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Artistes Albums Made in Québec - Music of Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière
Artistes Albums Made in Québec - Music of Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière | Made in Québec - Music of Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière |
| Albums - Mimi Blais | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A music to be rediscovered ! Mimi Blais, the international Queen of Ragtime presents: , the first of a serie of three recordings featuring the music of Quebec's first ragtime composer: Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière (1874 - 1912), nicknamed "The National Strauss of Canada". Mimi asked Montreal violinist Sophie Rivard to play with her on this album and also made her the composer's wife in her playlet: Unsoir, il y a 100 ans, chez Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière....this brilliant duo....Mimi's playlet was a treat to eyes and ears....we gave a warm Gravenhurst "standing O" to Mimi and the enchanting feisty Sophie Rivard for a great evening with good music and funny memories. (The Muskoka Times, Sept.2001, Gravenhurst, Ontario) Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière, often considered the "National Strauss" of Canada for his beautiful waltzes, was also the first knownresident to compose and perform ragtime in Montreal. Born June 23, 1874 in the village of Maskinongé. After a year at Laval University in Quebec City, 19-year-old Lafrenière returned home to pursue a frenetic career composing, directing choirs and small orchestras, teaching classical violin and piano, and serving as a church organist and chapel master, first in Louiseville (1893-1895), the nin Joliette. Lafrenière headed for Montréal where he worked as the pianist forthe Eldorado Café-Concert Orchestra from 1899 to 1901. Finding work as a piano accompanist for several Montreal theaters, he developed an interest in thepopular music of the day and began to compose lively marches, two-steps, and Lancers, gorgeous hesitation waltzes and salon pieces, and his pioneering compositions representative of the new American music that was all the rage - ragtime! J. E. Belair published most of Lafrenière's works in his revue Le Passe-Temps. In March 1909 Lafrenière became the accompanist for Montreal's first silent movie theater, Le Ouimetoscope. He also accompanied the music hall singers at the Théâtre des Nouveautés and continued teaching piano and violin teacher at his home on 329 Sanguinet Street in Montreal. In 1911 he contracted tuberculosis and was forced to subsist on the slender income earned from his music publications. He died January 4, 1912 at age 37 leavingbehind a widow (Victoria Danis) and two young children. He is buried in the Côte-des-Neiges cemetery in Montreal. From a text by Clément Plante, adapted in english by Nan Bostick. Sophie Rivard is
principal second violinist with "L'Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal"
and Concertmaster of the Montreal and the Montérégie Chamber
Orchestras. She is also a soloist and guest speaker at concerts and
conferences specializing in baroque music. "Depuis plus de dix ans, ma carrière est orientée vers la diffusion de la musique dite ragtime. C'est justement grâce au ragtime que j'ai découvert le compositeur Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière (merci à Monsieur Gilles Potvin, directeur de lÕEncyclopédie de la musique canadienne). En 1994, l'acquisition d'un folio comprenant 43 oeuvres musicales de Lafrenière fait grandir en moi le désir de produire un concert de la musique de Jean-Baptiste dans le cadre du Festival Ragtime de Montréal dont je suis la directrice artistique. Suite à cette merveilleuse découverte, voici Made in Québec, le premier de trois disques compacts de l'intégral de la musique de J.-B. Lafrenière. Avec la complicité de la violoniste Sophie Rivard, revivons l'époque des concerts de musique de salon, des films muets du Ouimetoscope et de la belle musique des années 1900 à Montréal." Mimi Blais, Montréal, avril 2002 Sophie Rivard est deuxième violon-solo de l'Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal et violon-solo des Orchestres de chambre de Montréal et de la Montérégie. Elle est également soliste, chambriste et conférencière spécialisée en musique ancienne.
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