Yves Lapierre

Lapierre, Yves

Lapierre, Yves. Composer, arranger, singer, b Montreal 9 Aug 1946. He is a grandnephew of Eugène Lapierre. He studied at the École Vincent-d'Indy and took conducting and instrumentation classes 1969-70 with Michel Perrault. He was the director 1963-8 of the folk vocal quartet Les Cailloux, and he and Jean Fortier, Jean-Pierre Goulet and Robert Jourdain, performed in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec and in 1967 made a tour in Europe, Africa and Asia. Les Cailloux recorded two LPs with Pathé and two others with Capitol, which also reissued some of their great hits.

After being arranger for MSO's summer concerts in 1969 and 1970, which featured popular artists, Lapierre worked as composer, arranger, and producer for recordings by Julie Arel, Edith Butler, Renée Claude, Patsy Gallant, Claude Léveillée, Robert Charlebois, Suzanne Stevens, Toulouse, Johanne Blouin, Ginette Reno, and especially Jean Lapointe, the majority of whose records he produced. He has written such songs as 'Get That Ball,' 'Le Désamour,' and 'Moi, de la tête aux pieds'. He was music director for CBC French TV variety shows, in particular 'Monsieur B' and 'L'Heure de pointe' (1976-7). He composed the music for Guy Fournier's TV serials 'Jamais deux sans toi' (1977-80) and 'L'Or et le papier' (1988-9), for Lise Payette's 'La Bonne aventure,' and for several CBC TV dramas. From 1977 to 1989 he essentially devoted himself to writing jingles, for which he also sang and played piano. He has written music for several feature films, including Marcel Lefebvre's Mustang (1975) and Alain Chartrand's Ding et Dong, le film.