Jacques Hétu, one of the most respected concert music composers of his generation, died in his home on Feb. 9, 2010, at the age of 71. In spite of the terminal cancer he had suffered from for a number of months, Hétu remained active up to the last week before to his death. He was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award on Jan. 31 in Montreal at the 13th Opus Awards. And on Jan. 18, he attended a ceremony at the University of Quebec at Montreal (where he served as a professor in the Music Department), which named one of the halls in the university’s Music Pavilion after him. Hétu, one of SOCAN’s most illustrious members, was the recipient of the organization’s 2009 Jan V. Matejcek New Classical Music Award.

Jacques Hétu, who taught at UQAM from 1979 to 2000, served two terms as head of that institution’s Music Department. A former Laval University (1963-1977) and University of Montreal (1972-1973 and 1978-1979) professor, he played a major role in the writing and teaching of original concert music in Quebec, creating a catalogue of more than 150 works and training composers such as Denys Bouliane, Antoine Padilla, Jean-Claude Paquet and André Lamarche. With as many as 60 commissions by prestigious Canadian cultural organizations and performers, Jacques Hétu will be remembered as one of Canada’s most prolific and most performed composers. He received numerous awards for his work over his distinguished career and was a member of the Royal Society of Canada (1989) and an officer of the Order of Canada (2001) and the National Order of Quebec (2007). The Toronto Symphony Orchestra and music director Peter Oundjian are scheduled to premiere his Symphonie no 5 on March 3 at Roy Thomson Hall.