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Rachel Laurin (rah-SHELL law-RAN), born on 11 August 1961, in Saint-Benoît (Québec), and deceased on 13 August 2023, in Ottawa (Ontario), was a Canadian organist, composer and educator.
Rachel Laurin (rah-SHELL law-RAN), born on 11 August 1961, in Saint-Benoît (Québec), and deceased on 13 August 2023, in Ottawa (Ontario), was a Canadian organist, composer and educator.
It was in her hometown, with her mother Madeleine Brunet, who played both the piano and the organ, that Rachel Laurin began studying piano at age 9, and then organ at 14. Her interest in composition emerged at 15, and at 17, she moved to Montréal to pursue her studies.
From 1978 to 1980, she attended Collège Marguerite-Bourgeoys (now Marianopolis College) where she studied organ with Lucienne L’Heureux-Arel. Admitted to the Montreal Conservatory of Music in 1980, she studied organ with Gaston Arel and Raymond Daveluy, piano with Raoul Sosa, and jazz with Nick Ayoub.
During her studies, she won the McAbbie Foundation Scholarship (1985), the Wilfrid-Pelletier Scholarship of Excellence (1986), and the Conrad-Letendre Scholarship (five times). She received the first prize in organ in 1986, and alongside her curriculum at the Conservatoire, she took private composition lessons with Raymond Daveluy.
Rachel Laurin led a dual career as an organist and a composer.
Upon completion of her studies, Rachel Laurin became the organist of the Crypt and assistant to the titular organist of the Beckerath organ at Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal (Montréal), a position she held from 1986 to 2002. She was titular organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica in Ottawa (Ontario) from 2002 to 2006, subsequently leaving this position to devote herself fully to concerts, composition, leading workshops and masterclasses, and presenting lectures.
She gave numerous concerts and recitals in Canada and the United States, notably as part of the Concerts Spirituels series presented that Saint Joseph’s Oratory, as well as regional and national activities of the Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO) and the American Guild of Organists (AGO). She also performed in several European countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.
Between 1986 and 2013, she participated, as an organist, in ten recording projects.
In July 1999, as part of the national Organ Festival Canada, presented in Hamilton (Ontario) by the RCCO, she was a soloist, with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Boris Brott, in Raymond Daveluy’s Concerto for Organ and Orchestra.
In July 2000, she presented Louis Vierne’s Six Symphonies, in three recitals, at Saint Joseph’s Oratory, performances that received critical and public acclaim. One of the few organists to perform this complete cycle in concert, she reprised it in 2001 at Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica in Ottawa.
In September 2002, at the inauguration of the Létourneau organ at the Winspear Centre, she premièred Jacques Hétu’s Concerto for Organ and Orchestra with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mario Bernardi. She reprised this major work at the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) in 2008 with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, and in Toronto in 2009 with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to her performing activities, she was regularly invited to serve on the juries of organ competitions, including the RCCO National Organ Competition in 2012, and the Canadian International Organ Competition in 2021.
Rachel Laurin became an “associate composer” of the Canadian Music Centre in 1989, and “house composer” at Leupold Editions from 2006 until her death in 2023. Composing almost exclusively on commission, her catalogue includes 112 opus numbers, many of which are collections of pieces or works in several movements. She wrote for solo instruments, chamber music ensembles, orchestra, voice, choir; more than half of her output is for organ.
Her compositional style is rooted in traditional forms and structures (fugal writing is frequent), in an accessible tonal-modal language, coloured by chromatism.
Reviewing a 2013 album of Laurin’s newer works, Organists’ Review magazine wrote: “Her music is approachable and enjoyable but by no means bland. It has some of the piquancy of Ravel, the harmonic inventiveness of Holst and the rhythmic vitality of Walton. She is obviously at ease with formal musical structures, sonata form, fugue, and so on. Most of all, one senses that she enjoys composing and her enjoyment is conveyed to the listener in all of these pieces.” In a review of a 2016 recording, Choir & Organ magazine commended her “imaginative and demanding scores”, “well crafted in a kind of New World fusion of musical styles from France, Germany and England.”
Although several works require virtuosity from the performer, she also composed pieces intended for younger or less-experienced instrumentalists, such as the seven volumes of Pièces Courtes (Short Pieces) for organ, Esquisses d’été (Summer Sketches) for piano, or Three Canadian Scenes for flute and piano.
Her compositions are published by publishing houses in North America and Australia — Leupold Editions, Canadian Music Centre, Doberman-Yppan, Nouveau Théâtre Musical, RCCO Music Publications, Morningstar Music Publishers, Allegro Music Publishing — and are regularly performed, especially those for organ, in renowned concert halls and illustrious places of worship around the globe.
Her compositions also appear on a number of albums.
Her manuscripts were deposited at the Leupold Foundation (organ compositions) and the Canadian Music Centre (compositions without organ), a complete and detailed list of her compositions is available on the official website, and the official YouTube channel dedicated to her works contains over 140 videos, including performances by Rachel Laurin herself.
As an organist-composer, lecturer, and educator, Rachel Laurin was frequently invited to speak and teach at several Canadian and American universities, including:
In addition, she taught organ improvisation at the Montréal Conservatory of Music (1988-1992), the École de musique sacrée d’Épinal (France), the Summer Institute of Church Music (Whitby, Ontario), the Summer Academy of Mount Royal University Conservatory (Calgary, Alberta), as well as in workshops organized by the RCCO and the AGO.
List of albums on which Rachel Laurin appears as a performer or composer.
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