Eugène Chartier

Chartier, Eugène

Eugène Chartier. Violinist, violist, conductor, teacher, b Montreal ca 1893, d Beaconsfield (Montreal) 1 Nov 1963. He studied violin with Oscar Martel and Alfred De Sève. He was second violin 1915-20 with the Dubois String Quartet and viola 1920-5 with the Chamberland String Quartet, and he also played viola with the orchestras of the CSM and the Montreal Festivals and with the Montreal Orchestra. He founded in 1922 and conducted the orchestra of the Conservatoire national of Montreal (later the Montreal Philharmonic Orchestra), and in 1925 began to teach regularly at the conservatoire. He also taught at the colleges of Terrebonne and Berthier, and at the convent of Ste-Émilie de Viauville. Roméo Mastrocola and Lucien Robert were among his pupils. In 1932 he was appointed director of the Maisonneuve regimental band, and in 1933 he was a founding member of the Euterpe Chamber Music Society. He was invited to conduct the CSM orchestra, notably in 1937 in a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 'Eroica'. Of the latter Marcel Valois wrote in La Presse (9 Jan 1937): 'The second movement, the Marche funèbre, was played in a most interesting manner and in it M. Chartier showed that he possesses a sense of values and of true emotion'. Chartier also conducted on several broadcasts on CBC radio. At the Monument national in December 1942 he conducted the premiere of Eugène Lapierre's comic opera Père des amours.