A versatile musician and a piano wizard, Louise Bessette is much in demand as a concert artist in Europe, America and Asia. She has recorded a wide variety of repertoire, appearing the world over with distinguished orchestras and by invitation to first-rate festivals. She premiers works specially written for her and her reviews are laudatory. In 2016, Louise Bessette was honoured by the University of Western Ontario in London, where she received the degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa. In 2019, she received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for Classical Music. Louise Bessette received her tenth Opus Prize in 2021. In 2015, she was listed as one of Canada’s top 25 pianists by CBC Music. First Prizes at Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition (1981), Concours International de Musique Contemporaine (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1986), International Gaudeamus Competition (Rotterdam, 1989); Prix Québec-Flandre (1991); Member of the Order of Canada (2001); Officier de l’Ordre national du Québec (2005), Canadian Music Centre Ambassador (2009), Louise Bessette has been a professor of piano at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal since 1996.
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