Wilfrid Pelletier, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Wilfrid Pelletier

Canadian musician

Date of Birth: 20-Jun-1896

Place of Birth: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Date of Death: 09-Apr-1982

Profession: pianist, music pedagogue

Nationality: Canada

Zodiac Sign: Gemini


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About 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 as the orchestra's first artistic director and conductor from 1935–1941.
  • He had a long and fruitful partnership with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City that began with his appointment as a rehearsal accompanist in 1917; ultimately working there as one of the company's conductors in mainly the French opera repertoire from 1929-1950.
  • From 1951–1966 he was the principal conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de QuĂ©bec.
  • He was also a featured conductor for a number of RCA Victor recordings, including an acclaimed reading of Gabriel FaurĂ©'s Requiem featuring baritone Mack Harrell and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and chorus. Pelletier was one of the most influential music educators in Canada during the 20th century.
  • It was largely through his efforts that the Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du QuĂ©bec (CMADQ), an organization which has established and oversees nine different schools of higher education in music and theatre in Quebec, was established in 1942.
  • From 1943 through 1961 he served as the director of the CMADQ and its first school the Conservatoire de musique du QuĂ©bec Ă  MontrĂ©al.
  • He also served as the first director of the CMDAQ's second school, the Conservatoire de musique du QuĂ©bec Ă  QuĂ©bec, from 1944–1946, and was instrumental in establishing the Conservatoire d'art dramatique du QuĂ©bec Ă  MontrĂ©al in 1954. As a pianist, Pelletier was active during the 1920s and 1930s as one half of a piano duo with partner Arthur Loesser, the half-brother of Broadway composer Frank Loesser.
  • The two made a number of recordings together that were made under the direction of Arthur Bodanzky.
  • He also made a number of solo recordings and Ampico piano rolls in the early 1920s, playing mostly piano reductions from the operas of French composers like Georges Bizet, Charles Gounod, and Jules Massenet.
  • As a composer, he produced only a small body of work, most notably In the Dark, in the Dew (published in Boston, 1923) which soprano Maria Jeritza included in a number of her recitals.
  • He was married three times in his life, notably to opera singers Queena Mario and Rose Bampton.

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