[6] Prévost was trained at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal where he was a pupil of Isabelle Delorme, Jean Papineau-Couture, and Clermont Pépin.
Following graduation, he was awarded grants from the Canada Council and the Government of Québec which enabled him to study with Olivier Messiaen and Henri Dutilleux in Paris.
In 1963 he won the Prix d'Europe, an award which provided him with the opportunity to study electroacoustic music under Michel Philippot.
During the 1960s Prévost taught at the Tanglewood Music Centre with fellow faculty members Aaron Copland, Zoltán Kodály, Gunther Schuller and Elliott Carter.
[14][15] His composition style has been compared to that of Alban Berg and he was regarded as a relatively conservative composer, similar to his contemporary Jacques Hétu.