Les Petits chanteurs du Mont-Royal

Les Petits chanteurs du Mont-Royal

Les Petits chanteurs du Mont-Royal. Choir and choir school which exists primarily to provide the musical portion of the religious ceremonies at Saint Joseph's Oratory on Mount Royal, Montreal. It was founded in 1956 by Father Léandre Brault (b Montreal 22 Jan 1920, d there 12 Nov 1971) of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, who was its general as well as musical director. His successor, Charles-O. Dupuis, became director in 1969, followed by Gilbert Patenaude in 1978. Father Rémi Legault became its general director in 1971. In addition to professional music training, the young singers receive a complete academic education from the third grade of primary level to the fifth year of secondary school. The school, made up of 20 boy trebles in 1956, numbered 140 in 1990. The choir made numerous JMC (YMC) tours throughout Canada between 1962 and 1969 and performed in New York and in Paris where it took part in a 1967 concert combining choirs from five continents. It sang, notably, in Springfield, Mass in 1974, in Utica, NY in 1976, at Massey Hall in Toronto in 1978 and in Cambridge, Mass. in 1984. It took part in a CBC TV Christmas program with the tenor Luciano Pavarotti in 1978; this broadcast, recorded at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal has regularly been shown on Canadian and US channels during the Christmas period. In 1983 about 30 choristers went to Caracas, Venezuela for an international choral meeting. Also in 1983 the CBC chose the Petits chanteurs as delegates to the Rencontre de chant choral des radios francophones in Brussels. In 1984 the choir sang in Mahler's monumental Symphony of a Thousand presented by the MSO at the Forum. It also gave concerts as part of Expo 86 in Vancouver and made a Belgian and French tour in 1989. Its repertoire, although consisting mainly of renaissance pieces and Gregorian chant, also contains a selection of French and Quebec folksongs.