Claude Champagne

Who was Claude Champagne?

Claude Champagne was a Canadian composer.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, he studied violin with Albert Chamberland, organ with Orpha-F. Deveaux, and piano with Romain-Octave Pelletier I and Alexis Contant at the Conservatoire national de musique. In 1921 he went straight to Paris to study music. By then he was drawn into modality, which stayed with him the rest of his life. At his return to Canada he became heavily involved with teaching, notably playing an instrumental role in establishing the Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec in 1942. In 1943 he was appointed the first assistant director of the Montreal Conservatoire. He was attached to the Montreal Catholic School Commission as co-ordinator of solfége in elementary schools, and he was at the same time professor at the McGill Conservatory. After that he mainly taught many of the country's most promising composers. He died in Montreal in 1965.

His notable students included Jocelyne Binet, Lydia Boucher, François Brassard, Isabelle Delorme, Jean Deslauriers, Orpha-F. Deveaux, Roger Matton, Pierre Mercure, François Morel, Clermont Pépin, Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux, Georges Savaria, Robert Turner, and Jean Vallerand.