Jocelyne Binet was a Canadian composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

, and music educator. She studied in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 and Paris, France, and returned to compose and teach music in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

Biography

Binet was born in East Angus, near Sherbrooke, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, and obtained two music degrees in Montreal before traveling to Paris, France, for studies in piano. She studied under Claude Champagne

Claude Champagne

Claude Champagne was a Canadian composer.Born in Montreal, Quebec, he studied violin with Albert Chamberland, organ with Orpha-F. Deveaux, and piano with Romain-Octave Pelletier I and Alexis Contant at the Conservatoire national de musique. In 1921 he went straight to Paris to study music...

, Jean Dansereau and Jean-Marie Beaudet

Jean-Marie Beaudet

Jean-Marie Beaudet was a Canadian conductor, organist, pianist, radio producer, and music educator. He had a long career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, serving variously as a music producer, programing director, conductor, and administrator...

 at the École Supérieure de Musique d'Outremont (École de musique Vincent-d'Indy

École de musique Vincent-d'Indy

Lécole de musique Vincent-d'Indy is a subsidized private music college situated in Montreal in the Outremont district, that specializes in music education.-Programs:...

). She continued her studies at the Paris Conservatory in 1948 and 1949 on a grant from the French government and again in 1949 and 1951 on another grant from the Quebec government, where her teachers were Tony Aubin

Tony Aubin

Tony Louis Alexandre Aubin was a French composer.From 1925 to 1930 Aubin studied at the Paris Conservatory under Samuel Rousseau , Noel Gallon , Philippe Gaubert , and Paul Dukas . He was awarded the Prix de Rome for the cantata Actaeon in 1930...

, Noël Gallon

Noël Gallon

Noël Gallon was a French composer and music educator. His compositional output includes several choral works and vocal art songs, 10 preludes, a Toccata for piano, a Sonata for flute and bassoon, a Fantasy for piano and orchestra, an Orchestral Suite, and the lyrical drama Paysans et Soldats...

 and Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...

. Binet died in Quebec City

Quebec City

Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

 in 1968.

Music career

In 1946 Binet was awarded a CAPAC (Association des compositeurs, auteurs et éditeurs du Canada Ltée) prize for composition. After returning from Paris to Canada, she taught from 1951 to 1957 at the École Vincent-d'Indy, from 1952 to 1961 at the Centre d'arts Orford, and from 1957 to 1959 at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec. From 1952 to 1961, she taught at the Jeunesses musicales du Canada (JMC) summer camps. She also taught analysis and counterpoint at Laval University from 1957 to 1968.

Binet's works have been performed in the media and in concert in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. They were favored in particular by the Canadian Trio (1948), including Gilles Lefebvre, Colombe Pelletier and Rafael Masella. Her papers are held at the Archives Nationales du Québec (ANQ) in Quebec City.

Works

Binet composed works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, choir and solo voice. Her works include four pieces for orchestra: Evocation (1948), Danse (1949), Un Canadien à Paris (1951) and L'Amour endormi. Her chamber music includes Trio for violin, cello and piano (1945) and Suite for flute, piano, and strings (1946). She also composed Petite Suite Vocale (1945) for solo voice, female choir, and piano, with words by Jean-Henri Fabre, and Nocturne (1946). Gérard Souzay

Gérard Souzay

Gérard Souzay was a French baritone singer, regarded as one of the very finest interpreters of mélodie in the generation after Charles Panzéra and Pierre Bernac.-Background and education:...

 sang her Cycle de Mélodies on seven poems by Paul Éluard

Paul Éluard

Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...

in a 1955 recital program.