François Boucher | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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François Boucher

François Boucher. Violinist, teacher, b Montreal 1860, d Kansas City ca 1936. He studied the violin with Jules Hone and Frantz Jehin-Prume.

In 1876, before going to Belgium to study with Massart at the Liège Conservatory, he gave a farewell concert at which Calixa Lavallée played a galop, Bon Voyage! 'for François Boucher.' In 1881 François Boucher played the Mendelssohn Concerto in Montreal. In 1882, with his father, Adélard Joseph Boucher, he opened a music store in Ottawa and established himself as a teacher (notably of the Marchioness of Lansdowne, the governor-general's wife) and as the first violin of a string quartet. He began teaching at the TCM in 1887 and at the Toronto College of Music in 1889. In 1893 he played the Bruch Concerto with the Toronto Philharmonic Society. Emigrating ca 1894 to the USA, he taught 1906-23 at the Kansas City Conservatory. His wife, whom he met in the USA, taught piano at the same institution. They both retired in 1923. Their daughter Alice taught voice at the conservatory in Kansas City.

See also Joseph-Arthur Boucher (his brother).