Association chorale Brassard

Association chorale Brassard

Association chorale Brassard. Choral society founded in Montreal in 1915 by Joseph-Arsène Brassard. It began as a male-voice choir which gave its first concert at the Salle St-Sulpice 20 Nov 1916. In 1918 it performed works by Frédéric Pelletier and Amédée Tremblay and an excerpt from Liszt's Saint Elizabeth. Women's voices were added in 1919, increasing the membership to 190. The mixed-voice choir made its first appearance at the Monument national 24 Feb 1921 in Franck's Les Béatitudes. The choir also took part in the celebrations for the Franck centenary at His Majesty's Theatre in 1922 and sang twice at Aeolian Hall, New York, in 1923. Also in 1923 it won the C.W. Lindsay and Birks trophies at the Montreal Musical Festival competition. It sang often for charitable causes and participated in the benefit concert at the St-Denis Theatre, 28 May 1925, for Emma Albani. Occasionally the choir was accompanied by an orchestra in large works, eg, Haydn's The Creation in 1925, Brahms' A German Requiem (with the baritone Lionel Daunais) in 1926, and Dvořák's Stabat mater in 1931. The soloists usually were members of the choir or pupils of Brassard.

Brassard (baritone, b Pointe-St-Charles, Montreal, 15 Jul 1889, d Côteau Landing, near Montreal, 10 Jul 1959) had studied with Jean-Noel Charbonneau, Guillaume Couture, Arthur Letondal, Arthur Plamondon, Jean Riddez, Joseph Saucier, and, in Paris, with Yan Ruben. In Montreal he taught singing at the St-Léon, St-Paul, and St-Thomas d'Aquin schools and voice and piano privately. He was choirmaster 1914-28 with the Pères du St-Sacrement and from 1928 until after 1935 at the Ascension of our Lord Church in Westmount and was conductor of the St-Jean-Baptiste Society choir in Montreal.