CBC Quebec Chamber Orchestra/Orchestre de chambre de la SRC à Québec

CBC Quebec Chamber Orchestra/Orchestre de chambre de la SRC à Québec

CBC Quebec Chamber Orchestra/Orchestre de chambre de la SRC à Québec. Radio ensemble of as many as 38 players, including a permanent nucleus of 24 strings, founded in Quebec City in 1954 as the regular orchestra for 'Les Petits Concerts,' an annual series of 33 programs broadcast from September to May on the CBC's French network FM stations. Sylvio Lacharité, the conductor and music director, was assisted 1954-64 by Edwin Bélanger. The repertoire at that time comprised baroque and preclassical works (Couperin, Handel, Lully, etc) and arrangements made by Lacharité. In 1964 the ensemble became the CBC Quebec Chamber Orchestra and the title of the program was changed to 'Orchestre de chambre de Québec'. Winds and percussion were added to the strings, permitting the performance of a larger repertoire, including contemporary music. The conducting duties were divided 1971-7. Lacharité directed half the programs, and guests (Alexander Brott, Françoys Bernier, James De Preist, Pierre Dervaux, Jean Deslauriers, Raymond Dessaints, Pierre Morin, Antoine Padilla, Wilfrid Pelletier, Armando Santiago, and others) were engaged for the remainder. Soloists included the duo-pianists Victor Bouchard and Renée Morisset; the soprano France Dion; the violinists Angèle Dubeau, Chantal Juillet, Malcolm Lowe, Jean-Louis Rousseau (concertmaster), and Hidetaro Suzuki; the oboist Jacques Simard; and the flutist Barbara Todd. The CBC Quebec Chamber Orchestra broadcast nearly 40 programs a year for 15 years beginning in 1964, but appeared only rarely in public. It ceased its activities in 1988.