Search for "New France"

Yves Beaupré. Harpsichord maker, b Montreal 21 Mar 1954; B MUS (Montreal) 1980. He first devoted himself to performance and was trained at the St-Laurent Cegep and at the University of Montreal.

Its affinity for the "roots music" styles of US pop - country, rockabilly, and folk-rock, as well as rock 'n' roll - initially drew Blue Rodeo comparisons to The Band and gave it both a populist and critical appeal.

Beau Dommage was a Quebec folk-rock group that was formed around 1972 and became known for its distinctive urban poetry and songs about adolescence and daily life in Montreal. The group’s second album, Où est passée la noce?, came out in 1975 and was one of the first in the history of music in Canada to go platinum according to the Canadian Recording Industry Association (100,000 copies sold). Beau Dommage was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2017.

Zara (b Sarah) Nelsova (b Nelson or Katznelson). Cellist, teacher, b Winnipeg 23 Dec 1918, naturalized US 1953, d New York 10 Oct 2002; honorary LLD (Winnipeg) 1985; honorary ARCT 1986; honorary D MUS (Smith College) 1992.

Arlene (Alnora) Pach (b Nimmons). Pianist, teacher, b Kamloops, BC, 26 May 1928, d Fredericton, 2 Mar 2000; ATCM 1945; BA philosophy (British Columbia) 1949, honorary LL D (Saint Thomas) 1988, honorary D LITT (New Brunswick) 1993.

Zara Nelsova, cellist, teacher (b at Winnipeg 23 Dec 1918; d at New York 10 Oct 2002) began playing a converted viola at the age of five with her father, a flutist and graduate of the Petrograd Conservatory.

Anthony (Charles) Genge. Composer, pianist, teacher, b Vancouver 22 May 1952; B MUS (Victoria) 1979, M MUS (McGill) 1981, PH D (State U of New York, Buffalo) 1985. He began to play jazz piano professionally as a teenager.

Alex (Charles) Kramer. Songwriter, pianist, b Montreal 30 May 1903, d Fairfield, Connecticut, 10 Feb 1998. He studied at the McGill Conservatory, played piano in Montreal movie houses, and conducted orchestras on CFCF and CKAC radio before moving in 1938 to New York.

Avrahm (Abraham) Galper. Clarinetist, teacher, writer, b Edmonton, 16 Aug 1921. He lived in Palestine until 1946, studying clarinet there at 17 with Tzvi Tzipine and later in New York with Simeon Bellison and in London at the RAM with Frederick Thurston.

Alvin (Harry) Reimer. Bass, teacher, b Winkler, Man, 5 Jun 1940; Bachelor of Religious Education and Diploma, Sacred Music (Mennonite Brethren Bible College) 1965, BA (Waterloo Lutheran) 1968, Künstlerische Reifeprüfung (Academy of Music, Detmold) 1978.

André (Dédé) Fortin, author, singer, musician, performer (born November 17, 1962 in Saint-Thomas-Didyme in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Québec; died May 8, 2000 in Montréal).

Antoine Rodrigue Albert Bouchard, organist, teacher, composer (born 22 March 1932 in St-Philippe-de-Néri, QC; died 21 October 2015 in Sainte-Claire, QC). Antoine Bouchard was an authority on organs and organ music. He performed as an organist in the United States, France, and particularly in eastern and central Canada. He taught organ at Université Laval from 1961 to 1997 and served as director of the School of Music there from 1977 to 1980. He was a founding member of the Amis de l'orgue de Québec and became a board member of the Canadian Music Council in 1978.

Arthur Thomas Bushby. Amateur musician, civil servant, b London 2 Mar 1835, d New Westminster, BC, 18 May 1875. Bushby's 1856 diary shows that he played violin and sang in musical societies in London. He spent the summer of 1856 in Italy, studying voice, piano, and Italian.

Yvonne Hubert. Pianist, teacher, b Mouscron, Belgium, 28 May 1895, d Montreal 8 Jun 1988; premier prix piano (Lille Cons) 1906, premier prix piano (Paris Cons) 1911, honorary LLD (Concordia) 1981. She first took lessons at the Lille Cons.

Oliver Theophilus Jones, OC, CQ, pianist, organist, composer, arranger (born 11 September 1934 in Montreal, QC). A musical prodigy, Oliver Jones is one of the best-known and most talented Canadian jazz pianists of all time. He studied piano in his youth with Daisy Peterson Sweeney, sister of Oscar Peterson, and spent much of his career working in pop and variety settings. Jones drew critical notice for his technical dexterity and rollicking swing, often eliciting comparisons to Peterson. He received Félix Awards in 1989, 1994, 2007 and 2008, and Juno Awards in 1986 and 2009. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Knight of the Ordre national du Québec.

Bruce Douglas Cockburn, OC, singer, songwriter, guitarist, activist (born 27 May 1945 in Ottawa, ON). Bruce Cockburn is one of Canada’s preeminent singer-songwriters, guitarists and social-justice activists. His music blends folk, rock, pop and jazz, and typically addresses spiritual themes and global issues from a politically charged perspective. He has had 17 albums certified gold in Canada and three certified platinum, and has sold more than seven million copies worldwide. The winner of 11 Juno Awards from 31 nominations, he has also received the inaugural Allan Waters Humanitarian Award and the Allan Slaight Humanitarian Spirit Award. He has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and Canada's Walk of Fame. Recognized as “a latter-day wandering minstrel whose songs reflect the discontents of modern society,” he received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awardfor Lifetime Artistic Achievement, and was made a Member (1982) and Officer (2002) of the Order of Canada.

Daoust, Yves. Composer, teacher, b Longueuil, near Montreal 10 Apr 1946. Daoust began studies in piano at age seven, wrote a film soundtrack for "prepared" piano at 16, and at 19 completed his first electronic work, for a Berlin theatre.

Alain Trudel. Trombonist, conductor, composer, b Montreal 13 Jun 1966; premiers prix chamber music, trombone (CMM) 1985. Alain Trudel studied (1981-5) at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec with Joseph Zuskin.

Angèle Arsenault, OC, OPEI, singer, songwriter, pianist, guitarist, actor, broadcaster (born 1 October 1943 in Abrams Village, PEI; died 25 February 2014 in Saint-Sauveur, QC).