Clermont Pépin

Clermont Pépin was a Canadian composer, pianist and music educator. He studied with influential Canadian composers Claude Champagne in Montréal (1939-41 and 1944-46) and Arnold Walter in Toronto (from 1946), and at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia from 1941-44. In 1949 he won the Prix d’Europe as a pianist and lived in Paris until 1955, where he took piano and composition lessons with Arthur Honegger, André Jolivet, and Olivier Messiaen.

In 1955-73 and 1977-87 Pépin taught at the “Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal”, but in the interim he worked for the Ministry of Culture in Canada. From 1967-73 he acted as director of the Conservatoire. He was elected vice-president (1969-1972) and president (1980-82) of the CAPAC (Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada). He even founded his own publishing house to publish his own works. Pépin was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in 1981 und of the National Order of Québec in 1990. He was married to pianist Raymonde Gagnon and later to violinist Mildred Goodman.

The earliest work written by the 12-year old Pépin was staged in 1938, one year later a symphonic adaptation of a piano score. His first symphony – still in his early post-Romantic style – was broadcast in 1947. In 1948, he took part in the orchestra section of the art competitions with his Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra written in 1946 and first performed in the same year by the Montréal Youth Symphony Orchestra. Elements of jazz and serial music were noticeable in his ballets and theatre music from the 1950s. In 1972 Pépin wrote Monade III, a bravura piece for violin and orchestra for the Montréal International Music Competition. In 1983, at the 50th anniversary of the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, they performed his symphony Implosion. In later years, he also composed religious works.