Monique Gibson | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Monique Gibson

Monique (Rachel Luce) Gibson (née Pariseau), pianist, harpsichordist (born 6 January 1928 in Montreal, QC; died 22 April 2002 in Halifax, NS).

She studied 1944-50 and 1954-6 at the CMM with Auguste Descarries (piano), Isabelle Delorme and Jean Papineau-Couture (solfège), and Charles Houdret (chamber music). She was rehearsal pianist for the Montreal Festivals 1955-6 and accompanist 1955-7 for Le Choeur de Montréal under Lionel Renaud. She was heard on CBC radio and TV as accompanist to Edward and Norma Lee Bisha, Francis Chaplin, Phyllis Mailing, Ronald Murdock, and Ifan Williams, and as a member of Le Trio acadien (with the soprano Gloria Richard and the clarinetist Alban Gallant). She moved to Halifax in the late 1950s, when her first husband, Georges Gusset, a violinist, joined the Halifax Symphony Orchestra (Atlantic Symphony Orchestra). She herself joined that orchestra as pianist and harpsichordist in 1960. She was the pianist and sometime music director for children's plays, drama productions at Dalhousie University and St Mary's University, and musicals at the Neptune Theatre. She toured the USA with Gary Karr in 1971 and, under the auspices of the Canada Council Touring Office, performed in British Columbia with the percussionist Craig Reiner in 1975. She appeared frequently with the contemporary music group NOVA MUSIC. Less active during the late 1980s, she moved to Trinidad with her second husband, Tony Gibson, in 1990, but continued to perform during yearly visits to Nova Scotia.