Shon Boublil started playing the guitar at the age 12. Until then he played the clarinet at school FACE in Montreal, Canada. Outside of school activities his energies were invested into sports, mainly fencing. Since an early age Shon participated in many sports competitions which definitely helped him with his musical challenges. At 12 he enrolled at the McGill Conservatory for private guitar lessons. He also joined his school jazz band.
At the age of 14 Shon and his family moved to Quebec City for two years where he met Christophe Pratiffi, his new classical guitar teacher. That proved to be the best move in his musical career. Christoph was very demanding and was ready to go as fast and as far as Shon was prepared to venture. He was a great teacher. In 2008 Shon managed to win first place to become Quebec Fencing Champion and to win the Canadian Music Competition in his age category, regional, provincial and National. Shon was doing all that while attending regular classes and organizing concerts at his high school Compagnons de Cartier in Quebec City.
Shon became active in the classical music scene and in 2009 he won 1st place at the International Montreal Classical Guitar Competition and 3rd at the Schwob School of Music Classical Guitar Competition in Columbus Georgia. Towards the end of 2009 he also participated and was among the three finalist at the Grand Prix de Guitar de Montreal which is organized by the Jazz Festival de Montreal.
Shon organized a benefit concert, Classical Guitarists for Haiti 2010 at the F.A.C.E. concert Hall with invited guitarists: LE QUATUOR (Marie-Soleil Fortier, Francois Gauthier, Charles Gauvin, Karl Marino), Thierry Begin-La Montagne, Shon Boublil, Jérôme Ducharme, Patrick Kearney.
In 2010, back in Montreal and back to his old school F.A.C.E., Shon jumped on the occasion to participate in the Yamaha Six String Theory Guitar Competition in Santa Monica, CA, winning the Grand Prize. This event was indeed fantastic for Shon's musical career. It was not just classical. All guitar categories were represented in this competition including Blues, Jazz, Rock, Country, and Acoustic. Most of the players were indeed great musicians from all over the world. The Grand Prize was 4 years full-tuition to Berklee School of Music.
One of the prizes Shon received was recording on a Superstar guitar album, the brain child of Lee Ritenour with B. B. King, George Benson, Steve Lukather, John Scofield, Pat Martino, Mike Stern, Neal Schon, Slash, Vince Gill, Keb Mo, Taj Mahal, Joe Bonamassa, Jonny Lang, Andy McKee, Guthrie Govan, Joe Robinson and Kazumi Watanable, Shon Boubil. Shon Boublil has a Yamaha Endorsement Artist and a D'Addrio Gold Performing Artist.
Guitar Teachers: Christoph Pratiffi, Marie-Soleil Fortier, Alvaro Pierri
Sports: Fencing (3 times Quebec Fencing Champion, Epee), Sailing (Albacore, Laser I, White Sail I,II,III, Canadian Power & Sail Squadrons License).
