Marc-André Hamelin, OC, CQ, (born 5th September 1961) is a French-Canadian classical pianist and composer. Born in Montreal, Quebec, Hamelin began his piano studies at the age of five, and was nine years old when he won the top prize in a Canadian music competition. His father, a pharmacist by trade who was also a keen pianist, introduced him to the works of Alkan, Godowsky, and Sorabji when he was still very young. His principal teachers were Yvonne Hubert