Rosemarie Landry (Soprano)

Born: April 25, 1946 - Timmins, Ontario, Canada

The Canadian soprano, Rosemarie (Yvonne) Landry,. Soprano, was born of Acadian parents. She studied with Rolande Ouimet from 1966 to 1968 at the Wilfrid Pelletier School in Montreal; with Bernard Diamant from 1966 to 1971 in Montreal and from 1973 to 1979 in Toronto; with Jean-Paul Jeannotte from 1969 to 1971 at Laval University; with Pierre Bernac in 1971-1972, 1975-1976, and 1979 in Paris; and with Gérard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin 1975 and 1976 at the JMC Orford Art Centre and in Europe. She won the voice category of the CBC Talent Festival in 1976. She has B MUS piano and singing (Montreal) 1969, M MUS singing (Laval) 1971, Artist Diploma opera (Toronto) 1976.

In 1978 Rosemarie Landry sang Mrs Gobineau in the CBC telecast of COMUS Music Theatre's production of Menotti's The Medium and Mélisande in Stuart Hamilton's Opera in Concert presentation of Pelléas et Mélisande. Also in 1978 she sang in the Schubertiads at the Guelph Spring Festival, toured the Maritimes with the pianist Jane Coop, and appeared with the pianist Dalton Baldwin at the International Art Song Festival in Princeton, New Jersey, an engagement she repeated in 1982. Baldwin subsequently accompanied her in recitals in Canada and on many of her tours. Accompanied by Baldwin, she has toured in North and South Americas, Japan, Hong Kong, China, etc. She has performed at festivals in Canada and abroad, including Music at Sharon, Quinte Summer Music, the Elora Festival, the New York Festival of Song, the Colorado Music Festival, and the Art Song Festival (Piteo, Sweden). In 1979 she was the Countess in the Canadian Opera Company's touring production of The Marriage of Figaro and sang in the first French performances (Lyons and Paris) of Luciano Berio's Passagio.

After her 1982 debut at Wigmore Hall in London, critic Philip Rodden described Rosemarie Landry as 'an intelligent and audacious performer,' commending her 'exuberant singing and finely spun tones in Debussy's "Green",' as well as 'her agility and portamento in Charles Gounod's Serenade... and great poise in Leguerney's "Au sommeil"' (Music and Musicians, May 1982). Also in 1982, she performed and recorded the title role in Massenet's Grisélidis at the Wexford Opera Festival in Ireland, a role she repeated in 1983 in one of her many appearances with Opera in Concert.

Rosemarie Landry has sung with the major Canadian orchestras, choirs, and opera companies, and also with the Orchestre de Radio-France, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra Musicum Collegium in Geneva, among others, and with such chamber music ensembles as the Orford and Allegri string quartets and the Chamber Players of Toronto. She has appeared in concert and on tour with such artists as André Laplante and Maureen Forrester, has frequently been broadcast on CBC radio and TV, and gave a series of recitals at Expo 90 in Osaka, Japan.

Rosemarie Landry is particularly renowned as a singer of French art song and of contemporary music from various countries. In 1984, she premiered the Swiss composer and conductor Michel Tabachnik's L'Arch in Geneva at a concert honouring Ernest Ansermet, then performed the same work with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Hilversum, the Basel Radio Orchestra, and the Stuttgart Orchestra. In 1986 she created the role of Anne Hutchinson in Istvan Anhalt's opera Winthrop, and she has also performed in the premieres of Ian McDougall's Ojistoh (1986), John Beckwith's Synthetic Trios (1987), and R. Murray Schafer's String Quartet No. 4 (1990).

Rosemarie Landry has taught master-classes at Memorial U, Princeton U, University of Moncton, and in other Canadian and US institutions. In 1979 she began teaching at the University of Toronto. She recived honorary Doctor in Music (Moncton) in 1985, and honorary D LITT (York) in 1991. In 1990 she was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 1995, she was honoured with the distinction of "Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" of France.