Raymond Perrin

Perrin, Raymond

Raymond Perrin. Organist, choir director, teacher, b Cap-de-la-Madeleine, near Trois-Rivières, Que, 10 Mar 1956; premier prix organ (Cons de Trois-Rivières) 1978. He began his musical studies at six and was a member of a children's choir. At the Conservatoire de Trois-Rivières he studied piano with Antoine Reboulot and organ with Bernard Piché and Noëlla Genest. Among his other teachers were Raymond Daveluy, Réjean Poirier, Christopher Jackson, Mireille Lagacé, and Harald Vogel. In 1976 while studying at the Festival de musique in Quercy, France, he was introduced to choral conducting by José Aquino, the conductor of the Opéra de Lyon choirs. In 1978 he won the John-Robb Organ Competition. On a grant from the Canada Council, he studied organ at the Strasbourg Cons (1980-2) with Daniel Roth and became his assistant. At the end of his studies, he won the premier prix in organ at the Concours interrégional de Strasbourg. On his return to Canada, he won the first prize of the National competition of the RCCO (1983). He was assistant, then co-director, of the great organ of the Basilica of the Cap-de-la-Madeleine (1971-88) where he began to conduct its choir (Maîtrise du Cap-de-la-Madeleine) in 1986. He took charge of the choirs of the Trois-Rivières Symphony Orchestra in 1987 and began to teach organ at the conservatory of the same city in 1988; he also conducts the conservatory choir. Besides Canada, he has performed in France, Switzerland, England, and the USA. He regularly performs for CBC and participated in a series of programs devoted to Charles Tournemire's L'Orgue mystique for Minnesota public radio (1990). He has composed several works for organ, for orchestra, and for choir. He has striven to promote Canadian music of the past and present.