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The Canadian organist and harpsichordist, Dom André Laberge, completing a BA degree from the University of Montreal. In 1960 he joined the Benedictine Order in Saint-Benoît-du-Lac as an organist, and nine years later, in 1969, he was ordained a priest. He studied at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, where his first teachers were Bernard Lagacé (organ), Kenneth Gilbert (harpsichord), Gilles Tremblay (musical analysis) and Françoise Aubut (harmony and counterpoint). In the summer of 1971, he travelled to Holland to study organ at the Haarlem Academy with Piet Kee and Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini. At the end of his studies in 1972, he won a First Prize for organ, a First Prize for harpsichord and a First Prize for analysis.
During the summers of 1972 and 1973, Dom André Laberge taught organ and harpsichord for the Canadian Amateur Musicians Society (CAMMAC) at the Otter Lake Music Center located in Huberdeau, a locality south-west of Montreal. He was also a teacher at the Orford Music Center for Youth and Music Canada (1974-1977, 1980). With grants from the Arts Council of Canada between 1977 and 1979, he went to Europe to further develop his technique and musicianship. He worked on the organ with Xavier Darasse at the Toulouse Conservatory and, at the same time, harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. He has given concerts in France, at Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin church in Paris, and at the Carmelites chapel in Toulouse.
Since his return to Canada, Dom André Laberge shares his time - beside his monastic duties and his tasks as the Abbey Prior, Novice Master and organist - between private teaching, concerts and recordings. He has performed numerous times in Canada, for Société Radio-Canada, Télé-Québec, the Canadian Institute of Music, the Festival international de Lanaudière, and various other bodies, including Pro Organo, Les Amis de l'orgue de Québec, and Ars Organi. Since 1975, he has recorded several albums as a harpsichordist and organist. The pipe organ in the abbey church at Saint-Benoît-du-Lac was built by organ builder Karl Wilhelm and set up in the church in the summer of 1999. |
