As a cosmopolitan province, Quebec is a home to varied genres of music, ranging from folk to hip hop. Music has played an important role in Quebecer culture. In the 1920s and '30s, singer/songwriter Madam Bolduc performed comedic songs in a folk style with Irish influences. Quebec's most popular artists of the last century include Félix Leclerc (1950s), Gilles Vigneault (1960s–present), Kate and Anna McGarrigle (1970s–present) and Céline Dion (1980s–present).
The Montreal International Jazz Festival is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz festival. Every year it features roughly 3,000 artists from 30-odd countries, more than 650 concerts, and welcomes over 2 million visitors as well as 300 accredited journalists. The festival takes place at 20 different stages, which include free outdoor stages and indoor concert halls.
David “Dave” Holland is an English cellist, double bassist, bass guitarist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States since the early 1970s.
Alain Caron is a Canadian jazz bassist.
Martial Solal is a French jazz pianist and composer.
MusicFest Canada, originally established as the Canadian Stage Band Festival (CSBF), is a national educational music festival in Canada. It was founded in 1972 by Robert Richmond, Gary Wadsworth, and Paul Miner. The CSBF added vocal and concert band components in 1981 and 1985, respectively. The name was changed to MusicFest Canada, in 1987, embracing the instrumental jazz, concert band and choral/vocal jazz divisions. In 2012, in partnership with the National Arts Centre, they added a 4th orchestra/strings division.
Vilain Pingouin is a rock band from Quebec, Canada.
Karen Young is a singer, lyricist, composer and arranger from Quebec, Canada who has explored several different musical styles, including world music, classical, jazz, Latin, traditional, and medieval music.
Offenbach is a Canadian progressive rock and blues rock band, initially active from 1969 to 1985. Following a successful reunion tour in 1996, the band released a new album in 2005.
Oliver Theophilus Jones, is a Canadian jazz pianist, organist, composer and arranger.
Diane Tell is a Canadian musician who was born in Quebec City, Quebec. She entered the Val d’Or conservatory at the age of six. She continued her studies at the Montréal conservatory and then at CEGEP Saint-Laurent and she wrote her first songs at the age of twelve. As one of Québec's pioneering female singer-songwriters, she proposed her personal repertoire over the course of her first four albums. She won six Félix prizes before the age of 25: breakout artist, best artist, best album, best song and, twice, songwriter of the year. Several of her songs have become SOCAN Classics and Si j’étais un homme was inducted in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2017. She earned a MIDEM Award for her album Chimères and a Victoire Award for her album Faire à nouveau connaissance. In 1990, she was chosen by Plamondon, Berger and Savary to play a leading role in the musical La légende de Jimmy. Following that, she played the lead and composed the score for another musical, Marilyn Montreuil, written and stage directed by Jérôme Savary and the Théâtre National du Chaillot, in Paris. Over 300 performances of both shows were presented in France and Europe. Over the past 25 years, Tell has toured relentlessly, written, composed and recorded in Canada, France, the U.K. and Switzerland. In 2018, she produced her 15th studio album of original material in Montréal. As an independent artist, she owns the phonographic rights of her entire catalogue, manages her own publishing company, and produces and finances her albums herself. Also a photographer, she directs the majority of her music videos. Her YouTube channel gets 400,000 views per month on average. In her blog, Diane Cause Musique, she engages up-and-coming artists by explaining the inner workings of the music industry.
Jean Derome is a French Canadian avant-garde saxophonist, flautist, and composer. A prominent figure in the Montreal musique actuelle scene, Derome has been a member of experimental, jazz, and rock groups, and has appeared on over 30 albums, including seven solo albums. He has written scores for over 30 films and co-founded Ambiances Magnétiques, a Canadian musical collective and independent record label.
The Bracknell Jazz Festival was a major showcase for British modern jazz in the 1980s. The festival was known for attracting a largish audience for free improvisation, modern jazz composition and all kinds of British modern jazz in general.
Victor Stefan Vogel was a Canadian jazz pianist, composer, arranger, trombonist, and conductor.
Neil Chotem was a Canadian composer, arranger, conductor, pianist, and music educator.
Sacrifice is a Canadian thrash metal band from Toronto, Ontario. The band was formed by guitarists Rob Urbinati and Joe Rico in 1983. Sacrifice played a prominent role in the 1980s underground metal scene in Toronto, and along with Voivod, Razor and Annihilator, they are considered one of the "big four" of Canadian thrash metal. The band released four studio albums before parting ways in 1993. After coming back together to play a reunion concert in 2006, they released their fifth studio album The Ones I Condemn on Brazilian label Marquee Records in 2009. Although the band faced numerous line-up changes, especially in their early days, founding guitarists Urbinati, Rico and bassist Scott Watts recorded every studio album and demo with drummer Gus Pynn on everything but the Apocalypse Inside demo and CD.
The Barr Brothers is an indie folk band founded in Montreal, Quebec in 2006, consisting of two American brothers Andrew and Brad Barr, as well as bassist Morgan Moore, pedal steel guitarist Brett Lanier, and harpist Eveline Gregoire-Rousseau.
Gaz Bar Blues is a 2003 Québécois comedy-drama film written and directed by Louis Bélanger. The film is set in 1989 in the outskirts of an unspecified Québécois city.
Michel Rivard is a singer-songwriter and musician from Quebec, born in Montreal. His father, Robert Rivard, was an actor. Michel began his career at an early age appearing in a Canadian television series and in TV commercials.
Michel Donato is a Canadian jazz double bass player, composer, and singer and pianist. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, "[h]is association with both [Oscar] Peterson and [Bill] Evans marks Donato as one of Canada's foremost jazz bassists...". He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2007.
