Following her Master’s and Doctoral studies in composition under Jean Papineau-Couture and Serge Garant at Université de Montréal (196368), Marcelle Deschênes spent three years in Paris at the Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM) with Pierre Schaeffer, François Bayle and Guy Reibel, and at Université de Paris VIII. From 197277 she held teaching and research positions in auditory perception, childhood music education and multi-media animation techniques at the Electroacoustic Music Studio at Université Laval in Québec City, where she was also involved with the electroacoustic performance group GIMEL.
Marcelle Deschênes’ work is distinguished not only for its pioneering nature but also for its diversity: multimedia performance, photography, video, as well as instrumental, mixed, acousmatic, radiophonic and functional music, installations and animated production for non-musicians. Over the past 35 years she has concentrated primarily on the development of new forms of artistic expression that integrate music, new technologies, performing and visual arts and multi-disciplinary teamwork. Her work is known internationally and she has won or been selected as a Finalist in many international competitions.