Jérôme Blais

Education

• BMus (McGill)
• MMus (Montreal)
• DMus (Montreal)

Research & creative activity

Dr. Blais' works, which feature a unique encounter between traditional composition and improvisation, have been performed by several individuals and ensembles, among which are Suzie LeBlanc, the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), Janice Jackson, Symphony Nova Scotia, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, Rosa Ensemble of Amsterdam, Quasar Saxophone Quartet, Bozzini String Quartet, Bradyworks, Array Music, Continuum, Upstream, suddenlyLISTEN, Motion Ensemble. He has been invited as featured composer by festivals such as Newfound Music in St. John's, Newfoundland, Shattering the Silence in Wolfville, Nova Scotia and Ok.Quoi?! in Sackville, New Brunswick. In 2010 he was keynote speaker at the Canadian University Music Society’s annual congress. Recent prestigious performances of his works include Es ist genug! by Canadian pianist Ang Li at Carnegie Hall in New York City as well as in Hong Kong, and an excerpt of his song cycle Songs for Milena (dedicated to the memory of Czech journalist Milena Jesensnká) by Janice Jackson and Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal. The complete song cycle was premiered by Ms. Jackson and Symphony Nova Scotia, conducted by Bernhard Gueller, in January 2015. In October 2018, cellists Norman Adams and Nicola Baroni performed his work Soliloque 04 at the Venice Biennale. Other recent works include Licks, performed by the Dalhousie Symphony Orchestra, and In D, performed by violinist Mark Fewer, pianist Walter Delahunt and cellist Adrian Brendel. In January 2019, Blais’ multimedia show Mouvance, based on contemporary Acadian poetry, was premiered by soprano Suzie LeBlanc, cellist Norm Adams, percussionist D’Arcy Gray, guitarist Jeff Torbert and clarinetist Eileen Walsh. After its premiere, the show has been presented in Québec and will be recorded as a studio album on the label Centerdiscs. In the fall of 2021, new arrangements of songs from Mouvance will be premiered by Christina Haldane and Carl Philippe Gionet (soprano and piano), and by Suzie LeBlanc with the London Symphonia (London, Ontario).
 
Dr. Blais' latest works include new compositions for soprano, recorder and harpsichord (presented at the Festival International the musique Baroque de Lamèque) and for woodwind quintet (commissioned by Ventus Machina).

Teaching       

• Music Theory I (MUSC 1201)
• Music Theory II (MUSC 1222)
• Introduction to Composition (MUSC 2210)
• Composition 1a and 1b (MUSC 3211-3212)
• Form and Analysis: The Second Viennese School to the Present Day (MUSC 3221)
• Tonal Counterpoint (MUSC 3284)
• Composition 2a and 2b (MUSC 4211-4212)
• Topics in Canadian Music (MUSC 4362): Francophone Singer/songwriters in Canada
• Contemporary Techniques (MUSC 4280)

Selected Publications

• Interviewed by Philipp Reisner, in Volume 38 of Intersection: Canadian Journal of Music (2018).
• 3 Improvisations. Keynote address for the annual meeting of the Canadian University Music Society (MusCan), Regina, June 4, 2010. Written text published in Intersections, journal of MusCan, vol. 31, no 2.
• Dr. Blais’ music has been recorded on the following CDs: “Live Wired” (2015), by the Acadia New Music Society, “Social Sounds” (2013) by oboist Catherine Lee, “Between the Shore and the Ships” (2012), with soprano Helen Pridmore and clarinetist Wesley Ferreira, “Piano Atlantica” (2010), by pianist Barbara Pritchard.
• “Music Under the influence: On la nécessité extérieure in the Music of John Rea”, paper presented at McGill University, as part of a symposium on the work of composer John Rea, January 2016.
• His work on musical notation is the subject of a paper in Composer au XXIe siècle: Pratiques, philosophies, langages et analyses (Paris, Vrin, 2011).

Awards and honours

• Dr. Blais' research and compositional activities have received funding from major agencies, such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Fonds pour la formation de chercheurs et l'aide à la recherche (FCAR, now FQRSC), the Conseil des arts et des letters du Québec (CALQ-Quebec’s Arts Council), Arts Nova Scotia and the Canada Council for the Arts, including a New Chapter grant for the show Mouvance in 2017, and a Concept to Realization grant for the production of a studio album for Mouvance in 2021.
• His show Mouvance has been nominated for an Éloize Acadian cultural Prize in 2021.
• Arts Nova Scotia Established Artist Recognition Award, 2017.
• His works Mouvance and Rafales, for solo oboe, were nominated for ECMA’s Best Classical Composition of the Year in 2013 and 2014. Mouvance is included on the 2013 East Coast Music Association (ECMA) Award winning Best Classical Recording Between the Shore and the Ships.