In Conversation With Howard Shore

The multi-award winning film music composer Howard Shore will give us the honor to inaugurate this new prestigious series of conversations presented in this 2020 edition of the Quebec City Film Festival. He will be awarded an Honorary Prize for his entire prestigious career.

For the occasion, music and film lover Catherine Pogonat had the chance to talk with the native Torontonian during a one-hour exclusive meeting, recorded between Montreal and New York, tackling questions of composition, cinema and the many fruitful collaborations that have crossed his artistic path.

Following the conversation, François Girard's film The Song of Names on which Howard Shore also worked will be presented on the same channel (Restos Plaisirs).

Catherine Pogonat

Radio and television host for more than 15 years, Catherine Pogonat has put many artists in the spotlight, thanks to cult shows like Bande à part, Ste-Catherine and Mange ta ville. She now hosts the daily morning musical L’effet Pogonat on ICI Musique, comments on the cultural scene on ICI Première, makes documentaries and writes texts for various magazines. We also see her on stage, hosting galas and musical performances. Catherine has interviewed the greatest artists throughout her career, Beck, Mika, Michael Stipe, Jane Birkin, Xavier Dolan, Jean-Marc-Vallée, Nana Mouskouri, Jean Leloup, Etienne Daho, Robert Charlebois, Alain Souchon, Charles Aznavour, Diane Dufresne, Philippe Katerine, etc.

Howard Shore

Composer Howard Shore has won three Academy Awards for his score to The Lord of the Rings as well as four Grammys, three Golden Globes and numerous critic and festival awards for his music. He is an officer of the Order of Canada, an Officier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la France and the recipient of Canada’s Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. He has scored over 80 films and collaborated with many esteemed directors: David Cronenberg, Martin Scorsese, Peter Jackson, David Fincher, Jonathan Demme, Tim Burton, Arnaud Desplechin, Sydney Lumet, James Gray, and Barbet Schroeder. La Cinémathèque Française recently presented a retrospective of his scores in Paris.
His opera, The Fly (2008) premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and at Los Angeles Opera. Other recent works include the piano concerto Ruin and Memory for Lang Lang (2010), the song cycle A Palace Upon the Ruins featuring mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano (2014), a cello concerto Mythic Gardens featuring Sophie Shao (2012), Fanfare for the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia (2008), Sea to Sea (2017) in celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary of confederation, and the song cycle L’Aube premiered in October 2017 performed by Susan Platts and commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Shore’s Latin Mass for the Hof Church in Lucerne, Switzerland premiered in 2018 and The Forest, a guitar concerto composed for Miloš premiered on May 1 & 2, 2019 for the National Arts Centre Orchestra conducted by Alexander Shelley.
His recent score for François Girard’s film The Song of Names premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2019 and won the Canadian Screen Awards for Best Score and Song. His score for Michel Hazanavicius’ film Le Prince Oublié premiered in France February 2020.