Madame Athanase David

Who was Madame Athanase David?

Madame Athanase David was a Canadian arts administrator and arts patron.

Born Antonia Nantel in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, she studied the piano in Montreal before entering the Conservatoire de Paris where she studied opera and was a piano student of Antoine-Émile Marmontel. She had initially intended to pursue a singing career, but abandoned these plans after her marriage to Louis-Athanase David, the Provincial Secretary of Quebec. Her husband later became a member of the Canadian Senate and their son, Paul David, was also a senator and prominent Canadian cardiologist.

David became heavily involved in supporting the arts within the city of Montreal. She played an instrumental role in establishing the Montreal Orchestra in 1930 and served on that ensemble's executive committee. She left that committee in 1934, finding the orchestra's hiring practices to be discriminatory against French-speakers. She went on to play an important part in establishing the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in 1934 with the help of her husband. In 1936 she and Wilfrid Pelletier established the Montreal Festivals, of which she later served as President from 1939-1952.