piano
A versatile musician and a piano wizard, Louise Bessette is much in demand as a concert artist in Europe, America, and Asia. Numerous organizations and international competitions have seen fit to reward her talent, and her reviews are constantly laudatory. Many composers write especially for her. She has recorded a wide variety of repertoire. Her album Port of Call: New England (ATMA Classique, 2024) has received a glowing review in the International Piano Gramophone Magazine.
Louise Bessette has performed with renowned conductors such as Leonardo García Alarcón (Les Violons du Roy), Charles Bruck (Orchestre symphonique de Québec), Edward Cumming (Belfast Ulster Orchestra), Charles Dutoit (Orchestre symphonique de Montréal), Pascal Rophé (Orchestre national de Montpellier, France), Michel Swierczewski (Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Denmark).
In 2019, she received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for Classical Music. The GGPAA are Canada’s highest honour in the performing arts.
Louise Bessette received her tenth Opus Prize from Conseil québécois de la musique in 2021. In 2015, she was listed as one of Canada’s top 25 pianists by CBC Music. Winner of First Prizes at Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition (1981), Concours International de Musique Contemporaine (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1986), International Gaudeamus Competition (Rotterdam, 1989), Prix Québec-Flandre (1991), and Member of the Order of Canada (2001), Officier de l’Ordre national du Québec (2005), Canadian Music Centre Ambassador (2009), Louise Bessette has been a professor of piano at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal since 1996. In 2024, she was named Knight of the Ordre de Montréal.