Canadian Music Competition: A Rite of Passage and a Model for Learning

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Pianist Étienne Tremblay is currently studying for his bachelor’s degree at the Université de Montréal under Henry Kramer and André Laplante. While devouring the repertoire, he is preparing for nearly a dozen competitions this year, as well as appearances at festivals and other engagements. His life is governed by the black and white keys. Yet, without the Canadian Music Competition (CMC), he might not have chosen this path. What follows is a portrait of a young artist deeply rooted in his art and a competition unlike any other.

“It was thanks to CMC that I flew on a plane for the first time, the year the final was held in Calgary,” he says. “I was 14 or 15 and had never played outside Quebec before. It was an unforgettable experience.”

Like Tremblay, hundreds of musicians across Canada have, over the years, practised, performed, travelled and exchanged ideas thanks to the CMC, which brings together young talent from coast to coast in a constructive and supportive environment. Over the years, through experience and evolving expectations, this approach has been adapted and improved to allow young people to embark on an extraordinary adventure, far removed from the hostile stereotypes sometimes associated with competitions.

Tremblay speaks of this blossoming of music that filled him with wonder as a teenager in Calgary and convinced him to pursue his chosen path. “It was the first time I had experienced such a high standard of performance, but also such exchanges between musicians of different instruments. I was hearing flute sonatas and cello concertos for the first time in my life.”

Born in 2006, Tremblay grew up in Sherbrooke, taking piano lessons at the Pianissimo school with Madeleine Tremblay and, later, Jean-François Longval-Gagné—and cello lessons at the Sacré-Cœur school. He took up the tuba and then the double bass in high school, but it was the piano that he continued to play at Cégep with Tristan Longval-Gagné, and now at Université de Montréal.

From the age of seven, he took part in the CMC, entering it eight times in the years that followed. “I don’t see it as a competition,” he says, “and I never grew up with the idea that I had to win. The CMC is very much focused on learning. You learn a lot from others by listening to them, and the jury gives us a perspective on our pieces that’s very different from what I was used to. Also, every time I took part, I knew it would be an adventure marked by meaningful exchanges and learning.”

Founded in 1958, the CMC has supported generations of top-level classical musicians throughout its history. Since March 2023, Carmen Picard has served as executive director, while the artistic director is conductor Marc David. Following a hiatus in 2024, the competition was restructured to place greater emphasis on the regions. This offers enhanced learning opportunities for participants and prize-winners—participation in master classes, performing concertos with symphony orchestras in their region, and more.

Despite a very busy schedule in his second year of A-levels, Tremblay has chosen to take part in the CMC again this year. “The CMC has really helped me change the way I view competitions. A competition is a wonderful opportunity to perform in front of an audience, to interact with a jury and with other artists to perfect one’s art.”

But the young Sherbrooke native no longer prepares in the same way he did 10 years ago. “In high school, we’d start preparing in September for the audition in April or May. At university, the pace has changed: I set myself a schedule. I start on certain pieces several months in advance and set them aside to work on others. Then, three weeks before the competition, I go back over the whole program to work on it thoroughly.” Whatever the final result, Tremblay is convinced that this edition will once again provide fertile ground for perfecting a repertoire with which he loves to juggle music from one era to another.

Reaching 65 cities across Canada, bringing together more than 200 volunteers and some 30 jury members, and awarding more than $100,000 in prizes and grants, the CMC is a national competition that changes the lives of young musicians. As we look forward to the 2026 edition, Tremblay offers recommendations of some of his current favourite recordings: Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 performed by Dinu Lipatti, Ravel’s “La Valse” for two pianos with Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 performed by Argerich, and Rachmaninov’s transcription of Bach’s Partita in E major, BWV 1006.