Albert Viau

Albert Viau (born November 6, 1910 in Montreal ; † June 27, 2001 ) was a Canadian singer (baritone), composer and music teacher.

Viau had piano lessons from 1918 to 1926 with Arthur Caron , whose son-in-law he became in 1936, and then began vocal training. He studied singing with Victor Brault and Arthur Laurendeau , prosody with Conrad Letendre , Gregorian singing with Dom Georges Mercure and harmony with Oscar O'Brien , Roland Van de Goor and Michel Perrault .

In 1931 he made his debut at Loew's Theater alongside Edward Johnson , Léon Rothier and Lionel Daunais in the opera Roméo et Juliette . In 1934 he succeeded Léopold Fortin in Paul-Émile Corbeil's barbershop quartet Les Grenadiers impériaux and founded the trio Les Masques with Thérèse Laurendeau and Paul Demeules . In 1944 he appeared with Caro Lamoureux and Raymond Cardin in Aimé Maillart's opera Les dragons de Villars . For many years he took part in various radio programs, such as La petite histoire and Le chanteur de lied (1934) at Société Radio-Canada , Le réveil rural (SRC 1937-1967), Le quart d'heure de la Bonne Chanson ( SRC and CKAC, 1939-1953), Sur les boulevards (SRC, 1938-1941), L'heure des vedettes (CKAC, 1938-1941) and Chansons de chez-nous (CKAC, 1944).

He gave concerts in Canada and the USA and recorded more than 80 songs from Abbé Charles-Émile Gadbois ' songbook Bonne Chanson with RCA Victor in the 1940s . He also published some recordings under the pseudonym Jacques Dupont . In the folk quartet Les Troubadours du Québec , which appeared in the program V'là l'bon vent from 1949 to 1951, he sang the tenor alongside David Rochette , François Brunet and Omer Durenceau , with Paul-Émile Corbeil , François Brunet and Raymond Cardin he completed the Quatuor BA .

In 1952 Viau founded the Quatuor 1900 with David Rochette , Raymond Cardin and Thérèse Davy , which appeared in Cabaret Le Montmartre and until 1954 in the radio show Variétés 1900 by SRC. From 1950 to 1953 he was choirmaster at the Saint-Sixte church in Saint-Laurent, he also directed choirs such as the Chanteurs moderne and the Ménestrels laurentiens and worked as an arranger for vocal groups such as Boute-en-train (with Louis Bourdon and Omer Duranceau ) . He also gave singing, piano, guitar and recorder lessons in two private music studios that he ran, and from 1965 to 1986 he taught music at the Montréal Catholic School Commission .

Viau composed more than two hundred songs and hymns as well as two funeral masses. He also translated, arranged or composed more than 1,500 spots for radio and television. In his own publishing house, Éditions Albert-Viau , he published the song books Six chansonnettes pour bambins et bambines (1954) and Six chansons enfantines (1958). With Camille Andréa he composed songs for students at Studio Brasseur , which appeared on the album Premier pas (1960). He published some compositions under the pseudonyms Paul Marcil and Bill Caron .

Web links

• Library and Archives Canada - The Virtual Gramophone - Albert Viau
• The Canadian Encyclopedia - Albert Viau
• La Bonne Chanson - Albert Viau