Biographie

Philippe Leduc was born during Indian Summer, on October 23rd. Always fascinated by music, he waited until he was sixteen to get his first guitar. From singing to performing, he decided to devote himself entirely to music and obtained his bachelor's degree in composition from the Faculty of Music at the Université de Montréal in 1975.

While still a student, he landed his first professional contract by orchestrating the most beautiful traditional Christmas melodies for wind quintet, percussion and four mixed voices on Radio-Canada's cultural channel in December 1974.

But before truly launching his career as a composer, he interned as an announcer at Radio-Canada television. Then, one thing led to another, he was offered a position as a copywriter in advertising, which allowed him to familiarize himself with the subtle workings of this industry.

Thus, like many young directors, it was through advertising that Philippe cut his teeth as a professional musician. By founding Les Productions de L’Encrier, he became fully involved in creating advertising soundtracks for the most prestigious clients: Bell Canada, Métro supermarkets, the National Bank of Canada, Coca-Cola, Molson Brewery, GM, The Bay, Culinar, Shell, Canada Post, Labatt Brewery, McDonald’s, to name a few. His advertising activities reached a peak when he founded La 25e Piste around a Synclavier, then the ultimate in digital music, which was in its infancy. Surrounded by seasoned collaborators, including Scott Price, Gaétan Essiambre and Daniel Scott, Philippe and his 25e Piste dominated advertising music production in French Canada for several years.

But soon, television came knocking at his studio's door. In 1992, Philippe first signed the call sign for Découverte (SRC), which he continues to develop to this day. He notably created the music for the shows Zone libre (SRC), Le Téléjournal (SRC), Enquête (SRC), Docs en stock (SRC), Les Beaux Dimanches (SRC), Parcours (TV5), the Olympic Games in Calgary, Seoul, Albertville, Atlanta and Nagano (SRC), Autrement dit (TQ), À tout prix (SRC) Le Septième (TQ), Plus ça change (TQS), Montréal Express (SRC), La Tête de l’emploi (SRC), Wizz (SRC), Tamtam (SRC), Les Grands Reportages (RDI), Le Club des ex (RDI), La Vie en vert (TQ), Le National (RDI) and several television series, including The Lost Daughter starring Richard Chamberlain produced by SAT1 (Germany) and broadcast worldwide. Several awards have marked his television career.

Philippe Leduc a aussi créé, avec la participation de Marie-Christine Rey, Les contes musicaux de Chabicouin: « Chabicouin au Marais long » et « Chabicouin à la ferme », dont le premier album s’est vendu à plus de exemplaires. Ces contes, mettant en vedette Gilles Pelletier, Jacques Godin et Yvon Deschamps, sont surtout destinés aux enfants de 3 à 8 ans.

In addition, Philippe collaborated for nearly a decade with Disney studios on the adaptation of French songs from numerous animated films, including Toy Story 1 and 2, The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Hercules and Aladdin, in which he musically embodies the horrible Jaffar. Nobody's perfect...

Despite this hectic professional activity, Philippe managed to create several symphonic suites of a very personal style. In 1993, Éclair de Lune, recorded with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of London, won the Félix for Instrumental Album of the Year. Two years later, he returned with Les Ailes du Feu, tome I, Blood, which also received a Félix in 1996. Propelled to the forefront of cultural life by a program broadcast on Les Beaux Dimanches, on Radio-Canada, and many times on Bravo!, this second symphonic suite enjoyed great critical and public success.

In 1997, Philippe published the first novel of the historical epic illustrated by the musical tableaux of Wings of Fire with Éditions Stanké. The launch of the symphonic suite Wings of Fire, Volume II, Toil was also supported by the broadcast of two television specials, on Les Beaux Dimanches on Radio-Canada, as well as on Bravo! One of the highlights of this album, Katarina, would continually attract numerous calls and repeated requests from music lovers on the radio.

Impromptu journey in December 2004: Philippe arranged and produced, in collaboration with Stéphane Venne, the song Le Ciel est à moi, the first single from the eponymous album by Marie-Élaine Thibert, certified triple platinum with more than 300,000 copies sold.

Four months before the premiere of Corteo, Cirque du Soleil entrusted him with composing the music for many of the numbers in this traveling show, which has been going from success to success since April 2005. After a brilliant tour of major cities in Canada and the United States, Corteo is now playing to sold-out audiences in Japan. Soon, this creation by Daniele Finzi Pasca will set off to conquer Russia, China, and Australia before embarking on its grand European tour. A resounding international success to be followed in the next decade under the Cirque du Soleil big top.

In the fall of 2008, Radio-Canada hired him again to compose the channel design for its News Service for television, radio and RDI. Consisting of more than a thousand segments, this wide range of music accompanies and punctuates the national news 24 hours a day, from coast to coast.

In the Far East, in the spring of 2010, visitors to the Shanghai World Expo will be able to enjoy the music of Philippe Leduc paired with a spectacular cinematic presentation entitled Espace Montréal dedicated to the ecological revitalization of the Miron quarry, in the center of the island of Montreal, produced by GSMPrjct°Integration, designed by Gilles Dusablon and directed by Dominique Skoltz.

Most recently, Philippe Leduc has been working on the release of Diginada, an album of a truly astonishing genre that combines his lyrical and classical vein with his very current digital expertise and which gives a new dimension to his career. This is a very personal work that he hopes to produce on stage in the near future.