Paul Doyon

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Paul Doyon (born March 26, 1903 in Montreal , † August 20, 1986 there ) was a Canadian pianist and organist.

Doyon, who went blind at the age of two, attended the Nazareth Institute from 1908 , where he studied violin with Camille Couture and Joseph-Jean Goulet , singing with Alfred Lamoureux and piano and organ with Arthur Letondal . As the winner of the Prix ​​d'Europa , he continued his training at the Paris École normal in 1925-27 and 1929-30 with Nadia Boulanger (harmony and counterpoint), Alfred Cortot (piano), Eugène Gigout and Louis Vierne (organ) as well as Raymond Gilles and Charles Panzéra (vocals) continued. From 1937 he took sporadic lessons with Sigismond Stojowski in New York. From 1922 until his death he was organist at the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce church in Montreal.

As a pianist Doyon was successful with César Franck's Variations symphoniques , which he played for the CBC and various radio stations in the USA. In 1951 he went on a concert tour through Newfoundland, in 1956 he gave concerts in the USA. With the Detroit Symphony Orchestra he played Mozart's Piano Concerto in A major and the first performance of Marcel Dupré's Fantaisie for piano and orchestra in 1957 .

He participated in the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the death of Louis Braille in Paris in 1952 as the official representative of the blind of Canada. In 1969 he was invited to tour India, Japan and Taiwan, where he gave piano and organ concerts. In 1950, Doyon was the first French-speaking Canadian to receive the Christian Culture Medal from the University of Windsor's Assumption College as an "outstanding defender of Christian ideals".

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