Composer and conductor Walter Boudreau has created over sixty works for various types of ensembles, as well as fifteen film scores and two ballets. His works have been performed in Canada, the United States, France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, and Finland. In 1998 he was awarded the prix Opus “Composer of the year” (Conseil québécois de la musique). Since 1988 Boudreau has been artistic director and principal conductor of the Ensemble de la Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ). In 1990 he was appointed as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s first composer in residence for a period of three years. Boudreau has directed various contemporary music group. With Denys Bouliane, he assumed the artistic direction of the Millennium Symphony (2000) and the Montréal/New Music Festival (MNM) (2003-05-07). Jointly they received the prix Opus “Musical Event of the year.” Among other distinctions, in 2003 Boudreau was awarded the Molson Prize by the Canada Council for the Arts, quickly followed in 2004 by the Prix Denise-Pelletier for the performing arts (Prix du Québec). In 2013 he was appointed as a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Québec, named as a Member of the Order of Canada. He has received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in the classical music category in 2015. In 2020: Knight of the Ordre de Montréal. After 33 years, in 2022, Walter Boudreau leaves the artistic direction of the SMCQ to devote himself to musical composition.
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