Rachel Laurin

AGO Distinguished Composer of 2020

Events

Mr. Mistoffelees Overture Concert Piece No.3, Op.94
St. Cecilia Recital
Johns Creek United Methodist Church
7/8/2020 7:00 PM – 8:15 PM

Composers’ Panel Discussion
Convention Hotel
7/10/2020 10:00 AM – 10:50 AM

About

Rachel Laurin leads an international career as a concert organist and prolific composer. She was Associate Organist at St-Joseph’s Oratory, Montreal (1986-2002), and Titular Organist at Notre Dame Cathedral, Ottawa (2002-2006). She now devotes herself to composition, recitals, master-classes and lectures. She has performed organ recitals in major cities in Canada, the United States and Europe, and made more than twelve recordings, including two CDs devoted to her own compositions.

Rachel is frequently invited as a recitalist, composer, lecturer and teacher, in Canadian and American universities: Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut), Baylor University (Waco, Texas), Syracuse University (New York, NY), Kansas City University (Missouri), St. Thomas University (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Mount Royal College (Calgary, Alberta), University of Alberta (Edmonton). In the fall of 2019, she returns to Yale University as a Distinguished guest Artist.

Laurin has served as “house composer” at Wayne Leupold Editions since 2006. She is also an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre since 1989. She has composed more than a hundred works for various solo instruments, voice, instrumental ensembles, choir, and orchestra, including a piano concerto and a concerto for organ, string orchestra and timpani. Her published compositions are recognized internationally and have been performed and recorded on five continents.

She has won many prestigious awards, including the Holtkamp-AGO Composition Award in 2008, First Prize in the 2009 Marilyn Mason New Organ Music Competition, and more recently the First Prize at the Orgelkids Tenth Anniversary Composition Contest (2019), in the category for Do-Organ Solo. Her works are published by Doberman, Éditions du Nouveau Théâtre Musical, RCCO Music Publications (Canada), Europart (France), Hinshaw Music/Fred Bock, and Wayne Leupold Editions (USA).

Composing almost exclusively on commissions, recent premieres of her works include the Fantaisie à Deux, Op.88, by the Chenault Organ Duo, in Atlanta (June 2019) and the Te Deum, Op.90, for organ, brass quintet and timpani, at the dedication of the Christ Cathedral, Diocese of Orange, CA, in July 2019.

Rachel Laurin is a member of the Comité d’Honneur de la Fédération Francophone des Amis de l’Orgue (FFAO) since 2016.

Connect with Rachel at www.rachellaurin.com.