Conservatoire national de musique

Conservatoire national de musique

Conservatoire national de musique. At first called the Conservatoire national de musique et de l'élocution, it was founded in Montreal in 1905 by Alphonse Lavallée-Smith. Letters patent in 1906 from Canada's secretary of state officially gave it the right to teach music, diction, elocution, drawing, and painting and to grant diplomas. It later was named the Cons national Ltée (National Cons Ltd). At the time of its founder's death in 1912, 250 diplomas had been conferred.

From 1921 to 1951, the conservatory was affiliated with the University of Montreal. In 1928, Eugène Lapierre (secretary 1922-7, director 1927-70), reorganized it along the lines of European conservatories he had visited and studied 1924-7, obtaining financial support from Edmond Archambault and Joseph Versailles. Lapierre was assisted by his brother Albert by Alexandre d'Aragon, and by Antonio Létourneau, and enlisted a teaching staff made up of (in his own words) 'our own specialists,' among whom were Sylva Alarie, Victoria Cartier, Albert Chamberland, Claude Champagne, Jean-Noël Charbonneau (president and director 1915-22), Eugène Chartier, Camille Couture, Charles Delvenne, Auguste Descarries, Orpha-F. Deveaux, Camille Duquette, Alfred La Liberté, Arthur Laurendeau, Arthur Letondal, Germaine Malépart, Rodolphe Mathieu, Léo-Pol Morin, Albertine Morin-Labrecque, Frédéric Pelletier, Benoît Poirier (president 1923-5), Marcel Saucier, Joseph-Élie Savaria, and Benoît Verdickt. Among the musicians who studied at the conservatory were Émilien Allard, Françoise Aubut, Eugène Caron, Gérard Caron, Albertine Caron-Legris, Ferrier Chartier, Georges Codling, Marguerite Lesage, Colombe Pelletier, and Paul Pratt. The official publication of the institution, La Quinzaine musicale, appeared twice monthly from September 1930 to March 1932. Works by French-Canadian composers which appeared in its pages later were issued separately by Éditions du Conservatoire. The conservatory came under independent management again in 1951. On Lapierre's death in 1970, Élise Chapdelaine, who had been secretary since 1940, served 1970-1 as interim director. Édouard Woolley, a graduate of the institution, was director 1971-5, succeeded by Chapdelaine.