Joseph-Arthur Bernier

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Joseph-Arthur Bernier (born March 19, 1877 in Lévis , † April 28, 1944 in Québec ) was a Canadian organist, pianist, composer and music teacher.

Bernier attended the Collège de Lévis in Quebec and took piano and organ lessons from Philéas Roy and Gustave Gagnon . From 1892 to 1907 he was organist at the Church of St-Sauveur , then until 1917 at Notre-Dame-de-Jacques-Cartier . 1902–03 he studied organ and composition in Paris with Alexandre Guilmant and Félix Fourdrain . During this time he accompanied the cellist Jean Gérardy and the violinist Ovide Musin and in 1903 became a member of the Société des auteurs et compositeurs de Paris .

As an organist he gave concerts in various cities in the USA and inaugurated the organs of the churches of St-Pierre (1908), St-Jean-Baptiste (1915) and Sacré-Coeur (1917) in Montreal . In 1917 he became organist of the Union musicale de Québec and the Church of St-Jean-Baptiste in Quebec. From 1922 to 1944 he taught at Laval University , where Charles-Eugène Albert , Dantès Belleau , Clotilde Coulombe , Rolland-G. Gingras and Omer Létourneau were among his students.

Bernier composed among other things a mass for female voices, several motets and pieces for the organ, the piano, the violin, the cello and the oboe. His children Gabrielle , Maurice and Conrad and his grandsons Françoys , Pierre and Madeleine Bernier were also known as musicians.

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