Clémence DesRochers

Quebec
Canada

Date of birth: 1933
Place of birth : Sherbrooke, Quebec

Poetry, singing, acting, performance (monologue)

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The daughter of poet Alfred DesRochers, Clémence DesRochers is a virtuoso of both composition and performance. After graduating from teacher’s training college, she had a short stint teaching elementary school before entering Montreal’s Conservatoire d’art dramatique and joining Paul Buissonneau’s theatre on wheels, La Roulotte, as a mime. After the conservatory, she acted in several children’s television series for Radio-Canada.

She has tried her hand at many artistic disciplines and won a growing number of admirers, drawn to the irresistible way she handles words, feelings and emotions. Her career amply illustrates her unique contribution to Quebec’s cultural landscape. The pictures of Québécois reality drawn by her songs and monologues are both touching and true-to-life. Funny or sad, filled with endearing characters, her stories lead her rapt audiences over familiar territory.

Of the many shows she has performed, surely the most memorable is Retrouvailles de Clémence (1980)—an unprecedented success that won two Félix Awards* for best show of the year and best writer. In 1983, she followed that up with Plus folle que jamais, which enjoyed a five-week run before going on tour. That same year she won the Jacques-Blanchet medal and, in 1993-1994, she performed her new show De retour après la ménopause…in front of close to 100,000 fans. More recently, she has turned her attention to acting and has appeared on both the small screen (Les aventures tumultueuses de Jack Carter) and the large (La Grande Séduction), winning the Jutra Award for best supporting actress for her role in that film. DesRochers continues to paint and be involved in artistic events that support humanitarian causes.

DesRochers’ shows have all been published in book form. Between 1993 and 1995, VLB éditeur produced a two-volume edition of Tout Clémence containing all her songs, short stories, monologues and plays. Her most recent release, Clémence, Presqu’intégrale [sic], is a seven-CD box set that includes 62 of her monologues, including 30 newly published ones. De la factrie au jardin presents 15 or so of her best songs.

In 1994, DesRochers received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sherbrooke and the Hommage Rideau Award; in 2001, she was made a Chevalière of the Ordre national du Québec.

*Annual awards, named in honour of Félix Leclerc, given to the best artists of the Quebec record, entertainment and video industry.