Fernand Lindsay

Lindsay, Fernand

Fernand Lindsay. Artistic director, teacher, organist, b Trois-Pistoles, Que, 11 May 1928. He began piano lessons in Trois-Pistoles at five. After studies at the Collège de Rimouski, where he worked on both organ and clarinet, he entered the Séminaire de Joliette in 1943, where he studied the bassoon in order to secure a place in the orchestra. His uncle Georges Lindsay, among others, taught him the organ. He became a cleric at St-Viateur in 1948 and started a teaching career in 1953 which he was still pursuing at the Collège de Joliette in 1991. He studied philosophy 1954-5 at the Institute of Medieval Studies of the University of Montreal. He supervised the organization of concerts at the JMC (YMC) centre in Joliette, founded in 1951. In 1962 he established a festival-competition which offered grants to allow young musicians of the region to reside at the JMC Orford Art Centre. He studied philosophy 1963-4 at the Catholic Institute of Paris and at the Sorbonne, while also visiting the great European festivals. In 1965 he became choir director of the Chanteurs de la place Bourget. He established the Camp musical de Lanaudière in St-Côme near Joliette, attended by nearly 400 young people (16 and under) annually. In 1972 he founded the École de musique du Centre culturel de Joliette. Due to Lindsay's initiative, the Festival d'été (Festival international) de Lanaudière, of which he is the founding artistic director, presented its first season in 1978. Lindsay received the JMC medal and was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1986, and he became a Chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec in 1990.