Lorraine Vaillancourt

From 1998 to 2001, she was president of the Conseil québécois de la musique [fr]. From 2001 to 2006, she was a member of the board of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. She is also a member of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1995, she was named a Woman of Distinction by the YWCA. She conducted Les Percussions de Strasbourg's recording of music by Hugues Dufourt, which received the Prix Charles-Cros. In 2009, she was named an ambassador for the Canadian Music Centre. In 2016, she received the Prix Denise-Pelletier. In 2018, she was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec.

In 1971, Vaillancourt joined the faculty of music at the University of Montreal. From 1971 to 1973, she worked with Bruce Mather and Serge Garant; in 1974, she became director of the University of Montreal's contemporary music workshop, replacing Mather. From 1972 to 1975, she worked at the Atelier-laboratoire of the University. In 1989, she founded the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the ensemble-in-residence at the faculty of music at the University of Montreal, which has received numerous awards. She was also a founder of the concert society Événements du neuf.

She was born in Arvida, Quebec and studied with Hélène Landry at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec and with Pierre Dervaux at the École Normale de Musique de Paris. Vaillancourt studied piano with Yvonne Loriod and Anne-Marie de Lavilléon-Verdier; she studied ondes Martenot with Jeanne Loriod. In 1970 she returned to the University of Montreal with the intention to learn from Serge Garant.

Lorraine Vaillancourt, CQ (born September 23, 1947) is a Canadian pianist and conductor living in Quebec.