Search for "New France"

Raoul Vennat. Music dealer, flutist, b Clairac, France, 14 May 1869, d Montreal 1 Oct 1962. A Montreal resident after 1903, he established a music store which specialized in French music.

Mercure, Pierre. Composer, TV producer, bassoonist, administrator, b Montreal 21 Feb 1927, d in an accident near Avallon, France, 29 Jan 1966; premier prix harmony, counterpoint, deuxième prix bassoon (CMM) 1949.

Roberta Rich, novelist (born at Buffalo, New York, USA, 9 Jan 1946). Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Rich settled briefly in Rochester, New York before immigrating to Canada in the 1960s with her first husband, who had a job teaching at the UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY.

Casey Sokol. Composer, pianist, b New York 6 May 1948; BA music (State U of New York) 1970, MA (California Institute of the Arts) 1971.

Marie-Danielle Parent. Soprano, b Montreal 11 Mar 1954; B MUS (Sherbrooke) 1976, M MUS (Montreal) 1978. She studied voice with Louise André and staging with Charlotte Boisjoli at the University of Montreal.

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon, née Mullins, novelist, poet (b at Montréal 12 Jan 1829; d there 20 Sept 1879).

Jack Weldon Humphrey, painter (b at Saint John 12 Jan 1901; d there 23 Mar 1967). Humphrey was the most significant eastern Canadian painter of his generation. He studied under Charles Hawthorne at NY's National Academy of Design

Louise Lebrun. Soprano, b Montreal 9 Jan 1940; Artist Diploma (École Vincent-d'Indy) 1964. She studied 1956-64 at the École Vincent-d'Indy with Sister Gertrude-des-Anges and Sister Reine Décarie (voice), Roy Royal (French art songs), Bernard Diamant (Lieder), and Pierrette Alarie (stage techniques).

Peter McCutcheon. Guitarist, teacher, b Montreal 27 Jun 1951; B MUS (Montreal) 1972, premier prix guitar (Paris Cons) 1975. After taking lessons for six years with Florence Brown, he continued 1968-9 at the CMM with Marie Prével and 1969-72 at the University of Montreal with Marie and Martin Prével.

Lorraine Desmarais. Pianist, composer, teacher, b Montreal 15 Aug 1956; B MUS (Sherbrooke) 1977, M MUS (Sherbrooke) 1979.

Rémus (Pétru) Tzincoca. Conductor, composer, teacher, administrator, b Iassy, Rumania, 15 Sep 1915, naturalized Canadian 1965; diploma in orchestral conducting, theory, and pedagogy (Iassy Cons) 1938, premier prix conducting (Paris Cons) 1948.

Hannan, Peter. Composer, recorder player, b Montreal 19 Mar 1953; B MUS (British Columbia) 1975, Certificate of Advanced Studies (GSM) 1978. He studied recorder 1979-80 with Kees Boeke at the Sweelinck Cons under a Netherlands government scholarship and lived 1984-5 in London.

Houdy, Pierick. Composer, organist, pianist, choirmaster, teacher, b Rennes, France, 18 Jan 1929, naturalized Canadian 1976; premier prix composition (Paris Cons) 1954. He began his musical education at seven at the Rennes Cons.

Gloria Saarinen (b Manson). Pianist, teacher, administrator, b Dunedin, New Zealand 21 Sep 1934, naturalized Canadian 1964; LRSM, B MUS (Otago, New Zealand) 1956, honorary ARAM (London) 1999.

Adam Gopnik, essayist, author, critic (born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 24 Aug 1956). While born in America, Gopnik was raised in Montréal, where he completed a BA at McGill University. He moved to New York, a city that remains his home, to attend graduate school.

His numerous commissions include Treppenmusic (1982), Over Time (1987) and Las Meninas (1990-91). He was composer-in-residence in Mannheim (1984) and for the Italian summer festival Incontri in Terra di Siena (1991).

Kashtin. Popular Montagnais duo - the singer-songwriters and guitarists Florent Vollant (b Maliotenam, near Sept Îles, Que, 10 Aug 1959) and Claude McKenzie (b Schefferville, Que, 11 Mar 1967). Kashtin means 'tornado' in the Montagnais' Innu aimun language.

Anna Chornodolska. Soprano, b Vienna, of Ukrainian parents, 21 Apr 1946, naturalized Canadian 1956; premier prix (CMM) 1970, BA (McGill) 1970.

Lisa LeBlanc, singer, songwriter, musician (born 13 August 1990 in Rosaireville, NB). Lisa LeBlanc has known success ever since her first album came out in 2012. Her music, which she describes as folk-trash with bluegrass and Cajun accents, reaches a wide audience. Her songs are often humorous accounts of the perils of love. She has been compared to Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton and even Quebec singer-songwriter Plume Latraverse. Beneath her often funny lyrics, there are pearls of poetry. Her choice of words and her relentless sincerity transform the ordinary and anecdotal into a thing of beauty. Listening to Lisa LeBlanc, one can easily be laughing one minute and all choked up the next. She belongs to a generation of young Acadian artists — such as the Hay Babies, Radio, Joseph Edgar and Les Hôtesses d’Hilaire — who are firmly grounded in modern life. She says that she has been influenced by Sam Roberts, Feist, Aerosmith and, most strongly, by Stevie Nicks. Since LeBlanc’s career began, her albums have sold slightly over 140,000 copies in North America and Europe. She composes and sings in both French and English. Winner of the 2010 Festival international de la chanson de Granby, she has won many other awards in New Brunswick and Quebec and across Canada. LeBlanc first made her name with a song whose title echoes its refrain, with which many of her fans seemed to identify: “Aujourd’hui, ma vie c’est d’la m—de”  (“Today, my life is s—t”).