Victor Brault

Robert Victor Brault (* 1899 in Sainte-Martine ; † 1963 in Montreal ) was a Canadian singer (baritone), choir conductor and music teacher.

Live and act

The brother of the singer Cédia Brault studied piano with Alexis Contant in Montreal and from 1919 to 1924 singing with Amédée-Landély Hettich and music theory with André Gédalge in Paris . He also took lessons from Edmond Clément , with whom he also performed together. He was a solo singer at the parish church of La Madeleine , sang Petrus in a performance of Beethoven's oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives with the Association des concerts spirituels de la Sorbonne and was a soloist at the Touche Concerts .

At concerts in the Salle Gaveau and the Salle Pleyel he sang works by Arthur Honegger , Albert Roussel and Alexandre Tansman on the piano accompanied by the composers , the world premiere of Rodolphe Mathieus Un Peu d'ombre and with Gabriel Fauré on the piano L'Horizon chimérique . In London's Wigmore Hall he sang French songs by Maurice Ravel's Trois Poèmes de Mallarmé under the direction of the composer.

After his return to America Brault performed in New York, Boston and Montreal. In 1925 he took part in the benefit concert for Emma Albani at the Théâtre St-Denis in Montreal. He founded vocal studios in Montreal and Boston and has taught at the Conservatoire national of Montreal , McGill University and the Trafalgar Institute . Marcelle Gagné , Gérard Gélinas , Claude Létourneau and Albert Viau were among his students .

In 1931 Brault founded the Canadian Opera Company of Montreal with Wilfrid Pelletier and Edward Johnson, and he became its manager. This performed with Queena Mario , Edward Johnson and Léon Rothier from the Metropolitan Opera and the Canadian singers Lionel Daunais and Albert Viau Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette . Further projects could not be realized due to the global economic crisis. A benefit concert with the singer Alexander Kipnis , however, enabled concert performances of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (1933), Honegger's Le Roi David and Debussy's Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien (1934). In the summer of 1939 he conducted performances of Roméo et Juliette and Carmen in the Chalet du Mont Royal .

Brault was also active as a choir conductor at the CBC radio , directed and commented on the radio series Le Chant du monde from 1944-45 and founded the vocal ensemble La Cantoria . He harmonized Canadian folk songs and composed some works under the pseudonym Laurent Winter . The musicologist Andrée Desautels is a niece of Braults.

Web links

• The Canadian Encyclopedia - Victor Brault