Luc Beauséjour

Luc Beauséjour

Background and Performance Career

Luc Beauséjour has maintained an international performance career that has taken him to many countries including France, the United States, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, and Bermuda.

He began piano lessons at 5, and "discovered" the harpsichord at the age of 11 at a summer music camp. He studied with Mireille Lagacé (harpsichord and organ) at the Orford Arts Centre, with Bernard Lagacé (organ) at the CMM and Réjean Poirier (harpsichord) at the Université de Montréal.

Luc Beauséjour pursued further studies with Ton Koopman at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam (1983-4) and Kenneth Gilbert at the Conservatoire National de Région de Strasbourg, France. In 1985, Beauséjour received the Erwin Bodky Award from the Cambridge Society for Early Music (USA), a prize that encourages young performers seeking professional excellence in the field of early music, and has since distinguished himself in other competitions.

He has performed at festivals including Uzès, Ambronay and Bourges (France), the Festival internationale de Lanaudière (Québec), the Lamèque International Festival of Baroque Music (New Brunswick), and the Vancouver Early Music Festival. In 2000, he played Bach's Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord at the Glenn Gould Studio's annual commemoration of the great pianist's birthday to high acclaim. He has appeared regularly on CBC and Radio-Canada, and has recorded for Analekta, Naxos, CBC and others.

Beauséjour was the performer of Couperin's Les Barricades mystérieuses in the National Film Board's animated film Empreintes (2004), and selections from his recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier were included in French producer Christophe Honoré's film La Belle Personne.

Beauséjour has received two Félix Awards at the ADISQ Gala: best album for soloist and small ensemble (2002 and 2006). He also won five Prix Opus from the Conseil Québécois de la musique: best concert, Montréal (Clavecin en concert 2002), concert of the year Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music (2002 and 2003); best performer and Prix des auditeurs de la chaîne culturelle de Radio-Canada (Luc Beauséjour, both 2003).

He has collaborated with sopranos Agnès Mellon, Donna Brown, Karina Gauvin and Shannon Mercer, countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, violinist James Ehnes, conductor and harpsichordist Hervé Niquet, trumpet player Paul Merkelo, oboist Louise Pellerin, and flutists Claire Guimond and Marie-Céline Labbé among others.

Beauséjour has taught at the U de Montréal, the Conservatoire de musique du Québec, the Cégep de St Laurent and the summer Académie internationale d'orgue et de clavecin in Rimouski. He owns three harpsichords by Montreal instrument maker Yves Beaupré.

Clavecin en Concert

In 1994, Beauséjour founded Clavecin en Concert and has remained its artistic director in 2011. This concert organization aims to raise awareness of and promote music written for the harpsichord and other keyboard instruments (clavichord, spinet, organ) from the 16th to the 21st centuries. Public concerts and activities at the local, national and international levels feature works by established and lesser-known composers, and encourage contemporary compositions for the harpsichord.

Selected Discography

Bach. Sonatas for violin and harpsichord with James Ehnes (violin) in 2 vols: Analekta 2-9829,2-9830

Bach. Goldberg variations Analekta FL 2 3132

Bach. Italian Concerto and Fantasias for Harpsichord, Analekta FL 2 3008

Bach. Well Tempered Clavier vol 1 Naxos 8.557625-26

Fischer. Musical Parnassus vol 1 Naxos 8.554218

Fischer. Musical Parnassus vol 2 Naxos 8.554446

Bach - Concerto for two harpsichords , Arion, Hank Knox/Luc Beauséjour EMCCD 7753

Scarlatti, Domenico. Harpsichord Sonatas Analekta 2 3163