Michel-Georges Brégent began composing in 1965 with Grande Toccate-Sonate Barbare and the first version of his important biblical fresco Les Testaments. In 1967 he entered the Montréal Conservatoire, where he studied with Gilles Tremblay, Jean Laurendeau and Raoul Sosa. Although strongly influenced by serialism, what he retained was not its techniques, but the general principle that "all the emotions can be expressed most precisely with the support of mathematics." Moreover, he has alsways considered himself as a composer of tonal music, given that his works are constructed according to the natural harmonic series. "Based on this," says Bregent, "anything is possible when you create multiple levels of tension between the brain and the heart."

In addition to being a prolific composer, Brégent was also active as a performer, writing and playing rock music mixed with jazz and contemporary elements in the group Brégent with his brother Jacques, the duo Dionne-Brégent with percussionist Vincent Dionne, and the multimedia group L'écran humain.

In 1987 Brégent was named composer-in-residence with the Canadian Opera Company, which premiered his chamber opera Réalitillusion. He was also commissioned by renowned ensembles and musicians such as the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, Duo contemporain (Neterlands), the Arditti Quartet, Pentaèdre, Michael Laucke, Rivka Golani, l'Orchestre des jeunes du Québec and l'Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.

Michel-Georges Brégent died in 1993 after a brief illness.

Excerpted from Gems With An Edge liner notes written by David Olds.

Download and listen to an MP3 file of Geste by Michel-George Brégent from Gems with an Edge. If you liked this work, you may also like Christina Petrowska Quilico's recording of 16 Portraits: Michel-George Brégent. More free classical music from Christine Petrowska Quilico.