20 years into exploring the fingerstyle guitar playing universe, François Pelletier has always open-mindedly approached the many possibilities of the instrument with curiosity and creativity. Indeed, writing for a guitar alone represents a constraint that only stimulates the musician’s fertile imagination. François is always on the lookout for new avenues, new ways or new techniques. That makes freedom, balance and mixing of styles a few of the concepts that are pivotal to his composing process.
Inspired by players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Sylvain Luc and Pierre Bensusan, François Pelletier creates pieces that make the acoustic guitar shine, by exploiting the many rich and diverse sonic possibilities of the instrument. The result is an adventurous music filled with colourful ambiances and soundscapes.
Bio
A guitar player since early childhood, François Pelletier has always thought of improvising and composing as an integral part of his musical exploration. Interested in popular music as well as classical and jazz, he has studied music at Campus Notre-Dame-De-Foy and Université Laval in Québec City, then at Université de Montréal and UQAM in Montreal.
There he honed his skills and developed an artistic identity by collaborating with various jazz, funk, rock, world music, pop and folk projects such as Totem Bonhomme, Metatuk and Film-o-Funk (among others). Influenced by Don Ross and Sylvain Luc, he also developed unique guitar techniques designed for jazz and classical solo playing, which led him to writing solo pieces for acoustic guitar.
Today François Pelletier evolves amidst several musical endeavours like Astheur, Boussaroque and Makazar, who embrace freedom of creation by borrowing from different genres and styles. A curious and passionate musician, he has also been teaching guitar, electric bass, banjo, ukulele, musical theory, songwriting and composition for many years.
