Caroline Racicot

Racicot, Caroline

Caroline Racicot. Pianist, teacher, administrator, b Montreal 3 Feb 1862, 1864 or 1872, d there 17 Dec 1950. She received her early musical training 1877-85 from the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame in Pointe-aux-Trembles, Montreal Island, and continued her studies with Marguerite Sym and Arthur Letondal. She took singing lessons from Guillaume Couture and organ from Romain-Octave Pelletier. William Bohrer later taught her piano and harmony at the Dominion College of Music. She began her career in 1894 as a piano teacher at the convent in Pointe-aux-Trembles and at the Collège de Boucherville.

Racicot founded the Racicot Conservatoire in Montreal in 1910 and was its director until 1918, when she temporarily gave up this position for health reasons. The institution had become affiliated in 1917 to the Institut Lanctôt, also known as the Hirondelles. In 1926-7 Racicot was still the school's director, and her name appears as a teacher of piano and theory, along with those of J.-J. Goulet (violin, solfège), Alfred Lamoureux (singing, harmony, solfège), and Oscar Arnold (woodwind, brass). Ernest Langlois, Alexis Contant, Alfred Masino, and Rose McMillan also taught there, and Antonio Létourneau was a student.

With Rose McMillan (artistic director and singing teacher), Gustave Labelle (cello), and J.-J. Goulet (violin), Racicot founded in 1921 a second school, the École de musique de Montréal, under the patronage of the Countess of Minto and Francis Casadesus, director and founder of the Fontainebleau Cons, France. In 1922 it was announced that Émile Taranto would join the staff. J.-J. Gagnier led the orchestra class, which gave its first concert 24 Apr 1923 at the Mount Royal Hotel. Paul Dufault taught there and Gabriel Cusson was among the students. The École de musique de Montréal became the Collège de musique de Montréal in 1923.