Classical composer Jacques Hétu died Tuesday at age 71.Classical composer Jacques Hétu died Tuesday at age 71. (Denis Bernier/Université du Québec à Montréal)

Quebec classical composer Jacques Hétu died Tuesday at his home near Montreal after a battle with cancer. He was 71.

The musician had been receiving palliative care at his home since September, when he learned that his lung cancer had metastasized.

Just 10 days earlier, he was honoured for lifetime achievement at the annual Opus Awards for classical music.

Colleagues who have played, conducted and commissioned his work, including Walter Boudreau, Alain Trudel, Jacques Lacombe and Lise Beauchamp, hailed him as a "unique voice" in classical composition.

Hétu was a professor of music for more than 40 years at Laval University, University of Montreal and University of Quebec in Montreal. He taught music analysis and established classes in composition at Laval and was a professor of composition in Montreal.

Orchestras throughout Canada have commissioned his music, including the symphony orchestras of Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, Edmonton and Ottawa.

In 1990, Hétu toured with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Germany, Denmark and Great Britain, with Pinchas Zukerman conducting two of his works — Third Symphony (1971) and Antinomie (1977).

His Images de la Révolution, commissioned by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for the bicentenary of the French Revolution, was performed by the New York Philharmonic, under the direction of Charles Dutoit.

He has been in demand as a composer because of work that is well-structured, skillfully orchestrated, lyric and filled with emotion.

Hétu was born in Trois-Rivières on Aug. 8, 1938, and studied composition with Clermont Pépin at the Montreal Conservatory, where he won prizes in harmony, counterpoint and composition. In 1961, he won the composition prize at the Festival du Québec, the prestigious Prix d'Europe and a Canada Council award.

He continued his studies with Henri Dutilleux in Paris and took Olivier Messiaen's class in analysis at the Conservatoire de Paris.

He returned to Quebec in 1963 and began teaching at Laval. As his reputation as a composer grew, he created commissions for Robert Cram, Yegor Dyachkov, André Laplante, Alvaro Pierri, the Vancouver New Music Society, the CBC Orchestra and many others.

Glenn Gould has played his Variations for Piano and singer Joseph Rouleau called on him to produce a work for voice and orchestra, Les Abimes du rêve.

His repertoire comprises more than 80 works, including:

  • Five symphonies.
  • 15 concertos.
  • An opera, Le Prix, composed in 1992 for the opening of Salle Pierre-Mercure in Montreal.
  • Numerous chamber works.
  • Music for the film Au Pays de Zom by Gilles Groulx.

Among his last public appearances was a performance Jan. 14 in Montreal of Concerto for two guitars by the Montreal's Orchestre Métropolitain, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Hétu had hoped to attend the premiere of his 5th Symphony which is scheduled for March 3 during the New Creations Festival in Toronto.

He is a multiple winner of the SOCAN prize for new classical music, a member of the Order of Quebec and the Order of Canada.

Funeral details have not yet been finalized.