Pelletier, (Louis) Wilfred
Pelletier, (Louis) Wilfred
Pelletier, (Louis) Wilfred , noted Canadian conductor and music educator; b. Montreal, June 20, 1896; d. N.Y., April 9, 1982. His father, a baker by trade, was an amateur musician who gave Pelletier his primary instruction. At the age of 14, he played piano in the orch. of the National Theatre in Montreal, and in 1915 he won the Prix d’Europe and went to Paris, where he studied piano with Philipp, composition with Widor, and opera repertoire with Bellaigue. In 1917 he returned to America and was engaged as rehearsal pianist at the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y; in 1921 he was appointed an asst. conductor there; from 1928 to 1950 he was a principal conductor there, specializing in the French repertoire; in 1936 he founded the popular Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air. He also was active as a conductor in Canada; from 1935 to 1951 he was conductor of the Société des Concerts Symphoniques de Montréal, and from 1951 to 1966, of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. From 1943 to 1961 he served as director of the Cons, de Musique in Montreal. In 1968 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. He was married consecutively to Queena Mario (1925–36) and Rose Bampton (from 1937). He publ. an autobiographical sketch, Une Symphonie inachevée (Quebec, 1972).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire