Mireille Lagacé

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Mireille Lagacé (born June 8, 1935 in Saint-Jérôme ) is a Canadian harpsichordist , organist , pianist and music teacher .

Lagacé studied piano with Germaine Malépart , organ with Conrad Letendre and music theory with Gabriel Cusson in Montreal . As a scholarship holder of the Province of Québec , she took organ lessons with Anton Heiller in Austria in 1956 . From 1957 to 1962 she continued her harpsichord and organ studies with her husband Bernard Lagacé . In 1959 she was a prize winner at the John Robb Organ Competition in Montreal. In 1962 she won prizes at the organ competitions in Munich and Geneva , and in 1965 she was among the finalists in the harpsichord competition in Geneva.

In 1964, Lagacé founded the Couperin-le-Grand ensemble . As a harpsichord and organ soloist, she has given concerts in Canada, the USA and Western Europe. In 1977 she won the Canada Council's Victor M. Lynch-Staunton Award . In 1978 she recorded large parts of Johann Sebastian Bach's harpsichord works for the Calliope label . Several contemporary composers have dedicated works to her, such as Jean Papineau-Couture ( Dysarchy ) and Jean Lesage ( Thanatopsis ), and since 1988 she has also performed publicly as a pianist.

In addition, Lagacé was always active as a music teacher. She taught organ from 1967 to 1972 at the University of Montreal and from 1970 to 1980 harpsichord at the New England Conservatoy in Boston. From 1973 she taught harpsichord and baroque music at the CMM ( Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal ). Between 1964 and 1974 she gave summer courses in baroque music at the music center of the Canadian Amateur Musicians / Musiciens amateurs du Canada (CAMMAC), harpsichord courses at the Choate Music Seminars in Wallingford , Connecticut (1970-80) and at the JMC Orford Art Center (1974-80 ), Organ courses at the Académie d'orgue de St-Dié in France as well as master classes in Canada, the USA and Europe. Her children Geneviève and Éric Lagacé were also known as musicians.

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