Jocelyn Lafond was born in 1989 in Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec. Having begun studying the piano at the age of six, his subsequent musical career has been marked by an increasingly curious and interested quest to understand and express music in its various forms of expression. Trained at music conservatories in Trois-Rivières and Montreal, and at Arts au Carré (Royal Conservatory of Music in Mons, Belgium), Jocelyn Lafond holds degrees in organ, piano, piano accompaniment, conducting (orchestra and choir) and classical writing. He also completed a doctorate in organ at McGill University in 2022.
During his many years of advanced training, he has had the good fortune to work with such passionate musicians as Michel Kozlovsky (pianist), Claire Ouellet (piano accompanist), Raymond Perrin (organist and choral conductor), Christian Lane (organist), Hans-Ola Ericsson (organist), Jonathan Oldengarm (organist), Gilles Bellemare (composer and conductor), Jean-Pierre Deleuze (composer) and Denis Menier (choral conductor). As a conductor, Jocelyn Lafond has already led the Orchestre du Conservatoire de musique de Trois-Rivières, the Orchestre symphonique de jeunes Philippe-Filion de Shawinigan and the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières on several occasions.
A sought-after accompanist, he has been pianist-repetiteur with the Chœur classique de l'Estrie (Granby) since 2016, and with the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières choir since 2021. In 2022, he was named musical and artistic director of the Orphéon de Trois-Rivières.Active as a concert performer, arranger and composer of mainly religious music, Jocelyn Lafond defines himself first and foremost as an organist. Involved in liturgical music since 2000 in his native parish of Saint-Eugène, he has been titular organist at Saint-Hyacinthe Cathedral since 2009, and has also held the role of maître de chapelle there since 2017.
Recipient of the Prix du Lieutenant-gouverneur du Québec and the Governor General's Academic Medal, he also received the prestigious Sir Ernest MacMillan Foundation Award in 2019. He has distinguished himself in numerous musical competitions, such as the Canadian Music Competition, the Lynnwood-Farnam Competition and the Concours d'orgue de Québec, in which he won first prizes. Jocelyn Lafond has been piano accompanist and professor of theory and vocal ensemble at the Conservatoire de musique de Trois-Rivières since 2017.
