Artistic director and principal conductor of the SMCQ, Walter Boudreau is also a composer who has written nearly fifty works for chamber ensemble and for orchestra, as well as for film, ballet and theater. In addition to the SMCQ, Walter Boudreau has conducted several leading ensembles and orchestras in Canada and abroad. In 1991, Golgot(h)a received in Paris the Grand Prix Paul-Gilson from the Community of French-language Public Radios (CRPLF). In 1998, he was awarded the Opus Prize for Composer of the year by the Conseil québécois de la musique, and in 2003, the prestigious Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize.

From 1990 to 1993, he was the first composer in residence at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and, from 1998 to 2000, co-artistic director with Denys Bouliane at the Orchestre symphonique de Québec for the Musique-au-présent Festival, as well as for the Symphony of the Millenium (2000). In 2003, Bouliane and Boudreau launched the first edition of the Montreal/New Music International Festival.