Claire Marchand » Biography

Thetford Mines, Québec, 1960

• Performer (flute)

Claire Marchand

Claire Marchand studied flute at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec with Gail Grimstead, then in Paris with Patrick Gallois and Pierre-Yves Artaud. She also attended various advanced courses and seminars, including two at IRCAM in Paris, and had special training in the performance of contemporary music with Robert Dick in New York. She currently teaches at McGill University’s Conservatory of Music and is a member of the contemporary music ensemble KORE.

Ms. Marchand is deeply involved with music of our time. She has performed numerous works of this kind, including those dedicated to her. She has performed as soloist at the modern music festivals Ars Musica in Belgium and the Foro Internacional de Música Nueva Manuel Enríquez in Mexico. She has given concerts and master classes in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Europe and Asia, and is heard regularly on state radio networks.

Claire Marchand can be heard on the ATMA classique label on a disc of twentieth-century music for solo flute. She was nominated for an Opus Prize in the categories “Recording of the Year” and “Premiere of the Year,” the latter for a work by Louis Dufort for flute and computer. With a grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, she spent time in Mexico in 2004 as part of an artist exchange between that country and Québec for the purpose of exploring new repertory for flute with Mexican composers. Last December, in collaboration with SMCQ, she gave the Canadian premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino’s L’Opera per flauto, for which she earned the praise of Montréal’s critical fraternity.

In preparing to perform the Opera per flauto, Marchand traveled to the Mozarteum in Salzburg to work with Roberto Fabbriciani and to Strasbourg to work with Mario Caroli. with whom she studies the flute music by this composer in 2005-06.