Jeanne Landry

Jeanne Landry. Pianist, accompanist, teacher, composer, b Ottawa 3 May 1922, d Montreal 4 Aug 2011. She began studying piano at nine at the Grey Nuns' Convent in Ottawa and continued 1934-42 under Irene Miller, a pupil of Josef Hofmann. Settling in Montreal in 1942, she studied 1942-4 with Arthur Letondal and then enrolled at the École supérieure de musique d'Outremont (later École Vincent-d'Indy), where her teachers were Jean Dansereau (piano) and Claude Champagne (theoretical subjects). She won the Prix Archambault in 1945 and the Prix d'Europe in 1946 and went to Paris to study piano with Yves Nat and harmony and counterpoint with Nadia Boulanger and Noël Gallon.

Landry returned to Canada in 1948 and gave numerous recitals in public and on CBC radio. She accompanied the tenor Jean-Paul Jeannotte for 25 years in concert, and on radio and TV, touring with him in Canada, the USA, and, in 1961, France, Austria, and the USSR. She was accompanist 1949-52 for the Minute Opera. Noted also as a duo-pianist, she performed with Jean-Marie Beaudet (Montreal premiere of Bartók's Sonata with percussion, 1950), Josephte Dufresne (premiere and recording of Matton's Concerto with percussion, 1955), and Serge Garant (Canadian premiere of Boulez's Structures, Book 1, 1958).

In 1956 with Serge Garant, Otto Joachim, and François Morel, Landry founded the organization Musique de notre temps. She toured 1957-8 for the JMC (YMC) with the clarinetist Rafael Masella and has accompanied numerous other singers and instrumentalists, including Fernande Chiocchio, Joseph Rouleau, and Jacques Simard. In 1976 she performed with the French flutist Alain Marion at the JMC Orford Art Centre. She has performed often with the pianist Robert Weisz; in 1976 the team appeared with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra in Martinů's Two-Piano Concerto.

From 1951 until her retirement in 1983, Landry taught harmony and counterpoint at Laval University where she also conducted an accompanying class. After her retirement she dedicated herself entirely to composition. Her works include several piano pieces, two song cycles, and a sonata for viola and piano. Her organ piece Orah (Ostiguy 1990) has been recorded by Jean-Guy Proulx (REM 311078-XCD).

See also Jacques Simard; and Discographies for Josephte Dufresne and Jean-Paul Jeannotte.

Author Gilles Potvin

Bibliography

'Jeanne Landry ou l'habitude de la maîtrise,' Musique périodique, vol 1, Jan-Feb 1977