Stéphane Venne

Venne, Stéphane

Stéphane Venne. Singer-songwriter, arranger, record producer, administrator, b Verdun (Montreal) 2 Jul 1941. He taught himself the rudiments of music and at about 15 began composing songs. Between 1960 and 1966 he wrote and arranged music for several Quebec singers and started to perform on stage and to record. He made three LPs for Select, each one entitled Stéphane Venne (1965, SSP-24126; 1966, SSP-24136; 1967, SSP-24150) (see also Discography for Chansonniers). His career was launched when his song 'Un jour, un jour'/'Hey Friend, Say Friend' was chosen as the theme song for Expo 67.

As head of production 1967-72 for Barclay Canada Venne produced many hit singles of his own songs, including 'Le Début d'un temps nouveau' for Renée Claude, 'Attention la vie est courte' for Pierre Lalonde, and 'Les Enfants de l'avenir' and 'Le Temps est bon' for Isabelle Pierre. In 1972 he formed Solset with Frank Furtado to finance his productions.

In 1972 Venne arranged and conducted the music for the LP Stéphane Venne en dix chansons orchestrales (Barclay 80162), which was made in Paris. The LP Tranquillement (Solset SOLT-59603), on which he sings 'C'est pas lundi aujourd'hui,' was released in 1975. For the singer Emmanuelle he wrote, among other songs, 'Le Monde à l'envers,' 'Chanter pour vivre,' and 'C'est pas fini.' He has written as well for Donald Lautrec, Michel Louvain, and Melody Stewart. He was conductor and arranger for the LP Aimons-nous les uns les autres by Michel Conte and arranger for Petit Matin (Le Nordet GVN 1006) by Sylvain Lelièvre. In the 1970s he also produced shows at the PDA, composed the music for the films Les Mâles, Où êtes-vous donc?, Heads or Tails, Les Plouffes (with Claude Denjean, Canadian Film Awards for best song and film music in 1982), and wrote jingles.

In 1974 Venne was a principal in the promotion of the Superfrancofête, a French-speaking international festival held in Quebec City. In 1975 he was chairman of the board of directors for Chant'Août, a festival of Quebec chanson in Quebec City. In 1976 he organized and directed a song competition for the Montreal Olympics and opened radio station CIEL-FM in Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal. He was president of CAPAC 1977-8. He initiated and produced six LPs of programmed background music (Musique du Québec) issued in 1979 by Kébec-Disc (KDM-967-972) (see Muzak). In 1984 he wrote the theme song for Quebec city's 375th anniversary, 'Un été mer et monde,' performed by Pierre Bertrand and Francine Raymond, which won five Coqs d'or awards for best commercial music at the Publicité Club of Montreal. Since then he has pursued a career as an administrator and consultant in the field of communications.

Writings

'It's time now to re-evaluate the composer's role,' CanComp, 139, Mar 1979