Paul Dupré has been acclaimed one of the most original and promising of 21st century composers. He is also one of the most versatile and prolific, with more than one hundred completed scores, ranging from full orchestral compositions to chamber music to solo piano pieces. The orchestral works include violin, piano, guitar, and clarinet concerti, tone poems, dances, marches and a requiem. Among the projects currently in progress are a symphony, a cello concerto and an opera.
Dupré's music is largely characterized by beautiful melodies and rich textures, and it stands out in sharp contrast to the dominant minimalism and atonal trends of recent decades. Although his style might thus sound vaguely similar to music composed during the Classical and Romantic eras, and clearly has been influenced by their advances in melodic development, harmony and counterpoint, emulating music of those periods is definitely not his intention, just as it is not his intention to emulate the styles of so-called "contemporary classical music" and popular music.
Dupré is fortunate to have grown up in a highly artistic family, his mother a highly regarded visual artist and an accomplished piano player, and his father a skilled craftsman who also sang. His early music education began with piano lessons taught by his mother from age seven. Music was heard and discussed on a daily basis. Dupré was already aware by the time he was a teenager that he wanted to do something truly creative, but it was not until well after completion of his academic studies that he finally realized both that he wanted to channel this creativity into composing and also that he actually had the ability to do so.