Jean Piché (1951) is a composer who has develloped into a video artist over the past few years. His practice meshes moving images and music in a new hybrid form he calls videomusic. In his beginnings as an electroacoustic composer in the 1970s, he was one of the very first Canadians to employ the then emerging digital audio technologies. He has produced works in every genre of electroacoustics for mixed and acousmatic to live-electronics. His work aims for poetic expression beyond any sort of formalism. The work has been alternately described as confounding, colorful and virtuosistic.

He has contributed to the presence and development of Canadian music here and abroad while working at the Canada Council where he defended the legitimacy of many alternative contemporary music practices. This inclusivist approach was highlighted when he directed the Montréal Musiques Actuelle – New Music America festival in 1990.

As a teacher at the Université de Montréal since the late 1980s, he has nurtured a number of young into diverse careers in new media and music. He keeps a hand in software development and some of his programs, notably Cecilia, are used by composers the world over.

Artist Code: 862