The Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal (CMQM) is a

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

conservatory located in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

, Canada. In addition to the Montreal region, the school takes in students from nearby cities, including Granby,

Joliette Joliette is a city in southwest Quebec, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Montreal, on the L'Assomption River and is the seat of the Regional County Municipality of Joliette. It is considered to be a part of the North Shore of Gr ...

, St-Jean,

Saint-Jérôme Saint-Jérôme () ( 2021 population 80,213) is a suburban city located about northwest of Montreal on the Rivière du Nord. It is part of the Montreal of Greater Montreal. It is a gateway to the Laurentian Mountains and its resorts via the ...

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional cou ...

, and

Salaberry-de-Valleyfield Salaberry-de-Valleyfield is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada, in the Regional County Municipality of Beauharnois-Salaberry. The population as of 2019 was 42,410. Situated on Grande-Île, an island in the Saint Lawrence River, it is borde ...

. The school is the first of nine conservatories in Quebec which form the

Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec The Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec (CMADQ) is a public network of nine state-subsidised schools offering higher education in music and theatre in Quebec, Canada. The organization was established in 1942 as a branch of ...

(CMADQ). The current director is Manon Lafrance."Conservatoire de musique du Québec"
''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' In addition to practice rooms, classrooms and rehearsal halls, the conservatory contains 85 teaching studios, a 225-seat theater, a concert hall of 225 seats, a recital hall with 100 places, and a large music multimedia center with a recording studio. The conservatoire is also home to a substantial musical library.

History

In the 1940s a report examining music education in Europe and in Canada, compiled by Canadian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

Claude Champagne, was presented to the Quebec government by Champagne and

Wilfrid Pelletier Joseph Louis Wilfrid Pelletier (sometimes spelled Wilfred), (20 June 1896 – 9 April 1982) was a Canadian conductor, pianist, composer, and arts administrator. He was instrumental in establishing the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, serving ...

. The government decided to establish a network of state-subsidized schools modeled after European conservatories, particularly the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

. On 29 May 1942 The Conservatory Act ('Loi du conservatoire') was passed by the

Legislative Assembly of Quebec The Legislative Assembly of Quebec (French: ''Assemblée législative du Québec'') was the name of the lower house of Quebec's legislature from 1867 to December 31, 1968, when it was renamed the National Assembly of Quebec. At the same time, t ...

which allocated a $30,000 budget to form the CMADQ's first school, the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal (CMQM). The Conservatoire opened its doors in January 1943; at the time it was the first

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

n music institution of higher learning to be entirely state-subsidized. Orchestra conductor

served as the school's first director from 1943 through 1961; Champagne was the first assistant director. The school's first classes were held at the Saint-Sulpice Library at 1700 Saint Denis Street and in nearby buildings. The first full academic school year began the following October with 175 students enrolled. Pelletier and Champagne hired an international staff which included

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuos ...

ist Simon Kovar and

Louis Letellier Louis Shepherd LeTellier (February 8, 1887 – July 2, 1975) was an American football coach and university instructor and administrator. He was the fourth head football coach at The Citadel, serving for two seasons, from 1911 to 1912, and compil ...

; cellists Jean Belland and Roland Leduc;

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...

ist Joseph Moretti;

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

players Roger Charbonneau and Anselme Fortier; flautists Hervé Baillargeon,

René Le Roy René Le Roy (; 4 March 1898 – 3 January 1985) sometimes spelled René LeRoy, was a French 20th-century flutist and a pedagogue. Biography René Le Roy was born in 1898 in Maisons-Laffitte. His parents were both amateur musicians, his father ...

, Arthur Lora, and Marcel Moyse;

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orc ...

ist

Marcel Grandjany Marcel Georges Lucien Grandjany ( ) (3 September 1891 – 24 February 1975) was a French-American harpist and composer. Biography Early life Marcel Grandjany was born in Paris and began the study of the harp at the age of eight with Henriett ...

; horn players Harry Berv and Bernard Baker;

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

s Lubka Kolessa, Fleurette Beauchamp, Jean Dansereau, Auguste Descarries, Yvonne Hubert,

Arthur Letondal Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more w ...

, Germaine Malépart, Isidor Philipp, and Edmond Trudel;

oboists An oboist (formerly hautboist) is a musician who plays the oboe or any oboe family instrument, including the oboe d'amore, cor anglais or English horn, bass oboe and piccolo oboe or oboe musette. The following is a list of notable past and pr ...

Harold Gomberg, Bruno Labate, and Michel Nazzi;

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational ...

s Joseph Bonnet and George M. Brewer;

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

ist Saul Goodman; trombonist Charles Gusikoff; and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

ists Noël Brunet,

Albert Chamberland Albert Chamberland (12 October 1886 – 4 April 1975) was a Canadian violinist, composer, conductor, music producer, and music educator. As a violinist he performed as a chamber musician with a number of ensembles, including the Beethoven ...

, Camille Couture, Maurice Onderet, and Ethel Stark.

Isabelle Delorme Isabelle Delorme (4 November 1900 – 20 February 1991) was a Canadian composer, pianist, and music educator. As a composer, her works are lyrical in nature and follow more traditional ideas of harmony as opposed to the avant-garde music that was ...

was the CMQM's first teacher of

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. Howeve ...

and

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tra ...

Léon Barzin Léon Eugene Barzin (November 27, 1900April 19, 1999) was a Belgian-born American conductor and founder of the National Orchestral Association (NOA), the oldest surviving training orchestra in the United States. Barzin was also the founding m ...

and Charles Houdret oversaw the first courses in

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

and courses in music history,

solfège In music, solfège (, ) or solfeggio (; ), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a music education method used to teach aural skills, pitch and sight-reading of Western music. Solfège is a form of solmization, though the tw ...

, and music dictation were led by professors Gabriel Cusson, Alfred Mignault, Jean Papineau-Couture, and Isabelle Ria Lenssens among others. Clermont Pépin oversaw the music composition program and Jean Vallerand served on both the faculty and as general secretary. Pépin was later appointed the school's third director in 1967. The violist Louis Bailly was also on the faculty and he founded Quatuor du Conservatoire in 1944, a

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinist ...

in-residence at the CMQM during the mid-1940s. Originally the CMQM was entirely an instrumental program, but the school added a

vocal music Vocal music is a type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment (a cappella), in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but d ...

program in 1951 with courses in

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

and choral music. Roger Filiatrault was appointed the vocal program's first director, and teachers included Rachele Maragliano-Mori, Dick Marzollo, and

Martial Singher Martial Singher (August 14, 1904 – March 9, 1990) was a French baritone opera singer born in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Initially singing only as a hobby, he was encouraged by then French education minister Édouard Herriot to ...

. Around this same time the Orchestre du Conservatoire, a 65-player student orchestra, was formed. Among its directors have been conductors Raymond Dessaints, Charles Houdret, Roland Leduc, Rémus Tzincoca, and, since 1980,

Raffi Armenian Raffi Armenian, (born June 4, 1942) is a Canadian conductor, pianist, composer, and teacher. He directed the Kitchener–Waterloo Symphony orchestra for many years. Since 1999 he has been the director of Orchestral Studies at the University of T ...

, the school's current director. In 1956 the school moved to facilities on

Saint Catherine Street Sainte-Catherine Street (french: rue Sainte-Catherine) () is the primary commercial artery of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It crosses the central business district from west to east, beginning at the corner of Claremont Avenue and d ...

and then to larger ones at the Palais du commerce at 1700 Berri Street in 1964. In 1975 the conservatoire moved to the former building of the

Palais de justice de Montréal The Palais de justice is a courthouse in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 1 Notre-Dame Street East in the Old Montreal neighbourhood of the Ville-Marie borough. It was completed in 1971. Though located in the Old Montreal historic dist ...

, at 100 Notre-Dame Street which housed two electroacoustic studios, three rehearsal rooms, 11 practice studios, and 38 teaching studios. The building also contained two performance halls where the school's ensembles, students, and faculty performed public concerts: the Salle Gabriel-Cusson which seats approximately 200 people and the Salle Germaine-Malépart which seats 125. By 1991 the Conservatoire's music library contained more than 56,000 books and scores, 111 current periodicals, and over 10,000 audiovisual documents. Cellist

Yuli Turovsky Yuli Turovsky OC CQ (7 June 193915 January 2013) was a Soviet-born Canadian cellist, conductor and music educator. His name is mostly associated with the I Musici de Montréal Chamber Orchestra, which he founded in 1983 and led until his deat ...

taught at the Conservatoire in the 1970s. In 1986 the school formed a chamber orchestra and in 1989 a wind orchestra was established under the direction of Alain Cazes. In autumn 2001, the CMQM moved to its current location at 4750 avenue Henri-Julien. A major fire on December 7, 2005 seriously damaged the conservatory's facilities. The Government of Quebec restored the facilities at a cost of 46 million dollars, and the new premises opened in the summer of 2008.

List of directors

(1942–1961) * Roland Leduc (1961–1967) * Clermont Pépin (1967–1973) * Gilberte Martin (1973–1974, interim) * Raymond Daveluy (1974–1978) * Gilles Gauthier (1978–1979, interim) *

Albert Grenier Joseph Jacques Albert Grenier (born 31 August 1939, in Shawinigan) is a Canadian pianist, academic, and university administrator. From 1979–1998 he was director of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal (CMM). Life and career Gren ...

(1979–1998) * Lorraine Prieur (1998–2000, interim) * Isolde Lagacé (2000–2007) *

(2008–2013)

Notable alumni

Raynald Arseneault Raynald Arseneault (9 June 1945 – 27 January 1995) was a Canadian composer and organist. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre, his compositional output consists of more than 50 works. His style was particularly influenced by Ivan Wys ...

, composer and organist *

Colette Boky Colette Boky (born Marie-Rose Élisabeth Giroux; June 4, 1935), is a French-Canadian operatic soprano, particularly associated with lyric roles in the French, Italian, and German repertories. Life and career Born Marie-Rose Élisabeth Giroux, in ...

, operatic soprano *

Pierre Brabant Pierre Brabant (26 August 1925 – 28 August 2014) was a Canadian composer and pianist. He appeared in concerts and recitals throughout Canada and performed numerous times on Canadian television and radio. He wrote music for a number of program ...

, composer and pianist *

Boris Brott Boris Brott, (March 14, 1944 – April 5, 2022) was a Canadian conductor and motivational speaker. He was one of the most internationally recognized Canadian conductors, having conducted on stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall and ...

, conductor *

Angèle Dubeau Angèle Dubeau, (born 24 March 1962) is a Canadian classical violinist. She has devoted a large part of her career to making classical music accessible to a wide audience, but also frequently plays works by contemporary composers. Early life a ...

, violinist *

Louis Dufort Louis Dufort (born July 29, 1970) is a Canadian composer of electroacoustic music. He was born and lives in Montréal, Canada. Dufort has a bachelor's degree in electroacoustic music composition from the Université de Montréal as well as a mas ...

, composer * Pierre Duval, operatic tenor * Jacques Faubert, composer and conductor *

Maynard Ferguson Walter Maynard Ferguson CM (May 4, 1928 – August 23, 2006) was a Canadian jazz trumpeter and bandleader. He came to prominence in Stan Kenton's orchestra before forming his own big band in 1957. He was noted for his bands, which often serv ...

, jazz trumpeter and bandleader *

Lewis Furey Lewis Furey, born Lewis Greenblatt (born 7 June 1949) is a Canadian composer, singer, violinist, pianist, actor and director. Career Born in Montreal, Quebec to French and American parents, Furey trained as a classical violinist, and at ag ...

* Gérald Gagnier, bandmaster, composer, and trumpeter *

Karina Gauvin Karina Gauvin is a Canadian soprano who has made several recordings and is especially recognised for her interpretation of Baroque music. ''Opera News'' stated that, "Gauvin knows how to rivet an audience in opera and concert. She has been a queen ...

, operatic soprano *

Monique Gendron Monique Gendron is a Canadian organist of international renown. She won first prize at the St Albans International Organ Festival in England and at the Grand Prix of Chartes in France. She has recorded sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach and Geor ...

, organist * Kenneth Gilbert, harpsichordist, organist, and musicologist * Violet Grant-States, clarinetist, member, Montreal Women's Symphony *

Jacques Hétu Jacques Hétu (August 8, 1938 – February 9, 2010) was a Canadian composer and music educator. Biography Jacques Hétu was born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec; he began his professional training at the University of Ottawa where he was a pupil ...

, composer * Christopher Jackson, harpsichordist, organist, and conductor *

Jacques Lacombe Jacques Lacombe, (born July 14, 1963 in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec) is a Canadian conductor. Lacombe began his musical learning with choral singing. He later trained as an organist, and continued his studies at the Conservatoire de musique d ...

, conductor * Robert Langevin, flautist * Jacques Larocque, saxophonist *

Jimmie LeBlanc Jimmie LeBlanc (born 1977) is a Canadian composer specializing in instrumental and mixed music. His music has been performed throughout his native country and internationally, including by the Ensemble Contrechamps, Hwaum Chamber Ensemble, Kor ...

, composer *

Marie-Nicole Lemieux Marie-Nicole Lemieux, C.M., C.Q. (born June 26, 1975) is a Canadian coloratura contralto. In 2000, she became the first Canadian to win first prize at the Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition in Belgium. Lemieux has continued to pe ...

, operatic contralto * Bruce Xiaoyu Liu, pianist * Paul Marcotte, french hornist * Joseph Masella, french hornist *

Roger Matton Roger Matton OC (18 May 1929 – 7 June 2004) was a Canadian composer,Begins with the Oboe: A History of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra'. University of Toronto Press; 2002. . p. 80, 104. ethnomusicologist, and music educator. As a composer his w ...

, composer and ethnomusicologist * Pierre Mercure, composer and bassoonist *

Robin Minard Robin Minard (born 1953) is a Canadian composer and installation artist. Minard was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He began his studies of composition at the University of Ontario, then at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montré ...

, composer *

François Morel François Morel (14 March 1926 – 14 January 2018) was a Canadian composer, pianist, conductor, and music educator. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 1994 and was awarded t ...

, composer, pianist, and conductor * Éric Morin, composer * Yannick Nézet-Séguin, pianist and conductor * Michel Perrault, composer, conductor, and percussionist * Lina Pizzolongo, vocal coach and concert pianist * André Prévost, composer * Serge Provost, composer and organist * Louis Quilico, operatic baritone * Karen Quinton, pianist *

André Ristic André Ristic (born December 19, 1972) is a Canadian composer, pianist, accordion player, and music theorist. He has won several awards, including the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music in 2000 for his work ''Catalogue de bombes occiden ...

, composer, pianist, accordion player, and music theorist * Charles Richard-Hamelin, pianist * Pierre Rolland, oboist, English horn player, radio broadcaster, music critic, and arts administrator. *

Joseph Rouleau Joseph A. Rouleau, (February 28, 1929 – July 12, 2019) was a French Canadian Bass (voice type), bass opera singer, particularly associated with the Italian and French repertoires. Life and career Born in Matane, Quebec, he studied privately w ...

, operatic bass * Patrick Saint-Denis, composer *

Jeff Stinco Simple Plan is a Canadian rock band from Montreal, Quebec, formed in 1999. The band's lineup consists of Pierre Bouvier (lead vocals, studio bass guitar), Chuck Comeau (drums), Jeff Stinco (lead guitar), and Sébastien Lefebvre (rhythm gui ...

, rock and punk guitarist for the band Simple Plan * Diane Tell, singer-songwriter * Olivier Thouin, violinist * Huguette Tourangeau, operatic mezzo-soprano *

Gilles Tremblay (composer) Gilles Tremblay, (6 September 1932 – 27 July 2017) was a Canadian composer from Quebec. Early life and education Trembay studied at the conservatories of Québec in Montréal and Paris (1954–61), where his teachers included Olivier Messiaen ...

(both student and teacher) * Claude Vivier, composer"Why Quebec composer Claude Vivier was ahead of his time"
''The Globe and Mail'']. April 13, 2018, by Catherine Kustanczy

References

External links

Official Website
(in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Conservatoire de musique du Quebec a Montreal Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec Classical music in Canada Performing arts in Montreal Music schools in Canada Education in Montreal Educational institutions established in 1943 Schools in Montreal Le Plateau-Mont-Royal 1943 establishments in Quebec