Françoys Bernier
Encyclopedia
Françoys Joseph Arthur Maurice Bernier (12 July 1927 - 3 February 1993) was a Canadian pianist
, conductor
, radio producer
, arts administrator, and music educator. He served as the music director of the Montreal Festivals
from 1956–1960 and was an active conductor and radio producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
during the 1950s and early 1960s. He was the General Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec
from 1960–1966 and then the orchestra's Music Director from 1966-1968. He was also active as a teacher of conducting at a number of universities, notably serving as the first director of the Music Department at the University of Ottawa
.
and music critic Maurice Bernier
; the brother of cellist Pierre Bernier and pianist Gabrielle Bernier; and the nephew of pianist Gabrielle Bernier and of keyboardist and composer Conrad Bernier. His earliest musical education was with his grandfather, keyboardist and composer Joseph-Arthur Bernier
.
Bernier received his general education from the Séminaire de Québec where he also studied music from 1939-1947. From 1945-1950 he attended courses at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec
where he was a pupil of Françoise Aubut, Henri Gagnon
, Hélène Landry, Ria Lenssens, and Father Alphonse Tardif. In 1949-1950 he pursued further studies at the Université Laval
with Lucien Brochu and Marius Cayouette. He later studied music analysis
and conducting with Sergiu Celibidache
in Siena and Hermann Scherchen
in Salzburg in 1962-1963 through grants awarded to him by the Canada Council
.
in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan
where he remained for over two years. During that time he also worked as the first program director of the local radio station CFRG
when it opened in June 1952. He left Gravelbourg in 1953 to become a producer of music programs for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
in Montreal.
Working for the French language side of the CBC, Bernier was particularly active with the CBC Radio
program Premières during his first year with the organization. In 1954 he worked as a producer for the CBC Television
programs Concerts pour la jeunesse and L'Heure du concert. He also produced several live programs of classical music, including performances of Igor Stravinsky
's Histoire du soldat
(1955), Maurice Ravel
's L'enfant et les sortilèges
(1956, 1957), Charles Gounod
's Faust
(1957), Giacomo Puccini
's Madama Butterfly
(1958), and Jules Massenet
's Manon
(1960) among others.
In 1956 Bernier was appointed music director of the Montreal Festivals
, a post he remained in until 1960 when he became general director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec
. In 1960 he conducted the orchestra in the world premiere of Roger Matton
's Mouvement symphonique no. 1 (1960) and in 1963 he conducted them in the premiere of Serge Garant
's Ouranos. After six years as general director, he succeeded Wilfrid Pelletier
as the orchestra's principal conductor in 1966. He held that post for two years, during which time he championed contemporary works by Canadian and French composers, in particular those by Olivier Messiaen
. He conducted the world premiere of Matton's Te Deum with the OSQ in 1967 and again for its European premiere in 1969 with the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française
. He also was a guest conductor with a number of French orchestras, including the Orchestre des Concerts Colonne
and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine
.
From 1959-1964 Bernier worked on the faculty of the Université Laval
where he taught conducting and directed the university choir. He concurrently worked as the assistant director of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec
from 1960-1968. From 1973-1975 he was President of the Canadian Music Council. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. He was appointed the first director of the Music Department at the University of Ottawa
in 1969, a post he held through 1976. He remained on the UO's faculty until 1992. In 1977 he founded le Domaine Forget
, a summer arts festival and school for music, dance, and theatre. He served as the general and artistic director of the school up until his death in Quebec City in 1993 at the age of 65.
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, radio producer
Radio producer
A radio producer oversees the making of a radio show. There are two main types of producer. An audio or creative producer and a content producer. Audio producers create sounds and audio specifically, content producers oversee and orchestrate a radio show or feature...
, arts administrator, and music educator. He served as the music director of the Montreal Festivals
Montreal Festivals
The Montreal Festivals was an arts festival held annually in Montreal, Canada from 1936-1965. The festival was originally dedicated to the performance of classical music, presenting concerts of symphonic works, operas, oratorios, chamber music, and recitals...
from 1956–1960 and was an active conductor and radio producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
during the 1950s and early 1960s. He was the General Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec
Orchestre Symphonique de Québec
Orchestre symphonique de Québec is a Canadian symphony orchestra based in Quebec City. Founded in 1902 as the Société symphonique de Québec, the OSQ is the oldest active Canadian orchestra. Joseph Vézina was the OSQ's first music director, from 1902 to 1924...
from 1960–1966 and then the orchestra's Music Director from 1966-1968. He was also active as a teacher of conducting at a number of universities, notably serving as the first director of the Music Department at the University of Ottawa
University of Ottawa
The University of Ottawa is a bilingual, research-intensive, non-denominational, international university in Ottawa, Ontario. It is one of the oldest universities in Canada. It was originally established as the College of Bytown in 1848 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate...
.
Family background and education
Born in Quebec City, Bernier was born into a prominent family of musicians in Quebec. He was the son of cellistCello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
and music critic Maurice Bernier
Maurice Bernier (journalist)
Maurice Bernier was a Canadian journalist, cellist, and music critic. He wrote music criticism for the Quebec City newspaper L'Événement from 1922-1932. He then worked as a reporter stationed at the National Assembly of Quebec for the next four decades. Born in Quebec City, Bernier was a member of...
; the brother of cellist Pierre Bernier and pianist Gabrielle Bernier; and the nephew of pianist Gabrielle Bernier and of keyboardist and composer Conrad Bernier. His earliest musical education was with his grandfather, keyboardist and composer Joseph-Arthur Bernier
Joseph-Arthur Bernier
Joseph-Arthur Bernier was a Canadian organist, pianist, composer, and music educator. Born in Lévis, Quebec, he was the senior member of a prominent family of musicians from Quebec City...
.
Bernier received his general education from the Séminaire de Québec where he also studied music from 1939-1947. From 1945-1950 he attended courses at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec
Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec
The Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec is a music conservatory located in Quebec City, Quebec. Founded by the Quebec government in 1944, it became the second North American music institution of higher learning to be entirely state-subsidized...
where he was a pupil of Françoise Aubut, Henri Gagnon
Henri Gagnon
Henri Gagnon was a Canadian composer, organist, and music educator. He spent 51 years playing the organ at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré where, according to music historian François Brassard, he earned "a prestige similar to that of the famous organists of Europe"...
, Hélène Landry, Ria Lenssens, and Father Alphonse Tardif. In 1949-1950 he pursued further studies at the Université Laval
Université Laval
Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...
with Lucien Brochu and Marius Cayouette. He later studied music analysis
Musical analysis
Musical analysis is the attempt to answer the question how does this music work?. The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst, and according to the purpose of the analysis. According to Ian Bent , analysis is "an...
and conducting with Sergiu Celibidache
Sergiu Celibidache
- Biography :Celibidache was born in Roman, Romania, and began his studies in music with the piano, after which he studied music, philosophy and mathematics in Bucharest, Romania and then in Paris...
in Siena and Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor.-Life:Scherchen was originally a violist and played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens...
in Salzburg in 1962-1963 through grants awarded to him by the Canada Council
Canada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts, commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown Corporation established in 1957 to act as an arts council of the government of Canada, created to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. It funds Canadian artists and...
.
Career
In 1950 Bernier joined the teaching staff of College MathieuCollege Mathieu
College Mathieu is a small french language Roman Catholic college based in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, Canada that provides post-secondary education.-History:...
in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan
Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan
-Education:The town has for the past four decades been noteworthy for College Mathieu, a francophone boarding school for boys and girls who wish to acquire or retain fluency in French...
where he remained for over two years. During that time he also worked as the first program director of the local radio station CFRG
CFRG (AM)
CFRG was a Canadian radio station, which broadcast in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan from 1952 to 1973. A private affiliate of Radio-Canada, the station was owned by Radio-Gravelbourg Ltée.CFRG originally aired at 1230 AM...
when it opened in June 1952. He left Gravelbourg in 1953 to become a producer of music programs for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
in Montreal.
Working for the French language side of the CBC, Bernier was particularly active with the CBC Radio
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...
program Premières during his first year with the organization. In 1954 he worked as a producer for the CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
programs Concerts pour la jeunesse and L'Heure du concert. He also produced several live programs of classical music, including performances of Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's Histoire du soldat
Histoire du soldat
Histoire du soldat , composed by Igor Stravinsky, is a 1918 theatrical work "to be read, played, and danced" . The libretto, which is based on a Russian folk tale, was written in French by the Swiss universalist writer C.F. Ramuz...
(1955), Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
's L'enfant et les sortilèges
L'enfant et les sortilèges
L'enfant et les sortilèges: Fantaisie lyrique en deux parties is an opera in one act, with music by Maurice Ravel to a libretto by Colette. It is Ravel's second opera, his first being L'heure espagnole...
(1956, 1957), Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
(1957), Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
(1958), and Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
(1960) among others.
In 1956 Bernier was appointed music director of the Montreal Festivals
Montreal Festivals
The Montreal Festivals was an arts festival held annually in Montreal, Canada from 1936-1965. The festival was originally dedicated to the performance of classical music, presenting concerts of symphonic works, operas, oratorios, chamber music, and recitals...
, a post he remained in until 1960 when he became general director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec
Orchestre Symphonique de Québec
Orchestre symphonique de Québec is a Canadian symphony orchestra based in Quebec City. Founded in 1902 as the Société symphonique de Québec, the OSQ is the oldest active Canadian orchestra. Joseph Vézina was the OSQ's first music director, from 1902 to 1924...
. In 1960 he conducted the orchestra in the world premiere of Roger Matton
Roger Matton
Roger Matton, OC was a Canadian composer, ethnomusicologist, and music educator. As a composer his works are characterized by their association with folklore and folkmusic. In 1965 he was awarded the Prix de la création at the Congrès du spectacle...
's Mouvement symphonique no. 1 (1960) and in 1963 he conducted them in the premiere of Serge Garant
Serge Garant
Serge Garant, OC was a Canadian composer, conductor, professor of music at the University of Montreal and radio host of Musique de notre siècle on Radio-Canada. In 1966 he cofounded with Jean Papineau-Couture, Maryvonne Kendergi, Wilfrid Pelletier and Hugh Davidson the Société de musique...
's Ouranos. After six years as general director, he succeeded Wilfrid Pelletier
Wilfrid Pelletier
Joseph Louis Wilfrid Pelletier , CC 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...
as the orchestra's principal conductor in 1966. He held that post for two years, during which time he championed contemporary works by Canadian and French composers, in particular those by Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
. He conducted the world premiere of Matton's Te Deum with the OSQ in 1967 and again for its European premiere in 1969 with the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française
Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française
The Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1974, with providing public radio and television in France.-Post World War II:...
. He also was a guest conductor with a number of French orchestras, including the Orchestre des Concerts Colonne
Concerts Colonne
The Colonne Orchestra is a French symphony orchestra, founded in 1873 by the violinist and conductor Édouard Colonne.-History:While leader of the Opéra de Paris orchestra, Édouard Colonne was engaged by the publisher Georges Hartmann to lead a series of popular concerts which he founded under the...
and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine
Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine
The Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine is a French symphony orchestra based in Bordeaux. Its principal concert venue is the Palais des sports. In addition to its regular symphony concerts, the ONBA serves as the accompanying orchestra for the Opéra National de Bordeaux and the Ballet of the...
.
From 1959-1964 Bernier worked on the faculty of the Université Laval
Université Laval
Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...
where he taught conducting and directed the university choir. He concurrently worked as the assistant director of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec
Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec
The Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec is a music conservatory located in Quebec City, Quebec. Founded by the Quebec government in 1944, it became the second North American music institution of higher learning to be entirely state-subsidized...
from 1960-1968. From 1973-1975 he was President of the Canadian Music Council. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. He was appointed the first director of the Music Department at the University of Ottawa
University of Ottawa
The University of Ottawa is a bilingual, research-intensive, non-denominational, international university in Ottawa, Ontario. It is one of the oldest universities in Canada. It was originally established as the College of Bytown in 1848 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate...
in 1969, a post he held through 1976. He remained on the UO's faculty until 1992. In 1977 he founded le Domaine Forget
Domaine Forget
Domaine Forget is an international music festival as well as music and dance academy located near La Malbaie in the Charlevoix region of Quebec.-History:...
, a summer arts festival and school for music, dance, and theatre. He served as the general and artistic director of the school up until his death in Quebec City in 1993 at the age of 65.