Search for "New France"

Agnes Maule Machar, novelist, poet, historian (b at Kingston, Ont 23 Jan 1837; d there 24 Jan 1927). An important reformist and literary figure in Victorian Canada, she was a prolific writer who published poetry, several novels and volumes of history and biography.

Monique Bosco, author (born at Vienna, Austria 1927, died at Montréal, 17 May 2007). She completed her studies in France and immigrated to Canada in 1948, where she obtained a doctorate with a thesis titled L'Isolement dans le roman canadien-français (Isolation in the French Canadian Novel) (1953).

Robert Lepage.

Ermanno Florio. Conductor, violinist, b Carapelle, Italy, 29 Mar 1954; B MUS (Toronto) 1977. Ermanno Florio moved to Canada with his family at 2. He then studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music 1966-73, and played violin in the National Youth Orchestra and the Canadian Chamber Orchestra.

Rosemary Sullivan, writer, professor, poet (b at Valois, Qué, 1947). Rosemary Sullivan's ancestors, whom she chronicles in The Guthrie Road (2009), moved from Ireland to Canada. Sullivan attended MCGILL UNIVERSITY, where she joined Radio McGill and became interested in feminism.

(Joseph) Robert (Fernand) L'Herbier (b Samson). Singer, administrator, songwriter, b Lévis, near Quebec City, 5 Feb 1921. He studied music for 12 years, and his teachers included Alphonse Tardif (piano) in Lévis and Mme Isa Jeynevald-Mercier (voice) in Quebec City.

​Joseph Pierre Claude Gauthier, singer, songwriter and actor (born 31 January 1939 in Lac-Saguay, Québec).

Henri Beau, painter (b at Montréal 27 June 1863; d at Paris, France 15 May 1949). After his first design and painting lessons in Montréal, he left for the US in 1884, ending up in San Francisco where he did coloured engravings.

Philippe (Georges) Bruneau. Accordionist, composer, b Montreal 22 Sep 1934, d Forcalquier, France 7 Aug 2011. Bruneau's father was an amateur accordionist. Bruneau took up the instrument at 15 and joined a folk music ensemble at the Trinidad Ballroom in Montreal at 19.

Pierre Gautier. Organist, teacher, composer, b Argenton-sur-Creuse, Berry, France, 29 Oct 1863, d Eastview (now Vanier), near Ottawa, 15 Dec 1940. He studied piano, organ, and harmony in his native city, then in Paris at the Institut national des jeunes aveugles.

Georges Dufaux, cinematographer, director (b at Lille, France 17 March 1927, d at Switzerland, 10 Nov 2008). After graduating in 1953 from the École nationale de photographie et de cinématographie in Paris, Dufaux worked at a film laboratory in Brazil for three years.

Robin Collyer has exhibited his sculpture and photography across Canada and the United States, and in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England and France. In 1987 he exhibited at Documenta 8 in Kassel, Germany, and in 1993 his work represented Canada at the Venice Biennale.

Lise Daoust. Flutist, teacher, b Montreal, 15 May 1950; premier prix flute, sight reading (Cons d'Orléans) 1972. After studying at the CMM, she pursued further studies at the Cons d'Orléans, France in 1972 and won the Concours Léopold Bellan de Paris that year.

Louis Hémon, writer (b at Brest, France 12 Oct 1880; d at Chapleau, Ont 8 July 1913). Hémon immigrated to Canada in 1911. After working (1911-12) as a bilingual stenographer with a Montréal life insurance

Lefebvre, Gilles. Violinist, organizer, administrator, (Montreal June 30, 1922 - Montreal, May 27, 2001); honorary D LITT (Montreal) 1978, honorary D LITT (Sherbrooke) 1986.

Thérèse Deniset. Soprano, teacher, b St Boniface, Man, 11 Apr 1914. After studies in Montreal with Salvator Issaurel she made her debut on radio in the 1937-8 season, then moved to the south of France to study with Ninon Vallin, remaining with the famous soprano and teacher during the war years.

In 1989 Saint-Pierre became the first Québec designer to participate at the Fashion Coterie of New York. Three years later she presented her collection in Singapore.

Pierre Perrault, OQ, film director, poet, writer (born 29 June 1927 in Montréal, QC; died 23 June 1999 in Montréal). Pierre Perrault was one of Quebec’s most significant and celebrated artists. His collective work in radio, film, television and print explores the genesis and nature of French Canadian culture and identity. A pioneer of direct cinema, his elegiac 1963 documentary Pour la suite du monde, co-directed with Michel Brault, is a landmark in Canadian cinema. His writing received three Governor General’s Literary Awards: for poetry, theatre and non-fiction. An Officer of the Ordre national du Québec, Perrault received the Prix Ludger-Duvernay, Prix Albert-Tessier, Prix Victor-Barbeau, the Médaille des Arts et des Lettres from the Government of France, and the Médaille d’argent du Mouvement national des Québécois et Québécoises.

Alarie won the 'Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air' in 1945 and made her Metropolitan Opera debut 8 Dec 1945 as Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera under Bruno Walter; in January she sang Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann with Raoul Jobin, conducted by Wilfrid Pelletier.

Jacques Israelievitch, CM, violinist, violist, conductor, teacher (born 6 May 1948 in Cannes, France; died 5 September 2015 in Toronto, Ontario). Violinist Jacques Israelievitch was renowned internationally for his versatility, sensitivity and virtuosic technical ability. After studying in Paris and playing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony, Israelievitch became the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s longest-serving concertmaster (1998 to 2008). A supporter of contemporary music and Canadian composers, he made more than 100 recordings and performed often with noted orchestras and in chamber ensembles worldwide. He was made a Member of the Order of Canada and an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.