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J.-J. Gagnier

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jean-Josaphat Gagnier (2 December 1885 – 16 September 1949) was a Canadian conductor, composer, clarinetist, bassoonist, pianist, arts administrator, and music educator. His compositional output mainly consists of works for orchestra and band, although he did write some choral pieces, songs, works for solo piano and organ, some incidental music for the theatre, and a work for solo harp. His compositions are written in a wide variety of styles from romanticism to impressionism to 20th century idioms. Life and career Born in Montreal, Gagnier was the son of clarinetist Joseph Gagnier and received his earliest musical training on that instrument from him. His other clarinet teachers included Oscar Arnold, Léon Medaer, Louis van Loocke, and Jacques Vanpoucke. He studied the bassoon with Émile Barbot and Carl Westermeier, the piano with Alexis Contant and Romain-Octave Pelletier I, and theory with Contant, Orpha-F. Deveaux, Romain Pelletier, and Charles Tanguy. He had 26 siblings, many of whom also became professional musicians of note; including Armand Gagnier, Ernest Gagnier, Guillaume Gagnier, Lucien Gagnier, Réal Gagnier, and René Gagnier. A number of his nieces and nephews also bec

J.J. Wright (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

J. J. Wright (born 1984 or 1985) is an American composer, conductor, and piano player who currently serves as the director of the University of Notre Dame Folk Choir in South Bend, Indiana. He is the composer of O Emmanuel, a 2016 Adventide album that drew upon jazz and sacred music traditions and peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Albums chart. Wright is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he earned Master of Sacred Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees, and of The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts. He attended The New School for Jazz for undergraduate education, graduating the school with a Bachelor of Arts. He later pursued a Master of Sacred Music degree at the University of Notre Dame, the institution from which he would later be awarded Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting. Professional career In 2014, Wright released his solo debut album, Inward Looking Outward. The album, a series of sacred jazz compositions, received positive reviews. Since then, Wright has published several full albums, including: O Emmanuel, a 2016 Adventide album in the style of sacred jazz that peaked at No. 1 on the B