Walter Boudreau began his musical studies with piano, followed by saxophone. At nineteen, he founded a jazz quartet with whom he recorded his first album. Two years later, in 1968, he cofounded with poet Raôul Duguay the ensemble L’Infonie, which blends happenings, jazz, contemporary music, and multimedia. Over its five-year existence, the group performed two hundred concerts, released four albums and a book, and became the subject of a film, Roger Frappier’s L’Infonie inachevée (Unfinished Infonie, 1973).

He studied musical analysis with Bruce Mather at McGill University (1968-1970), then analysis and composition with Gilles Tremblay and Serge Garant at the Montréal Conservatory and the Université de Montréal, respectively (1970-1973). He received several grants from the Canadian Council for the Arts, which allowed him to attend summer classes taught by Pierre Boulez in Cleveland in 1971 and by Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Iannis Xenakis in Darmstadt in 1972. He also pursued funded research at the Université de Montréal’s Computing Centre and trained in computer music at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and the Center for Experimental Music in San Diego.

Initially influenced by serialism — as in Variations I (1975) — Boudreau’s works are built around mathematical logic. A passionate musical architect, he speaks of “musical edifices” and explores monumental structures. La Symphonie du Millénaire (The Millenium Symphony, 2000) stands out as his most ambitious realization. Initiated by Boudreau, this long-standing project brought together 19 composers, 333 musicians, and 200 carillon players for a performance in Montreal, attracting 40,000 spectators. His spatial grandeur — evident in works such as Les Sept Jours (The Seven Days, 1977), Demain les étoiles (Tomorrow the Stars, 1980), and Les planètes (The Planets, 1983) — is matched by temporal length: for instance, his twenty-year labor on Berliner Momente (Berlin Moments, 1988-2008), commissioned by Radio-Canada, condenses one thousand years of Berlin’s history into sixteen minutes.

Infused with spirituality and grappling with existential themes, such as in Encore ces questions sans réponse..., (Again These Questions with No Answer, 1991), Boudreau’s work references religion — La Symphonie du Millénaire is musically grounded in the Gregorian Veni Creator — while embodying the spirit of Québec’s Quiet Revolution. This duality shines in Golgot(h)a (1990), a “psychedelic anti-clerical oratorio” depicting the fourteen Stations of the Cross.

For thirty-three years (1988-2021), Boudreau directed the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), transforming it into a leading cultural institution. He cofounded the Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques festival in 2003, serving with Denys Bouliane as artistic co-director, a role they previously held for Québec Symphony Orchestra’s Musiques au présent festival (1998-2000).

As a conductor, he has led the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, SMCQ Ensemble, and Les Événements du neuf.

Awards and Honors

• Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec, 2022
• Chevalier de l’Ordre de Montréal, 2020
• Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, 2015
• Member of the Order of Canada, 2014
• Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec, 2013
• Prix Denise-Pelletier (Prix du Québec) for performing arts, 2004
• Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize, 2003
• Opus Prize (Québec Music Council) for “Musical Event of the Year in Québec,” 1999, 2000, 2003, 2008
• Opus Prize for “Composer of the Year” in Québec, 1998
• Jules-Léger Prize for L’Odyssée du Soleil, 1982
• First Prize, Radio-Canada National Young Composers’ Competition for Variations I, 1974