Red Deer Symphony Orchestra music director Claude Lapalme is hoping for a JUNO encore.
Lapalme was the arranger and conductor for Karin Gauvin's album, Marie Hubert, Fille du Roy, which is nominated in the category of Best Classical Album of the Year – Small Ensembles.
In 2023, Lapalme and his wife Janet Kuschak and their baroque ensemble Rosa Barocca won a Juno for their work on solo cellist Elinor Frey’s album Early Italian Concertos, which won Classical Album of the Year: Small Ensemble.
"It's amazing. All of a sudden, to get all these things happening to me," said the 63-year-old Lapalme, chuckling. "You always feel a bit isolated in central Alberta, and all of sudden, the past few years have been very exciting for someone, who, let's say, is not 30 anymore."
The album with Gauvin and some of Canada's most talented musicians was rehearsed and recorded in Montreal in July 2022, and the album came out in April 2024.
Lapalme calls Marie Hubert, fille du Roy a "special concept," born out of a Covid years collaboration between award-winning Gauvin, recognized as one of the world's leading Baroque sopranos, and Montreal pianist Pierre McLean. He regularly works as a collaborative pianist for the choirs of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the Opéra de Montréal, as well as for numerous Quebec vocal ensembles.
The pair mined the rich tradition of generations of folk songs from Quebec, France and Acadia that were hugely popular among talented amateur musicians who would play them in their homes. They were called La Bonne Chanson (the good song) and were pieces of high-quality parlour music sold as single leaflets.
Lapalme, who has known Gauvin since they took German lessons together in Toronto 40 years ago, was brought in to arrange the tunes to showcase the talents of Gauvin and her accompanying musicians.
Gauvin put the pieces into a particular order to mirror the life of one her first ancestors, Marie Hubert, who was a 17th-century fille de Roy, or king's daughters. They were a group of 800 women or so sent to France's new colony in Canada to find husbands and boost the population.
"When she told me that, I couldn't say 'no.' It was so good and we hired top-notch musicians in Montreal to do it," said Lapalme.
"It's some of my best work and I'm really honoured to have done it."
He was also drawn to the idea of arranging for a small ensemble. In this case, string and wind quintets, along with piano and harp.
Folk music has been a lifetime passion for Lapalme and he needed little convincing to lend his talents to Gauvin's project, which includes McLean, Pentaédre, Molinari Quatet, Étienne Lafrance and Valérie Milot.
"I love folk music and it's very close to my heart," said Lapalme, who has arranged close to 700 pieces of folk music for small groups of musicians through RDSO's Choir Kids school program.
"I've kind of become a grand master of that instrumental combination. So, I knew I could do a lot of things … and the record company (ATMA Classique) was very keen on pursuing this.
"It was really top-notch. We did not skimp on anything in doing this."
Lapalme said the JUNO competition have all produced outstanding works.
"They are all winners and this is going to be very tough. I think anyone who wins is going to be surprised that they won."
Lapalme, Gauvin and the others will find out on March 30 at Vancouver's Rogers Arena where Michael Bublé will host the awards show.
The night before, Lapalme will be conducting the RDSO at the Red Deer Polytechnic Arts Centre in "If We Had a Million Dollars," celebrating the work of Bizet, Saint-Saens and The Barenaked Ladies, and he hasn't decided yet if he will hop on a plane to Vancouver yet.
For more information on the Junos and all the nominees go to junoawards.ca
