Early life and musical studies Larry Beauregard was born in
Brampton, Ontario, Canada, the third of six children of Jean-Pierre Beauregard, a French-Canadian aerospace engineer, and Irish-Canadian Michaela Moloney. He spent his childhood and teenage years in Montreal. He took up flute in his early teens, and was a private student of Abe Kestenberg (who also taught at the McGill Conservatory of Music), and Gail Grimstead at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Hull from which he graduated with a Premier Prix in 1977. In 1977, he moved to Paris to study under
Alain Marion at the
Conservatoire de Paris.
Professional career Upon leaving the
Conservatoire de Paris in 1980, Beauregard joined the
Ensemble InterContemporain under
Pierre Boulez as first flute. He also performed and recorded solo works for flute. His performance of
Edgard Varèse's
Density 21.5 is included on Sony Classical's
Flute – Greatest Hits CD. He also performed the live solo part of
Steve Reich's "Vermont Counterpoint", accompanied by a
multitrack recording of himself playing the other parts. After Beauregard's death in 1985, friend and fellow flautist recorded the solo part and included the completed work on his CD (ADDA 581075), as did Claire Marchand on her CD
20th Century Works for Solo Flute (ATMA Classique ACD22175). In the early 1980s, Beauregard was deeply involved in computer music research at the recently established
IRCAM, modifying a flute with optical switches so that it could interface with the
4X computer-based audio synthesis and processing system. This eventually culminated in his work with
Barry Vercoe on the
Synthetic Performer, which was demonstrated at the
ICMC in 1984. Beauregard taught at several
master classes, including
Domaine Forget in his native Quebec.
Illness and death In May 1985, he was diagnosed with late-stage
colon cancer, and died on September 4, 1985. In his memory, the Lawrence Beauregard International Flute Competition was established; winners of the competition include Nina Perlove, Kaoru Hinata, and Myung Joo Ahn. Works composed in his memory include
Pierre Boulez'
Mémoriale (1985) for flute and ensemble,
Philippe Manoury's
Jupiter (1987) for flute and electronics, and
Tim Brady's
Requiem 21.5 (2009) for solo violin and orchestra. ==Discography==