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

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

conservatory located in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, 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 G ...

, 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 North Shore sector of Greater Montreal. It is a gateway to the Laurentian Mountains and its reso ...

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François River, Saint-François and Magog River, Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territ ...

, and Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. 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 th ...

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

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or 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 Jean Ja ...

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

Legislative Assembly of Quebec A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the authority, legal authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with th ...

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, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

n music institution of higher learning to be entirely state-subsidized. Orchestra conductor Wilfrid Pelletier 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 The Saint-Sulpice Library is an historic building located at 1700 Saint Denis Street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was designated a Historic Monument of Quebec in 1988. At the dawn of the 20th century, the political elite and religious leaders ...

at 1700

Saint Denis Street Saint Denis Street (officially in ) is a major north–south thoroughfare in Montreal, Quebec. It extends from the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel on Saint Paul Street in Old Montreal to the bank of the Rivière des Prairies at the north en ...

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 musical instrument in the woodwind 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 virtuosity ...

ist Simon Kovar and Louis Letellier;

cellists A person who plays the cello is called a cellist. This list of notable cellists is divided into four categories: 1) Living Classical Cellists; 2) Non-Classical Cellists; 3) Deceased Classical Cellists; 4) Deceased Non-Classical Cellists. The ce ...

Jean Belland and Roland Leduc;

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

ist Joseph Moretti;

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

players Roger Charbonneau and Anselme Fortier;

flautist The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

s Hervé Baillargeon, René Le Roy, Arthur Lora, and Marcel Moyse;

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has 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 orchestras or ...

ist Marcel Grandjany;

horn Horn may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

players Harry Berv and Bernard Baker;

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

s Lubka Kolessa, Fleurette Beauchamp, Jean Dansereau, Auguste Descarries, Yvonne Hubert, Arthur Letondal, Germaine Malépart,

Isidor Philipp Isidor Edmond Philipp (first name sometimes spelled Isidore) (2 September 1863 – 20 February 1958) was a French pianist, composer, and pedagogue of Jewish Hungarian descent. He was born in Budapest and died in Paris. Biography Isidor Philipp ...

, and Edmond Trudel; oboists Harold Gomberg, Bruno Labate, and Michel Nazzi;

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

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 percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

ist Saul Goodman; trombonist Charles Gusikoff; and

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ists Noël Brunet, Albert Chamberland, Camille Couture, Maurice Onderet, and Ethel Stark. Isabelle Delorme was the CMQM's first teacher of

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

and

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

. Léon Barzin 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 Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical point of view. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history of ...

solfège In music, solfège (British English or American English , ) or solfeggio (; ), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a mnemonic used in teaching aural skills, Pitch (music), pitch and sight-reading of Western classical music, W ...

, 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 refers 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 Violin, violini ...

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 ...

program in 1951 with courses in

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

and

choral music A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

. 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 ...

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

Saint Catherine Street Sainte-Catherine Street ( ) () 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 de Maisonneuve Boulevard in Wes ...

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, at 100

Notre-Dame Street Notre-Dame Street (officially in ) is a historic east–west street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It runs parallel to the Saint Lawrence River, from Lachine, Quebec, Lachine to the eastern tip of the Island of Montreal, island in Poi ...

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 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

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

(2008–2013)

Notable alumni

* Raynald Arseneault, composer and organist * Colette Boky, operatic soprano * Pierre Brabant, composer and pianist * Boris Brott, conductor * Angèle Dubeau, violinist * Louis Dufort, 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 served ...

, jazz trumpeter and bandleader * Lewis Furey * Gérald Gagnier, bandmaster, composer, and trumpeter * Karina Gauvin, operatic soprano * Monique Gendron, organist * Kenneth Gilbert, harpsichordist, organist, and musicologist * Violet Grant-States, clarinetist, member, Montreal Women's Symphony * Jacques Hétu, composer * Christopher Jackson, harpsichordist, organist, and conductor * Jacques Lacombe, conductor *

Robert Langevin Robert Langevin is a Canadian flautist. He has been principal flautist of the New York Philharmonic since 2000 and is a former principal flautist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He was associate principal flautist with the Montreal Symphony O ...

, flautist * Jacques Larocque, saxophonist * Jimmie LeBlanc, composer * Marie-Nicole Lemieux, operatic contralto * Bruce Xiaoyu Liu, pianist * Paul Marcotte, french hornist * Joseph Masella, french hornist * Roger Matton, composer and ethnomusicologist *

Pierre Mercure Pierre Mercure (21 February 1927 – 29 January 1966) was a Canadian composer, TV producer, bassoonist, and administrator. Mercure was born in Montreal. As a student at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal, he earned honour ...

, composer and bassoonist * Robin Minard, composer * François Morel, 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 Karen Quinton is a Toronto-based Canadian pianist, organist, harpsichordist and music educator. She has performed as a soloist with many symphony orchestras in Canada, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchest ...

, pianist * André Ristic, 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, 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 Tremblay studied at the conservatories of Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal, Québec in Montréal and Paris (1954� ...

(both student and teacher) * Claude Vivier, composer

Notable faculty

Arthur Romano Arthur Romano may refer to: * Arthur Romano (musician) (1914-1964), Italian-Canadian saxophonist, clarinetist, oboist, english hornist, and music educator * Arthur Romano (rugby league) (born 1997), French rugby league player {{hndis, Romano, ...

, professor of saxophone

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