Sylvio Lacharité

Sylvio Lacharité (born October 3, 1914 in Sherbrooke , Québec , † May 13, 1983 ibid) was a Canadian conductor and composer.

Lacharité had piano lessons with Germaine Malépart in Montreal and studied Gregorian singing with Georges Mercure in the Abbey of St-Benoît-du-Lac . In the 1940s and 1950s he attended summer courses with Pierre Monteux several times . In 1950 he studied composition and analysis with Olivier Messiaen and Andrée Vaurabourg-Honegger in Paris; finally, in the summer of 1959, he attended a master class given by Igor Markevitch in Salzburg.

In 1939 Lacharité founded the Sherbrooke Symphony Orchestra , of which he remained director until 1969. He was also a guest conductor of the CBC Orchestras of Montreal and Québec and the CBC Symphony Orchestra (1954–56). In 1958 he conducted the orchestra of the Concerts Pasdeloup in Paris. In 1964 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the CBC Quebec Chamber Orchestra . From 1962 to 1965 he was musical director of the Théâtre lyrique de Nouvelle-France , where he a. a. Lakmé (1962), Tosca (1963), Werther (1963) and Così fan tutte (1964) conducted. He was also musical director of the Concerts Couperin in Québec. In 1964 he conducted the world premiere of the Ennéade , a work by his former piano student Serge Garant .

In 1950 Lacharité became president of the Association des musiciens canadiens à Paris , 1956–58 he was president of Youth and Music Canada (YMC), at whose Orford Art Center he led several orchestral classes. He has taught at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec since 1952, and in 1971 he became deputy director. From 1974 to 1977 he was director of the Chicoutimi Conservatory , after which he was head of the music department of the Québec Ministry of Education until 1981.

In 1982 Lacharité became a member of the Order of Canada , and in 1988 the Théâtre Granada in his hometown Sherbrooke named its theater hall Salle Sylvio-Lacharité after him in order to honor him for his support of the musical and cultural life of the region.

Lacharité composed several orchestral works, including the overture Vision d'Ézéchiel , the symphonic poem Le Vaisseau d'or and the Suite Portraits en miniature .