Jean-Yves Landry

Joseph Henri Jean-Yves Landry, producer, orchestra conductor (born 5 December 1925 in Trois-Rivières, QC; died 12 February 2003 in Mont-Saint-Hilaire, QC). Jean-Yves Landry was an award-winning conductor and television producer who played a key role in developing the music and performing arts programs at Radio-Canada.

Early Years

Following early studies in his hometown with J.-Antonio Thompson and Brother Hippolyte (1933–40), Landry studied at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec (1946-47) with Alfred Mignault (tonic sol-fa), Claude Champagne (composition) and Jean Vallerand (orchestration). Under the tutelage of Rudolph Ganz, he studied orchestral conducting at the Chicago Musical College (1948–50) while also serving as the regular conductor of the Trois-Rivières Symphony Orchestra.

On a Québec government scholarship (1950–52), he attended Eugène Bigot's conducting class at the Conservatoire de Paris (where he won first prize for orchestral conducting) and Arthur Honegger's composition class at the École normale de musique. On his return to Canada he was hired by Youth and Music Canada (JMC) as a commentator.

Conductor

Landry first conducted for Radio-Canada in 1955. Subsequently, he conducted radio and television orchestras in Montréal and Toronto, and with the Québec Symphony Orchestra. In the early 1960s, he studied conducting with Josef Krips.

TV Producer

In 1956, he joined Radio-Canada as a TV producer. His main productions were Concerts pour la jeunesse and L'Heure du concert, as well as a number of special productions including: Carmen (1960), Hommage à Charles Munch (1963), Hommage à Claude Champagne (1964), Puccini's Suor Angelica (1964), Orff's Carmina Burana (1968), Hommage à Wilfrid Pelletier (1969), Gounod's Faust (1970), Le Ballet Bolchoï (1973) and Penderecki's Canticum Canticorum Salomonis (1975), under the composer's direction.

Landry won two prizes at the Golden Prague International Television Festival in Prague, Czechoslovakia, for his TV productions of two works of Igor Stravinsky: Sacre du printemps (1979) and The Firebird (1980), both with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. The Firebird featured animation by Frederic Back, and won an International Emmy Award in 1980 and a Prix Anik in 1981.

Personal Life

Landry’s first marriage, to pianist Josephte Dufresne in 1956, ended in divorce. In 1981 he married the writer Michèle Paré. He died at the age of 77 following a long illness.

Awards

First Prize, Orchestral Conducting, Conservatoire de Paris (1951)

Grand Prize (The Firebird), Golden Prague International Television Festival (1980)

Performing Arts Category (The Firebird), International Emmy Awards (1980)

Prix Anik (The Firebird), Société Radio-Canada(1981)

A version of this entry originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada.