Michel Corriveau

Over the years, award-winning and multi-nominated composer Michel Corriveau has created musical scores for several feature films and international productions, including the feature films ANNA (BIFF 2015 official selection, LAIFFA August 2016 for best score), Barrymore (starring Christopher Plummer) and Canadian all-time top Box-office Hit Bon Cop Bad Cop (starring Colm Feore, nominated for best score at the Quebec Cinema awards) as well as major television series such as Versailles (Canal+). This versatile and multi-instrumentalist composer has also worked with major American and European TV-networks including BBC, Lifetime, SYFY, Discovery, Disney, Canal +, and France 2. For Michel, composing music for the screen is all about sensitivity. "The first step in the creative process is always to listen. Listen to what's being said on the screen, read between the lines, and get behind the image to understand the filmmaker's intention. It all starts from there." The composer captures more than just a style-he or she upholds an approach. Drawing on textures and an intimate knowledge of electro acoustics, the composer lends a unique shape to atmospheres by blending sound and instruments, juggling with emotions, and pairing traditional elements with leading-edge technology. Michel was raised in a musical family. A violinist and conductor, his grandfather, Philippe Filion, along with Michel's grandmother, provided piano and violin accompaniment for silent films in the 1920s. In addition, Michel's mother was a piano teacher. It was only fitting, therefore, that he undertook piano studies. He started to compose small pieces when he was eleven and would later acquire a Master's degree from Boston's Berklee College. Michel began his music career as a pianist in modern ballet classes where his work consisted in improvising to the movements of the ballerinas. A keyboardist, guitarist and album producer-arranger from the outset, he served as a stage & studio musician with many high-profile groups and artists (Corey Hart, Luba, Celine Dion), recording in mythical studios such as The Power Station, Atlantic Studios and Compass Point. While touring with one of Canada's most popular bands (Luba), a major tour bus accident brought Michel back home to his primary passion and ultimate destination; the art of composing music for moving images. In the mid-1990s, he spent a few years in the world of advertising, giving him the opportunity to explore a broad spectrum of sounds, rhythms and styles on national and international campaigns for clients such as Coca Cola, McDonalds, Volkswagen, Danone, etc. Rich from this experience, Michel turned his full attention to the big screen when Canadian star director Erik Canuel invited him to compose the music for Hemingway: A Portrait, a poetic documentary that opened in IMAX theaters for the Alexander Petrov film The Old Man and the Sea (2000 Oscar Win for short animated). This project would enable him to show audiences his ability to heighten the power of words and images, channeling his passion and wealth of experiences into one overriding art form. Michel's musical contributions to feature-length films now have him alternating between the intimate atmosphere of art house and the symphonic breadth of commercial blockbuster movies, giving him a truly unique cinematographic signature. "I'm driven by diversity. I take inspiration from meeting other creators and from brainstorming and exchanging ideas with them. Ultimately, this human conversation gives rise to a dialogue between instruments." Today Michel, who first spawned an interest in soundtracks "listening" to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, devotes himself wholly to his youthful passion for film music. He has scored more than 50 film and television series. In 2018, he opened a second production studio with his son, also a composer, continuing the family tradition of bringing music to moving images that began three generations before. Now in 2019, he has begun exploring new collaborations with Le Cirque du Soleil. "Music has to reflect meaning, it has to be an integral part of the story without overshadowing the image."