Rachel Laurin (August 11, 1961 – August 13, 2023) was a Canadian organist, composer and music educator in
Quebec.[1]
Biography
Rachel Laurin was born in
Saint-Benoît on August 11, 1961. Laurin studied
organ with
Lucienne L'Heureux-Arel [
de]. She went on to study at the
Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal with
Gaston Arel [
fr],
Raymond Daveluy and
Raoul Sosa. In 1985, she received the McAbbie Foundation scholarship and, in the following year, the Bourse d'excellence Wilfrid-Pelletier. She performed in Canada, the United States and France. She received the Conrad-Letendre scholarship five times. From 1986 to 2002, she was assistant organist at
Saint Joseph's Oratory. In 1988, she started teaching at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. From 2002 to 2006, she was titular organist at
Notre Dame Cathedral in
Ottawa.[2][1]
Laurin started composition lessons at age 19 with
Raymond Daveluy.[3] She was the "house composer" at Wayne Leupold Editions from 2006.[3] In her latter years, Laurin only composed commissioned pieces. Her very first commissioned piece was requested by Donald Sutherland and his wife Phyllis Bryn-Julson. The piece was premiered at an AGO regional convention in Pittsburgh in 1987.[3]
In 2008, she received the Holtkamp-AGO Composition Award. In 2009, she was awarded first place in the Marilyn Mason New Organ Music Competition.[2] Laurin won the 2022 Pogorzelski-Yankee Composition Competition.[4]