Rachel Laurin

Rachel Laurin (), born on 11 August 1961, in Saint-Benoît (Québec), and deceased on 13 August 2023, in Ottawa (Ontario), was a Canadian organist, composer and educator. Musical training It was in her hometown, with her mother Madeleine Brunet, who played both the piano and the organ, that Rachel Laurin began studying piano at age 9, and then organ at 14. Her interest in composition emerged at 15, and at 17, she moved to Montréal to pursue her studies. From 1978 to 1980, she attended Collège Marguerite-Bourgeoys (now Marianopolis College) where she studied organ with Lucienne L’Heureux-Arel. Admitted to the Montreal Conservatory of Music in 1980, she studied organ with Gaston Arel and Raymond Daveluy, piano with Raoul Sosa, and jazz with Nick Ayoub. During her studies, she won the McAbbie Foundation Scholarship (1985), the Wilfrid-Pelletier Scholarship of Excellence (1986), and the Conrad-Letendre Scholarship (five times). In a review of a 2016 recording, Choir & Organ magazine commended her “imaginative and demanding scores”, “well crafted in a kind of New World fusion of musical styles from France, Germany and England.” Although several works require virtuosity from the performer,