 29, 2004 and invested to the Order on June 10, 2005.

References

;Citations {{DEFAULTSORT:Laplante, Andre 1949 births Living people People from Rimouski Officers of the Order of Canada Canadian male classical pianists Musicians from Quebec Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition prize-winners Sydney International Piano Competition prize-winners Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year – Large Ensemble or Soloist(s) with Large Ensemble Accompaniment winners 21st-century Canadian classical pianists 21st-century Canadian male musicians Juilliard School alumni