biography

François started playing piano at an early age. As a young teen-ager  he took up the guitar and explored rock, funk and jazz, a sustained interest over the next decades. Upon arriving at Vanier College at the age of seventeen, he sang in a choir for the first time and was hooked for life.  After completing his DEC in jazz guitar, he went on to sing in the best choral ensembles in Montreal, and has been conducting choirs ever since.

François completed  a Bachelors's degree in jazz guitar, and then a  Master's in Choral Conducting,  at Université de Montréal.  He then went on to teach and conduct at Université de Sherbrooke, Université de Montréal, and conducted the choirs at McGill's Schulich School of Music from 2009 to 2015. 

Splitting his time between a guitarist's career and a conductor's path has proved both stimulating and challenging.

Guitar activities:

François plays regularly with such jazz luminaries as Frédéric Alarie, Adrian Vedady, Kate Wyatt, Bruno Lamarche, Alex Leblanc, Guy Boisvert, Marie-Fatima Rudolf and Alain Bastien. He teaches guitar privately.

Professional conducting and singing:

He teaches at Vincent-d'Indy Music School, a College-level institution where he conducts multiple choral ensembles.

From 2010 to 2025, he was Chorusmaster and professional singer for the Choeur Métropolitain, conducted by Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin.  He has prepared this chorus for such works as Bach's Christmas Oratorio and St-Matthew Passion, Verdi's Requiem, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, and Wagner's Lohengrin. This last production won an Opus award for Concert of the Year, Romantic music. 

He has worked with many of the best Québec pop and jazz artists, providing singers and choral arrangements for numerous concerts. 

He has worked on many film soundtracks as choral conductor and singer with such composers as:  Oscar-winning film composer Benoît Charest, Robert Marcel Lepage,  Patrick Watson, Judith Grüber-Stitzer, Viviane Audet, Alexis Martin and Robin Joel-Cool.

In 2015 he was conductor for Karen Young's choral album Missa Campanula, with Voces Boreales and Suzie Leblanc. 

From 1999 to 2022, he was  musical director of les Voix Ferrées, widely considered to be one of the best community choirs in the province.

A sought-after clinician, he has been invited in various parts of Canada to give workshops and conduct. He has a small catalogue of choral works that have been performed by Pro Coro Canada and Voces Boreales, two of the best professionnal choirs in the country.