Henri Miro

Miro, Henri

Miro, Henri (Enrique). Composer, conductor, arranger, pianist, critic, b Tarrega, Spain, 13 Nov 1879, d Montreal 19 Jul 1950. He studied music at the monastery of Montserrat in Catalonia with Padre Domingo de Guzman and worked in 1895 with Bienvenido Socias at the Barcelona Cons. He went to France in 1898 as leader of an opera troupe and arrived in Montreal in 1902. His Messe solennelle was premiered in 1904 at the Monument national. During the next 40 years he was active as composer, conductor, arranger, pianist, and teacher. Lucio Agostini, Fleurette Beauchamp, and Rafael Masella were among his pupils. He was music director 1916-21 of the Berliner Gramophone Co and later of the Compo record company. Le Passe-Temps (8 May 1915) reported a single Montreal performance of Miro's opera A Million Dollar Girl. His operetta Le Roman de Suzon, which had been performed in 1914 at the Princess Theatre, was revived in November 1925 by the Société canadienne d'opérette at the Monument national and in September 1926 in Sherbrooke, Que. His cantata Vox populi for orchestra, choir, and soloists, based on 14 French-Canadian themes, was premiered 6 Nov 1928 under the direction of Jean Goulet at the Monument national. It was again performed 19 Apr 1929 in Holyoke, Mass, and Miro conducted it on the following 24 June at the Montreal Stadium. (See also Vox populi, EMC 1981.) He also conducted the premiere of his Symphonie canadienne 27 Oct 1931. On the CNR's radio station he conducted 1930-1 a series devoted to operetta and opera, which included some of his own works. In 1936 Miro entered the first competition for composers organized by the SCSM and won the Prix Jean-Lallemand for Scènes mauresques; the work was premiered 3 Apr 1936 at Plateau Hall under the direction of Wilfrid Pelletier. A second operetta, Lolita (with libretto by Armand Robi), was presented 9 Jan 1944 on the CBC. Miro also composed symphonic suites - including Luxor, which was published by the Édition Belgo-Canadienne - two cello concertos, some pieces for violin, and a considerable number of songs, chansons, and ballads for solo voice and for choir. He was not only an operetta and concert conductor but also a pioneer among radio conductors. His series of CBC programs devoted to Spanish music, 'Sevilliana' and 'Mexicana,' were extremely popular. Several of his works were published in La Lyre, to which he also contributed articles and reviews. He conducted for recordings on the HMV (record label), Apex (record label), and Starr labels, and the titles of these are listed in Roll Back the Years. Miro Avenue, Montreal, was named in his honour in 1962.