Over the last decade François Houle has been active in several musical spheres, including musique actuelle, new music, and more recently chamber music and world music. A founding member of Standing Wave, Safa, and the Turning Point Ensemble, François has also collaborated on several projects with some of today’s leading international performers, improvisers and composers. He is a graduate of McGill University and the Yale School of Music, He won the National Debut competition in Montreal and has received several awards and scholarships, including Yale’s Benny Goodman memorial scholarship. He has appeared on major Festivals across Canada, Europe, and the United States and has released several recordings of his own music on Canadian labels such as Spool, Songlines, Red Toucan, as well as Germany’s between-the-lines label. In 2001 he was listed by Downbeat magazine as “Talent Deserving Wider Recognition”. He has toured extensively. A West Coast Music Awards and Juno Awards nominee, François’s latest CD, with French pianist Benoît Delbecq, was awarded “Best Jazz Album of 2002” by France’s Jazzman magazine. As a producer he has ceated soundtracks for Radio-Canada
documentaries and radio dramas, incidental music for theatre, and music for dance (Kokoro Dance, Frozen Eye Dance). He has produced over a dozen recordings which have received high praise from the international press. His clarinet playing transcends the stylistic borders associated with his instrument.
Inspired by musical innovators such as Steve Lacy, John Carter and Evan Parker, he has developed a unique improvisational language on his instrument. Houle‚s playing is virtuosic, rich with sonic embellishment and technical extensions: circularly breathed harmonics, slap-tonguing, burrs, key-clicks,
multiphonics, an assortment of breath effects and mouthpiece effects. His work encompasses electro-acoustic, classical, contemporary, improvised, world, and jazz-inflected music.

15. 01. 2006: Chironomy by Miya Masaoka with Klaus Filip, Giorgio Magnanensi and Burkhard Stangl