Biography - Bruno Pelletier

Biography
Bruno Pelletier
A real passion for performing and a constant desire to explore new artistic horizons
have made Bruno Pelletier the versatile entertainer he is today. His prolific career
boasts more than twenty-five years of remarkable performances as a solo artist and
as a featured performer in several successful musicals.
As three-time Felix award winner for Male Singer of the Year, and with over 2 million
albums sold in French-speaking communities worldwide, Bruno Pelletier is without a
doubt one of the most influential artists of his generation.
His Journey
Bruno Pelletier is born August 7th, 1962, in Charlesbourg, a suburb of Quebec City. As
a young man in the 1980’s, his interests are evenly divided between sports and
music. With a black belt in karate, Bruno decides to open his own martial arts school
while continuing to pursue his other great passion: music. Although skilled as a
drummer, his powerful voice lands him a gig as lead singer of Amanite and Sneak
Preview, two rock bands with which he tours the bar circuit for several years, learning
the basics of show business.
As music gradually becomes his main focus, Bruno decides to start his own
francophone rock band Pëll, in 1989. With his fellow musicians and some original
compositions, he enters a few contests, hoping to be recognized by the music
industry.
In 1990, following a year of hard work and good timing, he lands his first recording
contract with Les Disques Artiste, with Paul Lévesque at the helm. And Bruno
Pelletier’s career is launched!
In 1992, as his first self-titled album is being released, Bruno is offered a role in the
musical Les fous du rock'n'roll as well as a role in the Quebec version of the
Plamondon-Berger rock musical, La légende de Jimmy. While the latter only
achieves modest success, Bruno’s strong stage-presence and impressive vocal talent
make a lasting impression.
In 1993, impressed by the singer’s undeniable talents, Luc Plamondon offers Bruno
the part of Johnny Rockfort in the new Parisian version of Starmania. Bruno will
perform this role more than four hundred times over the course of two years, while
using all his free time to work on his second album.
The album Défaire l'amour is launched in 1995 but Bruno has to wait two years, until
1997, for the record to finally get the recognition it deserves. In that same year, he
makes his acting debut playing a villain in the very popular television series Omerta II
and launches a third album titled Miserere. This record quickly hits the top of the
charts and sells over 250,000 copies, creating a real buzz. The following year, at le
Gala de L’ADISQ, Bruno is named Best Male Artist for a second consecutive year and
Miserere wins Best Pop-Rock Album of the Year, Best Selling Record and Best Live
Performance.
Biography
Bruno Pelletier
In 1998 and 1999, Bruno dedicates his time to another great Plamondon musical,
Notre-Dame de Paris, in which he plays a poet named Gringoire. The show is a
triumph. The song Le temps des cathédrales puts him back on top of the charts and
makes Bruno Pelletier a household name throughout the entire French-speaking
world.
In 1999, he releases his fourth album D'autres rives simultaneously in Europe and in
Quebec. He consequently launches a major European tour that will take him to such
prestigious venues as l'Olympia de Paris, La Cigale and Le Bataclan. While
concentrating on a solo career at its peak, Bruno still finds time to perform Gringoire
in the Quebec and London stagings of Notre-Dame de Paris.
In 2001, after years of relentless rocking and rolling, Bruno feels the need to ‘‘take
five’’. Just before his well-deserved break, he releases a live album recorded during
his D'autres rives tour entitled Sur scène. Bruno then takes the time he needs out of
the public eye to recharge his batteries, work on a new album and get even more
involved in the Children’s Wish Foundation, of which he’s been a long-time sponsor.
In August 2002, he releases Un monde à l'envers and launches a two-year tour. In
December of the same year, Bruno lends his voice to the Montreal Symphony
Orchestra in a series of Christmas concerts at Basilique Notre-Dame. From these
sessions comes the album of seasonal classics, Concert de Noël that goes on to
become a huge success.
In 2004, Bruno is offered the role of Dracula in the musical Dracula - Entre l'amour et
la mort (lyrics by Roger Tabra, music by Simon Leclerc). Always hungry for new
challenges, Bruno also gets involved as the musical director and co-producer of the
show, bringing a whole new dimension to his career. From its début in Montreal
January 31st, 2006, the show is a tremendous success (seen by over 115,000 people),
making Bruno Pelletier a key player on several musical fronts. In January of the
following year, Bruno presents the show at the prestigious Maison de la Danse de
Lyon (1,200 seats) and Dracula goes on to win both critical and popular acclaim
throughout Europe.
In 2007, after spending three years playing the enigmatic Prince of Darkness, Bruno
yearns to come back to a more intimate setting and launches Bruno Pelletier et le
GrosZorchestre (winner of the Félix for Album of the Year / Jazz). Presenting a
sophisticated mixture of pop and jazz influences, the record is daring and reveals yet
more new dimensions to Bruno’s talent.
The singer-songwriter is back in 2009 with Microphonium, his first recording of original
material in six years. The timely arrival of this long-awaited album suitably marks 25
years of an already prolific and accomplished singing career. In that same year, he
was invited to play his first concerts ever in Russia at the mythical Théâtre de
l’Estrade. The crowd was so pleased with his performances that 4 new dates in
Biography
Bruno Pelletier
Eastern Europe were added to his touring schedule. He will soon be playing in
Ukraine in May 2010 and will then return to Russia in the fall.
He will again be putting his solo career on hold for 2011 as he will take part in the
Folk-Opera Les Filles de Caleb, a new musical based on a trilogy written by Arlette
Cousture. The St-Denis Theater is host to this musical where music and lyrics are
signed by author-composer Michel Rivard. Besides Bruno, this large scale production
also spotlights many renowned artists such as Luce Dufault, Daniel Boucher, Yves
Soutière, Marie-Michèle Desrosiers and Stéphanie Lapointe. In this historical project,
Bruno assumes the role of Napoleon, disillusioned lover, who finds solstice in the
service of God to forget the love of his life, Blanche Pronovost.
In September 2012, many new activities are on the agenda. Bruno Pelletier becomes
the new spokesperson for La Fondation québécoise du cancer and also becomes
one of the vocal coaches in the new Radio Canada weekly tv show Un air de
famille.
Revitalized by his 11th album Rendus là, with the DVD Bruno Pelletier …Sur scène à
Moscou as added bonus, Bruno offers a brand new show that will enable him to visit
many stages as of October 2012.
For the first time in his career Bruno was invited to play his Christmas show in Eastern
Europe, accompanied by 3 different symphonic orchestras. The concerts in Kiev, StPetersburg and Moscow were a resounding success.
Taking a break from his 2013 Spring tour, Bruno will once again return to Eastern
Europe to accompany the original cast of Notre-Dame de Paris in four symphonic
concerts, Les plus grandes chansons de Notre-Dame de Paris, including
70 musicians, 40 choir members and conducted by Guy Saint-Onge, before
concluding his Rendus là tour of Québec.
2014 was the opportunity for Bruno Pelletier to end is Rendus là tour with the
Europeen portion of the tour. Ukraine, Russia, Poland as well as Paris were the last
landing points of this tour that began eighteen months before.
In September 2015, the project Bruno Pelletier & Guy Saint-Onge – Musique et
cinéma, une rencontre was added, for which two albums, one symphonic version
and the other a piano-voice version, were launched at number 1 in the Soundscan
Sales list. All followed by an impressive Quebec tour including more then sixty
performances.
It goes without saying that the busy schedule of the prolific singer doesn’t seem to be
slowing down.