News Article

Motivating the Muse


6/1/2006 2:27:57 PM


Christian Gallant is making his mark in the Canadian music industry. Tempête – the first release from his debut album – is currently at #6 on countdown Les Étoiles Pop/Rock de l'Acadie on CJSE radio in Shediac, NB.


Gallant in uniform playing the bodhràn in a show presented by National Artist Program participants during the 2005 Canada Summer Games in Regina. The show, titled No Limits/Sans Limites, was presented at the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts. (Terry Ritz - photo)

“Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."
~ Samuel Johnson

June 1, 2006 -- Talent simply isn’t enough for success. One needs the desire… the hunger to make it in the business of art.

Christian Gallant’s talent was never in question, but it wasn’t until he enrolled in College of the North Atlantic’s (CNA) Music Industry and Performance program (MIP) in 2002 that his gift of singing and songwriting was paired with the motivation he needed to follow a career in it.

“Since I can remember I have always had a love and passion for music,” says Gallant, “…but I never really had the confidence in myself to pursue it.”

The Prince Edward Island native completed the two-year program in Newfoundland and has since taken the knowledge he attained there and applied it to a successful strategy for the music industry. Ten months after he graduated from the MIP program, Gallant began recording his first CD. Entitled Tempête, the five-track album consists of all original material written by Gallant – some while he attended the college. Gallant played a huge part in getting his first professional recording project off the ground – he wrote and helped arrange the music, solicited private sponsors to fund it and co-produced the recordings.

Gallant learned these entrepreneurial skills from the MIP program, along with technical, performance and other skills that he has since applied.

“One of the courses I took was Songwriting. Our instructor Wade Pinhorn helped us develop different writing techniques, including having us keep a songwriting journal – something I never did before,” shares Gallant.

“I have great memories of collaborating with fellow classmates for that course.”

The completion of a professional recording may have been the long term goal for Gallant, but the artist certainly didn’t rest on his laurels while the plan came together. He began applying his talents to several facets of the arts once enrolled at CNA. After just one year of the MIP program and with a new-found confidence under his belt, Gallant returned to PEI for the summer to try dinner theatre.

“Taking part in the dinner theatre La Cuisine à Mémé confirmed for me that music was going to be taking up a big part of my life,” says Gallant.

“I had already come to the decision to pursue music, but when the group used three of my original compositions for the show, I was hooked.”

There’s more! Shortly after graduation, Gallant received the news that he had been chosen to represent PEI at the 2005 Canada Summer Games in Regina, Saskatchewan, as a part of the National Artist Program (NAP). The NAP brought together 52 young artists and creative athletes from across the country for a two-week “interdisciplinary mentorship creative residency.”

Teams consisted of three emerging artists and one creative athlete from each province or territory. They collaborated with 10 professional Saskatchewan artists on pieces that were presented in a gala at the end of the two-week period. The gala was a stunning display of music, performance art and visual art that took place during the games. Gallant helped organize, arranged and composed some original music and played the bodhràn in the show.

“The show was presented in front of an audience of over 2,000 people – it was sold out,” shares Gallant.

“It was AMAZING! People even asked us if we were going to take the show on tour, they loved it so much. Unfortunately, it was only a one time performance.”

Upon returning home from Saskatchewan, Gallant entered the studio to record the final song for his album. Being of French ancestry and from an active Francophone community in PEI, Gallant knew he wanted both aspects of his culture incorporated in the project, giving it a distinctive flavour (two songs are English and three are French). He is getting airplay on French and English stations alike, including CBC and Radio ECMA in Charlottetown, PEI; CBC Moncton; CJPN Fredericton; CJSE Shediac;Memremcook and Baie Ste-Anne in New Brunswick; CBC Halifax and Radio Halifax-Métro; and CBC Newfoundland.

No sooner had Gallant launched his CD this February, when he received notice of his acceptance to an artist workshop in Granby, Quebec at L'École national de la chanson. Turns out, La Fédération culturelle de l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard, which provides cultural programming to the PEI’s Acadian and Francophone community and showcases the artists of the province, had submitted his name. Gallant discovered that he was chosen as one of five participants (and the only Atlantic Canadian) to receive intensive training in songwriting with Robert Léger, interpretation techniques with Yvon Bilodeau, vocal techniques with Claude Vallières, and recording in a studio with Christian Martin.

“L'École national de la chanson is equal to the Music Industry and Performance program at CNA,” exclaims Gallant.

“They even teach some of the same classes, and it’s all in French…which was cool!”

And is it enough now, that his CD is released and getting airplay? No way. As soon as he returned from Quebec, Gallant began work on his professional press kit – a must if you are to reach the movers and shakers in the music industry.

Gallant also wrote the theme song for the S.O.S. Louisiana provincial fundraising campaign, which raised funds for those affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and he is being featured in a book titled “Island Toes A'Tapping”, about PEI music and the people who create it.

“I’m honored they thought of me when they wrote this book,” says Gallant, “and that they want to have one of my songs on the compilation album that accompanies the book!”

Gallant has recently applied for funding for a professional website (for now, you can access more info about him and hear samples of his music at http://www.myspace.com/christianrgallant). In the meantime, Gallant is also finding success in shopping his music to others. He’s had one of his songs: “Je ne veux par être une célébrité”, recorded by artist Adrienne Gallant on the compilation album Comment ca flippe… la jeunesse! He also hopes to spend some time and write more music with the dinner theatre La Cuisine à Mémé again this summer, among other appearances.

This young man has all the right moves and is sure to be a force in the industry for years to come. The shear persistence assures it, says Gallant’s former teacher, MIP coordinating instructor Wade Pinhorn.

“In all my years of teaching this program at CNA, I have never encountered a more career driven individual,” says Pinhorn.

“Christian Gallant simply WILL have a career in this industry. He will make sure of it!”

Gallant says it was the program that gave him the tools to make his dream a reality.

“The greatest thing the Music Industry and Performance program at the college gave me was more confidence,” he says.

“That, and the skills and courage to get myself out there to promote myself as an artist.”

Stay tuned for more on Christian Gallant.

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For more information contact:

Stephen Lee
Communications Manager
College of the North Atlantic
709. 227.6283

Or

Tanya Alexander
Public Information Officer
College of the North Atlantic
709. 643.7928