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Fassio, Angelo
Angelo Fassio. Violinist, conductor, publisher, composer, b St-Étienne, France, 14 Jan 1888, d Montreal 1 Aug 1956. He studied violin in Paris and in Berlin and theory in Barcelona. He was a member of the Cirque d'hiver orchestra in Paris and a conductor in Spain before going to New York with a German opera troupe. In New York he was conductor at the Academy of Music and an instrumentalist at the Capitol Theater.
By 1918 some of Fassio's compositions had been published in Le Passe-Temps as had his articles on violin technique, but he does not appear to have settled in Canada before the early 1930s. He published the Musical Review of Canada October 1933-July 1934 in Lachute, Que, and about this time founded two publishing houses, Parnasse musical and Éditions A. Fassio. He owned the Rex cinema in Lachute and in 1936 became music director of the 2nd Artillery Regiment Band of Montreal.
Fassio's compositions encompass works for concert band, pieces for violin and piano, and some songs, including 'Le Fort de Chambly' with lyrics by Benjamin Sulte. Several were published in Le Passe-Temps. Some manuscripts are held at the BN du Q. A bound copy of all tenor issues of the Musical Review of Canada can be found at the Argenteuil Historical Museum in Carillon, Que.
Éditions A. Fassio published works by Dantès Belleau, Maurice Boivin, Claude Champagne and Alfred Tardif. Parnasse musical published works by Giuseppe Agostini, Louis Bédard, Félix-R. Bertrand, Eugène Caron, J.-J. Gagnier, André Mathieu, Séverin Moisse, and others. Fassio also published some anthologies, including French Folk Songs (1932), Germania Album (1934), Hungaria Album (1936), and Neapolitan Memories (1938), which were listed in the catalogue of Edward B. Marks, New York, while Parnasse musical published Chansons de noces in the mid-1940s.
After Fassio's death, the assets of these two publishing houses were acquired by BMI Canada. Berandol then took over the rights for serious music, and Quality Music of Toronto those for light music.
