Albertine Morin-Labrecque

Career

Morin-Labrecque began studying piano at five, giving her first recital two years later and obtaining at eight the premier prix for theory and the senior class diploma from the AMQ. She continued her piano training with Romain-Octave Pelletier and soon mastered the standard repertoire, which she played in numerous recitals in Canada and the USA beginning in 1901. She began studies in harmony and composition at this time and completed them with J. Macaire in Paris. In Paris she also studied voice with Arthur Plamondon. She performed in concerts in Paris, Brussels, and New York before her return to Montreal around 1920.

Morin-Labrecque taught pedagogy, piano, and analysis at the Conservatoire national de musique du Québec (CMM) in Montreal and piano and voice 1922-51 (adding analysis and pedagogy after 1930) at the University of Montreal (UdeM). Gérard Caron and Hector Gratton were among her pupils. In 1922 she founded the Trio de Montréal (1922) with her sister Jeanne, violin, and Yvette Lamontagne, cello, and published L'Art d'étudier le piano (Montreal 1922). She also wrote Recueil de modèles et de dictées musicales and Méthode de piano (2 volumes).

Morin-Labrecque composed the “Chinese opera” Pao-chu, Fille de Chine, two comic operas - one of which, Francine, was presented in 1930 in Montreal – four ballets, the symphonic poem “Le Matin”, two concertos for two pianos, and various works for orchestra or band. Several works for instrumental ensemble, piano, piano duet, organ, choir, or voice were published by Archambault, Leduc, Parnasse musical, and Zimmerman (Cincinnati). The Éditions du Conservatoire (Conservatoire national) published her Pantomime for violin and piano in 1931. She wrote monographs and short essays on Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Gounod, Liszt, Massenet, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Verdi, and Wagner, which were published in Montreal in the 1940s. In 1984 a square and a street in Montreal were named after her. Her personal papers are held at the National Library of Canada (now amalgamated to National Archives of Canada, under the name Library and Archives Canada).