Antonia David (née Nantel)

She studied piano in her native Quebec and later with Antoine-Émile Marmontel at the Paris Cons. She also studied voice in anticipation of a career in opera. However, after her marriage to the Hon Louis-Athanase David, Provincial Secretary of Quebec and later a member of the Canadian Senate, she devoted herself to the development of music in Montreal.

She supported the founding in 1930 of the Montreal Orchestra and served as a member of the orchestra's executive committee. Finding the policy of hiring soloists to be discriminatory against French-speaking musicians, she resigned in 1934 to participate with her husband in the founding of the SCSM (MSO). Two years later she worked with Wilfrid Pelletier to establish the Montreal Festivals, which she served as president until 1952.