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Bio of composers > HÉTU, JacquesSheduled performances
 Jacques
Hétu
is one of the most performed Canadian composers,
both within Canada and abroad. After musical
studies at the University of Ottawa, he entered
the Montreal Conservatory where he studied piano,
oboe and composition between 1956 and 1961.
During the summer of 1959, Hétu studied
composition with Lukas Foss at the Berkshire
Music Center in Tanglewood, Massachusetts. In
1961, he obtained a First Prize at the Conservatory
and during the same year he recieved three other
prizes: the Composition Prize of the Quebec
Music Festival, a grant from the Canada Council
of the Arts and the Prix D'Europe (a very prestigious
prize which had not been awarded to a composer
since 1927). These grants allowed him to continue
his studies in Paris. He studied composition
at the Ecole Normale with Henri Dutilleux where,
in 1963, he was awarded a Diplôme d'Excellence.
At the same time, he took courses in analysis
with Olivier Messiæn at the Paris Conservatory.
The works of Hétu include four symphonies:
concertos for piano (1969), bassoon (1979),
clarinet (1983), trumpet (1987), ondes martenot
(1990), flute (1991), guitar (1994), trombone
(1995) and a double concerto for piano and violin
(1967) works for voice and orchestra including
Les Abîmes du Rêve (l982) and the
Missa pro trecentisimo anno (1985, for the Bach
tri-centenary); an opera, Le Prix, as well as
several chamber pieces.
In 1990, Pinchas Zukerman invited Jacques Hétu
to tour with Ottawa's National Arts Center Orchestra
to Germany, Denmark and Great Britain. Zukerman
had chosen two of his works: his Third Symphony
and Antinomie. In November, 1990, Images de
la Révolution (1988), commissioned by
the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for the bicentenary
of the French Revolution, was performed by the
New York Philharmonic, under the direction of
Charles Dutoit. In May, 1992, Kurt Mazur and
the New York Philharmonic presented the U.S.
première of the Trumpet Concerto, with
Philip Smith as a soloist.
Glenn Gould, who recorded Jacques Hétu's
Piano Variations in 1967, said of him that he
used serial techniques with "verve and
spontaneity". He noted "a uniquely
euphonic approach to serial material" and
"an innate theatricality" in his music.
The elements of Hétu's style can best
be defined as neo-classical forms and neo-romantic
expression in a musical language of 20th century
techniques. In 1978 he wrote: "The point
is not to seek an unimagined way of arranging
sounds but rather to find one's own manner of
thinking musically. True originality seems to
me to be authentic rather than eccentric."
Jacques Hétu lives in Montreal where,
since 1979, he teaches at the University of
Quebec in Montreal. From 1964 to 1978, he taught
at Laval University in Quebec City.
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