Maxime Goulet (composer)

Maxime Goulet (1980) is a Canadian composer, who writes concert music for orchestra and scores for video games.

Early life and education
Maxime Goulet was born and raised in Montreal, Canada to a French speaking family. He studied music composing at Université de Montréal with Alan Belkin. He earned his B. Mus. in 2005 and his Master's degree in 2007. Later, he attended several trainings and master classes, namely at the Festival international du film d'Aubagne in 2007, and the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop, with Richard Bellis in Los Angeles in 2009.

Concert music
The concert music of Maxime Goulet has been performed by a wide range of ensembles and musicians in countries around the world, including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Opera, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, the Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and many others.

Maxime Goulet's works often explore themes of daily life and playfulness: Symphonic Chocolates evokes various chocolate flavours  , Checkmate! is structured as a chess match between a piano and an orchestra, Symphonic Aerobic Dance is a workout for orchestra, On Halloween Night evokes creatures associated with Halloween, A Bassoon Circus is composed as circus acts and Fishing Story evokes a fishing trip.

His other works are often inspired by historical events: Ice Storm Symphony commemorates the 25th anniversary of the 1998 historical ice storm in Canada,  United Anthems celebrates the 150th anniversary of Canada  , Symphonic Factory celebrates the 375th anniversary of the City of Montreal,  and Citius, Altius, Fortius! celebrates the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

The album Maxime Goulet: Symphonie de la tempête du verglas, recorded by the Orchestre classique de Montréal won a Juno Award in the categorie "Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble)".

Video game music
Between 2007 and 2013, Maxime Goulet has been staff composer for Gameloft. During his tenure, he wrote music for video games such as Brothers in Arms 3: Sons of War, The Amazing Spiderman, Dungeon Hunter: Alliance, Dungeon Hunter 4 , Order & Chaos Online, Wild Blood, Shrek Forever After and Iron Man 2.

Since 2013, Maxime Goulet has been working as a freelance video game composer. He has composed music for games such as Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade, Roller Coaster Tycoon World and Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey.

In 2017, along with Orchestre Métropolitain and conductor Dina Gilbert, he created The Montreal Video Game Symphony, a multimedia concert that features music of games developed in the city of Montreal

List of works
List of concert music composition by Maxime Goulet.

Orchestral works

 * 2007: A Puppet Parade
 * 2008: Citius, altius, fortius!
 * 2012: Symphonic Aerobic Dance
 * 2012: Symphonic Chocolates
 * 2014: On Halloween Night
 * 2017: United Anthems
 * 2017: Symphonic Factory
 * 2017: Beach Ball Games for Orchestra
 * 2023: Ice Storm Symphony

Concertante

 * 2014: Fishing Story for Clarinet and String Orchestra
 * 2016: Beatles Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra
 * 2017: A Bassoon Circus for Bassoon and Orchestra
 * 2018: Checkmate! for Piano and Orchestra

Operas

 * 2012: Bungalopolis (collective work)
 * 2020: The Flight of the Hummingbird

Chamber music

 * 2004: Watercolour for Piano
 * 2005: The Wool-Spinning Devil for Narrator, Clarinet, Cello and Piano
 * 2006: On a Tightrope for String Quartet
 * 2011: What a Day for String Orchestra
 * 2014: Concertized Introductions for String Orchestra
 * 2015: Level Up! for Keyboard and String Orchestra
 * 2020: Micro météo for Tenor and Piano

Discography

 * Chocolats Symphoniques, Prague Filmharmonic, 2014.
 * Au grand orgue Pierre-Béique, Jean-Willy Kunz, ATMA Music, 2017.
 * Les plaisirs coupables, Orchestre symphonique de Sherbrooke, 2017.
 * Canada Mosaic - Sesquies, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, 2018.
 * Maxime Goulet: Symphonie de la tempête de verglas, Orchestre Classique de Montréal, ATMA Music, 2023.

List of game music
List of video games for which Maxime Goulet has composed music (as main composer or as additional music composer).