Music
In 1946-1947, the Séminaire de Joliette was at its cultural peak. An article about the
college's musical activities, written by a young student named Fernand Lindsay, was
printed in L'Estudiant. In it, we can see the essentials of the legacy that would
later inspire the founder of the Festival international de Lanaudière.
Unlike most, if not all, other colleges, the Séminaire
de Joliette had its own symphony orchestra, which interpreted the likes of Beethoven,
Mendelssohn and Ravel. In 1946, Wilfrid Pelletier, the conductor of the New York
Metropolitan Opera at the time, came to conduct the orchestra in a performance of
Schubert's Unfinished Symphony. Lucien Bellemare, c.s.v., the orchestra's regular
conductor, also led a six-member secular choir. Abbot Lanoie led a 25-voice choir in
Gregorian chants. Those students who preferred brass instruments, wrote Lindsay, could
sign up for the 65-member Harmonie band.
During that school year as well, Roland Brunelle, c.s.v.,
taught violin to 40 students and gave harmony and composition lessons to the more advanced
students. Georges Lindsay, recipient of the 1934 Prix d'Europe, taught piano and
organ to 47 students.
Étienne Marion, c.s.v., a pianist and scholar, presided
over a Sunday afternoon music circle, when students gathered to listen to radio
performances by the New York Symphony Orchestra. Father Marion also gave lectures at which
he played phonograph records.
Alongside all these student activities, Wilfrid Corbeil
ran the Société des Amis du Séminaire. During the 1946-47 season alone, the
society arranged performances by opera singer Pierrette Alarie, tenor Tito Schipa, the Variétés
lyriques and the Compagnons de Saint-Laurent theatre troupe.
