Louise Forand

Forand, Louise

(Marie Josée) Louise Forand. Pianist, coach, b Granby, Que, 12 Aug 1941; B MUS (Montreal) 1962, M MUS (Montreal) 1964. She studied piano 1959-64 at the École Vincent-d'Indy with Yvonne Hubert and Lucille Brassard. On a Quebec government grant she spent 1964-5 in Paris studying piano with Vlado Perlemuter and musicology at the Conservatoire with Norbert Dufourcq. Between 1965 and 1968 she took further training in New York with the pianist Nadia Reisenberg; she also participated in JMC (YMC) tours with Jean Laurendeau, crossing Canada several times 1965-9 and performing in Yugoslavia in 1970. During the summers of 1966 and 1968 she worked, respectively, in Siena with Guido Agosti and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and in Barcelona with Alicia de Larrocha. She became coach and accompanist at the CMQ in 1967 and has appeared frequently as the accompanist of Jacques Simard, particularly on tours in France and Belgium. Louise Forand has given several recitals on CBC radio and TV. She was artistic director for the Club musical de Québec for some 15 years and became assistant to the artistic director of the Festival international de Lanaudière in 1990. She married the music critic Marc Samson.

Writings

Louise Forand, 'Quinze ans de vie musicale,' VM, 8, May 1968