'Nos futures étoiles'

'Nos futures étoiles'

'Nos futures étoiles'. National singing competition conceived and organized by CBC Montreal. The unsponsored program ran 1947-55 on the French-language radio network and was produced by Berthe Lavoie-Fortin and Marcel Henry. Auditions were held before each season. Each week the orchestra, conducted by Giuseppe Agostini, accompanied two candidates who performed in a broadcast before an audience at the Ermitage. In addition to a prize of $500 each ($1000 each by 1954), the two winners - chosen after broadcast final auditions - took part as guests on each of the broadcasts the following year.

The winners were Yolande Lagrenade (soprano) and Gilles Lamontagne (baritone) 1947-8 (on the basis of a single audition), Louise Roy (soprano) and Jean-Pierre Comeau (bass) 1948-9, June Kowalchuk (soprano) and William Blaine Williams (baritone) 1949-50, Constance Lambert (soprano) and James Milligan (baritone) 1950-1, Margaret Kerr (mezzo-soprano) and Jon Vickers (tenor) 1951-2, Rolande Garnier (mezzo-soprano) and Louis Quilico (baritone), as well as Monik Grenier (piano) and Carolyn Gundy (violin), winners of the instrumental category 1952-3, Joan Maxwell (mezzo-soprano) and Don Garrard (bass) 1953-4, and Lesia Zubrack (soprano) and Pierre Boutet (tenor) 1954-5.

The CBC replaced the program with 'Concours de la chanson canadienne' in 1956.