Gabriel Cusson

Who is Gabriel Cusson?

Gabriel Cusson was a Canadian composer and music educator. As a composer, his music was heavily influenced by the style of early 20th-century French composers. Most of his work remains unpunlished, although a few of his compositions have been recorded including his Sérénade for orchestra and one of his suites by the Orchestre Métropolitain. The Canadian publishing company La Bonne Chanson has printed a number of his folksong arrangements. His other unpublished works include several motets, the cantata À la gloire de Jeanne Mance, and incidental music for Antigone and the biblical dramas Jonathas and Tobie.

Cusson was trained at the Institut Nazareth, a music conservatory in Montreal that awarded degrees through the University of Montreal. While there he studied the cello with Gustave Labelle, singing with Alfred Lamoureux, piano and organ with Arthur Letondal, and music theory with both Achille Fortier and Romain Pelletier. He graduated from the school in 1924 with a Bachelor of Music and that same year won the Prix d'Europe for cello performance. That competition win enabled him to study at the École Normale de Musique de Paris in France from 1924-1930 with such teachers as Diran Alexanian, Nadia Boulanger, and Charles Panzéra.