Lewis Furey

Lewis Furey began violin lessons when he was 5 years old. At 11, he made his debut as soloist with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Wilfrid Pelletier. He enrolled at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in the class of Calvin Sieb, before moving to New York to study at the Juilliard School of Music with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy Delay. When he was 18, he followed Louis Dudek’s courses in contemporary literature at McGill University. By the age of 20, he decided to direct his career toward songwriting, theatre, and film. As lyricist and composer, he has recorded three solo albums, Lewis Furey (1975), The Humours of... (1976) and The Sky Is Falling (1979). He also wrote and produced Carole Laure’s recordings: Alibis (1978), Western Shadows (Prix Charles Cros 1989), She Says Move On (1991) and Sentiments naturels (Prix Félix de l’ADISQ 1998). Lewis directed numerous music videos, of which seven were for Carole Laure (notably Save the Last Dance for Me and Passe de toi), as well as for Renaud (Le P’tit Voleur), Mecano (Hijo de la Luna), Julio Iglesias (Milonga Sentimental), Gypsy Kings (Sin Ella), and Céline Dion (Ziggy).

Working in the theatre, he has collaborated with Jean-Michel Ribes (Jacky Paradise), Carole Laure (Vous avez dû mentir aussi and Bonsoir, mon amour), and Jean-Michel Deprats (Antony and Cleopatra – The A&C Project). In 1993 Lewis remounted the rock opera Starmania, which toured the world for ten years, winning the French Victoire de la Musique award three times. He has written more than 20 film scores (amongst which Fantastica, La Tête de Normande St-Onge, The Rubber Gun Show, American Dreamer, and Love Project) and was awarded three Canadian Screen Awards for his compositions (Maria Chapdelaine, The Peanut-Butter Solution, and Night Magic). He directed two feature films: Rats and Rabbits, from George F. Walker’s play Beyond Mozambique (2000), and Night Magic, a musical with lyrics by Leonard Cohen, which was premiered in the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival in 1985. From 2010 until 2014 Lewis returned to the stage with Selected Songs Recital, which he toured extensively. In 2016–2017 he created Lewis Furey Sings Brahms at the Outremont Theatre in Montréal and recorded Haunted by Brahms for ATMA Classique.