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Laurier Fagnan holds a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from the University of Alberta and a Master's degree in vocal pedagogy from Université Laval. He recently completed his doctoral studies in choral conducting (U of A/IRCAM, Paris), specializing in vocal technique for choirs. Further studies have brought him to the Mozarteum in Salzburg and to New York and Portland, where he studied with renowned bel canto masters Richard Miller and Dan Marek. Mr. Fagnan has given over three hundred workshops in the area of bel canto vocal technique for choirs from Whitehorse to Newfoundland. 

Dr. Fagnan is associate professor of music responsible for the vocal/choral program at Campus Saint-Jean in Edmonton where he has directed the dynamic Chorale Saint-Jean for the past 14 years. For seven years he was also artistic director of the acclaimed ensemble Da Camera Singers which enjoyed regular collaborations with Edmonton’s professional orchestras. His recent area of research, choral acoustics, has led to collaborations and presentations at international conferences in Stockholm, Miami and Paris. His thesis entitled “The Acoustical Effects of the Core Principles of the Bel Canto Method on Choral Singing” was recently awarded both Canadian and American National dissertation prizes.  He is a fellow of the Fondation Baxter et Alma Ricard, which enabled him to conduct advanced research in choral acoustics at IRCAM in Paris. The recent awarding of a generous grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation led to the opening of Canada’s first vocal acoustics laboratory at Campus Saint-Jean of the U of A in 2006. He has served as vocal coach for the largest choral festival in North America and in July of 2008, was honoured to conduct a choir of 1400 voices amassed to celebrate Québec City’s 400^th anniversary. In 2009 presented several sessions at the Québec Choral Conductors’ Symposium and was keynote presenter at Festival 500, an international choral festival in Newfoundland. During his 2009-2010 sabbatical year, he will produce a new DVD on vocal technique for choirs and write a book on bel canto vocal pedagogy. He presented the keynote address at the Europa Cantat General Assembly in Sofia, Bulgaria in November of 2009 and has been asked to present his research at the World Choral Symposium in Argentina in 2011.