thumb|[[Claude Champagne (left) and Wilfrid Pelletier (right) at the opening of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal in 1943.]]
Joseph Louis Wilfrid Pelletier (sometimes spelled Wilfred), (20 June 1896 – 9 April 1982) was a Canadian conductor, pianist, composer, and arts administrator. He was instrumental in establishing the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, serving as the orchestra's first artistic director and conductor from 1935 to 1941. He had a long and fruitful partnership with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City that began with his appointment as a rehearsal accompanist in 1917; ultimately working there as one of the company's conductors in mainly the French opera repertoire from 1929 to 1950. From 1951 to 1966, he was the principal conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. He was also a featured conductor for a number of RCA Victor recordings, including an acclaimed reading of Gabriel Fauré's Requiem featuring baritone Mack Harrell and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and chorus.
Pelletier was one of the most influential music educators in Canada during the 20th century. It was largely through his efforts that the Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec (CMADQ), an organization which has established and oversees nine different schools of higher education in music and theatre in Quebec, was established in 1942. From 1943 through 1961 he served as the director of the CMADQ and its first school the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. He also served as the first director of the CMDAQ's second school, the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec, from 1944 to 1946, and was instrumental in establishing the Conservatoire d'art dramatique du Québec à Montréal in 1954.
As a pianist, Pelletier was active during the 1920s and 1930s as one half of a piano duo with partner Arthur Loesser, the half-brother of Broadway composer Frank Loesser. The two made a number of recordings together that were made under the direction of Arthur Bodanzky. He also made a number of solo recordings and Ampico piano rolls in the early 1920s, playing mostly piano reductions from the operas of French composers like Georges Bizet, Charles Gounod, and Jules Massenet. As a composer, he produced only a small body of work, most notably In the Dark, in the Dew (published in Boston, 1923) which soprano Maria Jeritza included in a number of her recitals. He was married three times in his life, notably to opera singers Queena Mario and Rose Bampton.
Early life and career in Canada
Born in Montreal, Pelletier was the son of a baker who in his spare time performed actively as an amateur musician and conducted a community concert band. At the age of 8 he began to study music with Ida Héraly, the wife of clarinetist and bandmaster François Héraly, who taught him piano, music theory, and solfège up through 1914. His older brother Albert taught him to play percussion instruments and at the age of 12 he began playing the drums with the St-Pierre-Apôtre parish temperance band in concerts at a local movie theatre.
In 1910, at the age of 14, Pelletier had his first exposure to opera, a performance of Ambroise Thomas's Mignon at His Majesty's Theatre, Montreal. The performance absolutely enthralled him and he decided that night that he wanted to pursue a career conducting operas. While attempting to find work in the field of opera he took a position as the pianist for the orchestra of the National Theatre in Montreal. In the summer of 1911 he was hired by Henri Delcellier as the rehearsal pianist with the Montreal Opera Company (MOC), remaining there until the company went bankrupt in 1913. While working for the company he married his first wife Berthe Jeannotte, the sister of tenor Albert Clerk-Jeannotte. During these early years with the Met he developed a lasting friendship with Arturo Toscanini, who later hired him to conduct his NBC Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions when he himself was unavailable. After divorcing his first wife (with whom he had two sons: Camille and François), he married Met soprano Queena Mario in 1925. That relationship also ended in divorce some years later. He later married a former voice student of Mario's, opera star Rose Bampton in 1937.
Pelletier and Champagne, who was appointed the conservatoire's assistant director, were largely responsible for recruiting a highly impressive international staff of teachers. The CMQM opened its doors in January 1943 with its first round of courses which were held at the Saint-Sulpice Library. Under their leadership, the school gained a high reputation for the quality of its education. In 1956 the two men oversaw the moving of the school to better facilities on Saint Catherine Street. Pelletier was succeeded in the role of director by Roland Leduc in 1961 after 18 years on the job. He also served as the first director of the CMDAQ's second school, the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec, from 1944 until 1946 when Henri Gagnon succeeded him. This change considerably freed up Pelletier's schedule and enabled him to accept at offer to become artistic director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. He assumed the post in June 1951, remaining there for the next 15 years. During that time he also conducted the Children's Concerts of the New York Philharmonic from 1952 to 1957 and the tours of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 1960–1961. His memoirs, Une symphonie inachevée, were published ten years prior to his death.