Alain Perron

Music Department
Associate Professor
E-mail: alain.perron@uregina.ca
Research interests
Music composition (instrumental/vocal); Orchestration and Instrumentation; Electronic and Electroacoustic music; Conducting (symphonic orchestra/new music ensembles); Performance (oboe/English horn); Musical analysis 20th-21st century
Born in Cap-Santé, near Quebec City, Dr. Alain Perron studied oboe and composition in Trois-Rivières and Quebec City. He obtained his Master’s Degree in 1989 at Laval University under the supervision of François Morel. In 1993 he received two prestigious grants, one from SSHRC (Canada) and one from FCAR (Québec), to study with the renowned composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki at the Academy of Music in Krakow, Poland, where he received his doctorate in 1996.
He has taught Composition at the University of Regina since July 2002, where he is also the Music Director of the University Orchestra, the Composition New Music Ensemble and the U of R New Music Ensemble.
Perron has received numerous first prizes for his compositions for orchestra, including the Sir Ernest MacMillan Prize from SOCAN, the du Maurier New Music Festival in Winnipeg and the Mosaïco Music Festival Prize in Korea. He has also received many commissions from prestigious orchestras and ensembles such as the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Montréal), the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Jugendkammerorchester (Stuttgart), the Orchestre symphonique de Sherbrooke, the Quatuor Claudel and the Sinfonia de Lanaudière, the Molinari String Quartet, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), the Nouvel Ensemble à Cordes de Québec, the Nelligan Quartet, Rocco Parisi (Italy), the Orchestre symphonique du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, the National Youth Choir, the Claudel String Quartet, the Rubbing Stone Ensemble (Calgary), the Ensemble Transmission (Montreal) and several from the Société Radio-Canada and CBC. In 2009 and 2011, he was nominated for the Western Canadian Music Awards under the category “Classical Composition of the Year.”
Many of Perron's works have been recorded on CD, and played in several countries throughout Europe, Asia, and in Russia. In addition, he also pursues his career as a conductor and as a performer (oboe and English horn). He is the founder and artistic director of Le Nouvel Ensemble à Cordes de Québec (NEC).
ACCREDITATION
- PhD (Music Composition & Conducting - Krakow Academy of Music, Poland) 1996
- MMus (Composition - Laval University) 1992
- BMus (Composition - Laval University) 1989
- BMus (Performance: English Horn/Oboe - Laval University) 1989
- Fibonacci Numbers for chamber ensemble premiered by Trio Fibonacci in Regina, March 2012.
- Cycle 4 for multiple saxophones and chamber ensemble premiered by Neworks Calgary & Jeremy Brown in Calgary, March 2010.
- Tristesse blanche for soprano and chamber orchestra premiered by U of R New Music Ensemble in Regina, October 2009.
- Land of Living Skies II for woodwind trio premiered by Estria Woodwind Trio in Sherbrooke, October 2008.
- Northern Lights: Soir d'hiver for soprano and piano premiered by Sophie Bouffard and David McIntyre on Prairie Debut Tour in 2007.
- Land of Living Skies for woodwind quintet premiered by Estria Quintet in Quebec, May 2006.
- Rupture for saxophone quartet and piano premiered by Nota Bene Quartet and Jacynthe Riverin in Montreal, February 2006.
- La romance du vin for soprano and piano premiered by Sophie Bouffard and Jamie Syer in Calgary Neworks, March 2005 and performed in Vilnius, Kiev and Cracow, May 2005.
- 1st Prize, Mosaïco Music Festival, Seoul, South Korea in the orchestral category for L'autre silence. 1995
- 1st Prize, duMaurier New Music Festival in Winnipeg in the orchestral category for Séquences voiles. 1993
- 1st Prize, Gold Merit in the annual SOCAN Canada Sir Ernest MacMillan competition, orchestral category - for Dorléac. 1989