He also played drums on many recordings such as "Art Gallery Jazz" with Galt McDermot, "Canadian Talent Library" with Armas Maiste, "Live at Cleo’s Jazz Bar" with the Pierre Béluse Sextet and "Toucher les Continents" with l’Ensemble Daniel Lessard.

In addition to his professional activities as a jazz drummer, he started a symphonic percussion career in 1959 with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, where he held a full time position until 1980. He then held the first percussion position at the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa from 1982 to 1994.

While playing with these two orchestras, Pierre Béluse was very active in recording studios, playing with most of Quebec's composers, arrangers, and pop singers.

Pierre Béluse was also one of the past few decades' most outstanding percussion teachers. Head of the McGill University percussion class from 1967 to 2001, and percussion teacher at University of Ottawa from 1983 to 1992, he has trained many generations of music professionals. His former students can be found today in key positions in symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, percussion groups and music schools throughout Canada.

From 1982 to 1990, Pierre Béluse was a faculty member of the "Canadian Association of Youth Orchestras" festival in Banff, Alberta. From 1994 to 2000, he was also percussion teacher at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.

At the beginning of his teaching career at McGill University, Pierre Béluse founded the McGill Percussion Ensemble, which he directed from 1969 to 2001. With the ensemble, he recorded four contemporary music albums. He also founded, and directed from 1978 to 1982, "Concept Neuf", a percussion ensemble specializing in popular and world music. Two albums were recorded with this ensemble.

In spite of the variety and number of his activities as drummer, classical percussionist and teacher, Pierre Béluse devoted most of his creative energy to contemporary music. Guest soloist with the "Société de musique contemporaine du Québec", with "New Music Consort" in Toronto, with "Pierrot Ensemble" and "Espace Musique" in Ottawa, with "Musique Actuelle" and "Two New Hours" at CBC, with "Événements du Neuf", "Nocturnales" and "Jeunesses Musicales" in Montreal, he also collaborated in the recording of more than 15 contemporary music albums. Many outstanding canadian composers wrote original works for Pierre Béluse and the McGill Percussion Ensemble, such as François Morel, Alcides Lanza, Keith Tedman, Myke Roy and Walter Boudreau. Pierre Béluse also wrote or collaborated to the writing of a few musical pieces himself, like "Zônes" (1971) and "Complicité" (1980) for ballet, and "Épisodie III", in which were combined percussion instruments, invented instruments and electronics.

Pierre Béluse was president of the Quebec section of the "Percussive Arts Society" from 1979 to 1986. In 1979, the McGill Percussion Ensemble was awarded the "Grand Prix du Disque" by the Canadian Music Council, and in 1982 the Darius Milhaud prize, given by the "Concours d’Interprétation de Musique Française à Montréal".

Robert Leroux conducted the interview that follows on July 30, 2003

RL : How did your career begin?

PB : I began as a professional drumset player, but in 1959, my career took a new direction. My two years of percussion studies at the Conservatoire helped me win an audition at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for the position of extra 3rd player in the percussion section.

RL : But didn't you continue playing drums during your first years at the MSO?

PB : Yes, it's true, in particular, I played in a jazz club called " La Tête de l’Art" until 1963, the year Zubin Metha was appointed artistic director of the MSO. His appointment coincided with the opening of Wilfrid-Pelletier concert hall at the Place des Arts. At that time, the MSO opened a new audition to permanently fill the 3rd percussion position, and I got it.

RL : You were a full time member of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for 21 years, but is was not the only center of your musical activities, isn't that true?

PB : Things began to evolve in a funny way. Percussion was getting more and more popular in recording studios and in the early 60's, it was used a lot, they put percussion on everything. So, I worked as a classical percussionist, as a studio percussionist, and eventually as a contemporary music percussionist.

In November 1968, I had the opportunity to play an outstanding work written by italian composer Luciano Berio called "Circles". That unique experience got me starting on a new career. I think it's from that moment on that I really began specializing in contemporary music.

RL : What was so special about that event compared to what you had done before that makes you say it got you starting a new career?

PB : With contemporary music, I suddenly had the opportunity to develop new instruments, to search for new sounds. We started playing on instruments made out of ordinary everyday objects, that made interesting sounds: car wheels and coil springs, sheet metal, etc. We made music with that. I thought it was fantastic to be able to impress the public with new combinations of instruments and sounds. I was also discovering the music of composers like Luciano Berio and John Cage, or Tremblay, Garant, Morel, etc. in Quebec. It gave me a new opportunity to evolve. This passion for contemporary music never left me.

After teachning at McGill and having founded the McGill Percussion Ensemble, I continued to develop more in contemporary music.

RL : You were always quite passionate with your search of new sounds. Where did that come from?

PB : When I was a child, in Lachine where I lived, there was a railroad track that did a tight turn close to my home. When the trains passed, as the cars were turning, wheels were making all kinds of creakings and squeelings that I liked to hear. Later, as I began playing the music of John Cage for instance, we were re-creating those sounds playing cymbals with bass bows, playing on the strings inside the piano with metal objects, etc. It was like discovering a new world of sounds, but with references to things I had heard when I was a child.

From then on, there were no limits! Every time I would walk in a music store for instance, I would have to try all the cymbals. If I found one that produced a pleasing new sound to my ears, I had to buy it. And I knew that even if I was going to use it just once, it would be enough. It would be used to make music. For me, choosing instruments with care was like creating palettes, with assorted sounds of different textures or of different making. At one point, I had a collection of over 250 cymbals of all kinds and origins. The possibilities were there. Today, of course, with electronics, a lot of that has disappeared.

RL : With all this sound research, a lot of new works were created. Many composers started writing for percussion at that time. What was your relation with the composers? How did you work with them?

PB : They had all the freedom they needed. With some of them, there was no limit: 3 sets of tubular bells, lots of mallet instruments, multitudes of gongs, etc., for one work. Today, we don't have all these instruments in one place, but at the time, we did! I remember for instance in a piece called "Circuit I" by Serge Garant, an incredible number of instruments was needed. Just for drums, we needed more than 36 different pitches and textures, including congas, bongos, tom-toms, bass drums, etc, and all different. Again, a sound palette, just with drums.

If, on the other hand, composers would ask for really impossible things, like playing instruments with unappropriate or harmful sticks for instance, we would tell them and they would change the parts.

RL : At McGill University, you trained a few generations of percussionists, and many of them became professionals. Considering all of the professional activites you had in music, what made you accept a teaching position?

PB : In 1967, the only percussion class in Montreal was at the Conservatoire. But there was more demand that what the Conservatoire could enroll. The music dean at McGill called me over to discuss the opportunity of establishing a percussion class at McGill. I accepted and stayed for 34 years. I had classes of 15 and even 18 students at times.

As time passed, it became a well renowned class. We had the instruments, the space and a permanent percussion ensemble. Students could get a well rounded training.

RL : Talking about students, some of them took very different directions: some of them got jobs in symphony orchestras, others went into world music, etc. With all of these different specializations and directions, what was your approach to teaching percussion?

PB : I would always first check the rhythmic precision, whatever the type of music. If it was not precise enough, I would teach the students how to play with a metronome, on the basic percussion instruments: snare drum, mallets, timpani, etc. After, if they wanted to explore different types of music, they would have, at least, developed their rhythmic precision and basic technnique. If students wanted to work on instruments from other musical cultures, like congas or djembes, I considered that as being outside of their percussion program at McGill. They were welcome to do it, but outside the curriculum. I explained to the students that we would work on the basics, and that if they wanted to learn other intruments, I would suggest other players' names, specialized on these particular instruments. Usually, I kept the students informed about new possibilites in percussion training.

I have always been concerned with teaching the basics. If a player possesses his rhythmical and technical basics, it is much easier for him or her to move to other instruments or other styles of music. It's all about learning to learn by yourself. And also about learning that simplicity in music is not always that easy! Being musical and simple is not that simple! Playing fast things, with lots of notes is one thing. But if you have something simple to play in a symphony orchestra, like for instance Ravel's Bolero, or delicate things like some of Bartok's music, you are not going to make it if you have not mastered the basics, and learned how to play slowly.

RL : Coming back to your own personnal evolution, who were your major influences or sources of inspiration?

PB : Elvin Jones and Don Ellis, for instance, who were real innovators. They played different things, in a way that made them stand out from others. Don Ellis could write music in 19/4, with very long melodic lines. Elvin Jones was also different: he was very precise in his playing, and could really enter in a trance in his improvisations.

But it is probably some of the old orchestra conductors that really made me vibrate, especially with their incredible sense of color in music, like Charles Munch for instance. When he came to Montreal, I was playing cymbals - I have always played cymbals at the orchestra - and in Debussy's La Mer there is one big cymbal crash. After I played that crash in the rehearsal, Charles Munch stopped the orchestra and said "Cymbalist, here I want to hear a rain of gold!" I never forgot that, as I understood that in order to play cymbals, working on hitting them in a proper way is not enough, you also have to know how to choose the right instruments and find the right sounds.

With Monteux, it was the same, like for instance with the bell part in Iberia where he really knew how to set the right context. It had nothing to do with technique, it was just colors, and it allowed me to express myself! Later, with Metha, it was more about the excitement, the fire in music. You never knew what would be the tempo at the concert. Today, it is much more technical, and quickly becomes a routine. In contemporary music though, the excitement was always there, we were always re-creating new worlds of sounds.

RL : You said that you played cymbals at the orchestra. How did it begin? Circumstances or a particular attraction for metal percussion instruments?

PB : It is true that metallic instruments have always attracted me more. Probably because of the resonance, the harmonics and the richness of the sound. But it is also true that circumstances led me to play cymbals at the orchestra. Louis Charbonneau was playing timpani, Guy Lachapelle played the snare drum, and the third guy, me, played the cymbals. I started playing on cymbals that belonged to the orchestra, I then went to Boston at Zildjian's to choose cymbals, inspired in particular by comments made by conductors such as Charles Munch. The cymbal repertoire in a symphony orchestra is great: colors in french music, depth and weight in german music, etc. Also, playing cymbals fulfilled my appetite for rhythmic precision. I must say we had a great percussion section with Charbonneau and Lachapelle. In Tchaïkovski's 4th for instance, it was of cutting edge precision!

RL : To conclude this interview, what advice would give to younger players, who are in high school right now, who have started percussion and are thinking about doing it more seriously in college?

PB : They have to listen to all kinds of music, not always the same. They should listen to contemporary music, open their ears to new things, and never be afraid to enjoy different music, even against the current main stream.

I remember with Don Ellis, when I was playing drums in "la Tête de l'Art". On a saturday night, the place was packed, he came on stage with a stool and two decks of cards. He told the musicians that they should go, one at the time, pick up a card and play the number of notes corresponding to the number on the card, with their choice of length and dynamic. Once the two decks were gone, we realized we had created an original piece of music, that people in the place had listened to with great attention. After I went to ask Ellis what kind of music he was listening to come up with that type of idea. He told me to go buy the first recordings of "Time" records. These albums had music by John Cage, Lou Harrison, Berio, etc. The work "Circles", that I evnetually played in 1968, was on one of those albums. So, listen to all kinds of music and, of course, work on the basics!

RL : Pierre Béluse, merci!