Janine Lachance

Lachance, Janine

Janine Lachance. Pianist, teacher, coach (born in Québec City on 22 February 1932, died in Laval on 6 December 2017); premiers prix piano, harmony (CMQ) 1950. She studied piano for two years with Omer Létourneau and worked 1944-50 at the CMQ with Hélène Landry (piano), Françoise Aubut (harmony), and Ria Lenssens (solfège). She won a Québec Symphony Orchestra competition in 1945 and the Prix d'Europe in 1952, which enabled her to work in Paris 1952-4 with Yvonne and Monique de la Bruchollerie. She studied voice 1954-5 with Mario Basiola in Milan.

Returning to Canada, Lachance was the accompanist 1955-8 for the instrumental classes at the CMQ. At the CMM she was the coach-accompanist 1958-63 for Raoul Jobin's class and the regular pianist 1963-6 for the French opera classes and for the concerts of Léopold Simoneau and Pierrette Alarie. She studied Italian opera with Dick Marzollo and became the accompanist for Lina and Antonio Narducci. She accompanied the Dutch baritone Max van Egmond when he sang in 1970 for the Ladies' Morning Musical Club and was accompanist for the special courses given by Pierre Bernac and Hans Hotter in Montréal.

Lachance made recordings with Colette Boky, Claude Corbeil, Lionel Daunais, the Ensemble cantabile de Montréal, Bruno Laplante, Anna Malenfant, Léopold Simoneau, and Paul Trépanier. As a soprano she also made a cassette recording of songs by Pierre Beaudet. With Bruno Laplante she recorded Québec and French music for radio programs in Paris and in Brussels during two European tours in 1976 and 1977. She taught voice and was a coach 1977-89 at the CMQ and the CMM. Odette Beaupré, Charles Prévost and Sonia Racine were among her pupils. In 1989 she began to teach at the Petite maison des arts, founded in Montréal in 1986, and she also is the centre's artistic adviser for recitals and other activities.