Canadian Music Competition, Montréal, QC

The Canadian Music Competition was founded in Montreal in 1958 by Claude Deschamps, Pierre Emond and Charles Charrère. At the time, it was known as the Festival national de musique. The first months were truly intense. Not only did the structure of this new and ambitious festival have to be established, but the execution and success of the festival also had to be seen to. Since the young founders were inexperienced, they relied greatly on the cooperation of music students and professors to make the event a success, as well as on volunteers who put all their energy into making preparations. The work involved was gargantuan. Because of the large number of participants, the organizers had to adapt quickly to the situation and establish new rules, appoint new judges, find new auditoriums, and extend the length of the performance periods. The number of music schools represented also did little to simplify the work of the organizers and volunteers. In 1959, there were already 75 music schools represented, and in 1964, 191 with over 3, 000 professors.
The organizers surrounded themselves with competent and extremely dedicated people, such as Hélène M. Stevens and Denyse Raymond, who went on to support and nourish the festivals for many years (and then subsequently the Competition), as well as a large number of volunteers. Fortunately, the organizers thought to consult the nuns who, as it happened, made up the bulk of the music teaching staff at the time. Many of these nuns were consulted at the inception of the Festival national de musique and were of invaluable assistance.
The first prospectus was published on January 10, 1959 and all of the committees?the honorary, solicitation, reception and auxiliary committees?were formed as of February 1; registration closed on March 7 and the competition began on April 20; finally, the first gala concert was held on April 30 at the Université de Montréal auditorium and was broadcast by Radio-Canada.