Article

François Héraly

Published Online May 15, 2007

Last Edited December 12, 2013

(J.A.) François Héraly. Clarinetist, bandmaster, teacher, b Flavin, near Namur, Belgium, 1856, d Montreal between 20 and 22 Jul 1920. In 1867 he began music study in Brussels, and in 1873 he attended the conservatory at Namur, where he joined a regimental band.

Héraly, François

(J.A.) François Héraly. Clarinetist, bandmaster, teacher, b Flavin, near Namur, Belgium, 1856, d Montreal between 20 and 22 Jul 1920. In 1867 he began music study in Brussels, and in 1873 he attended the conservatory at Namur, where he joined a regimental band. He enrolled in 1877 at the Liège Cons and later directed bands in Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Algeria before moving to Quebec to lead the Sherbrooke Band (1894-7). In Montreal ca 1903 he became music director of Sohmer Park and of the St-Pierre-Apôtre parish Temperance Band (Montreal). The young Wilfrid Pelletier was a drummer in the latter. Héraly also taught most wind instruments.

Héraly's wife (b Ida Campbell in Sherbrooke 20 May 1860, d Montreal 1942) studied piano with Mrs Holland (who had studied at the Paris Cons) and received a diploma from the Canadian College of Music. For 54 years she taught piano, solfège, and harmony in Montreal. She was the first teacher (1904-14) of Wilfrid Pelletier.