Gatineau Conservatory renames hall after Pierrette Froment-Savoie

Tashi Farmilo

The Conservatoire de musique de Gatineau (CMG) has officially renamed its concert hall in honour of Pierrette Froment-Savoie, a revered pianist, composer, and educator whose decades-long influence shaped music education throughout the Outaouais region. The newly christened Salle Pierrette-Froment-Savoie was unveiled on June 2 during a press conference, followed by a tribute at the opening of a concert by the Orchestre symphonique des conservatoires du Québec.

Froment-Savoie’s name now stands as a lasting testament within the very institution she helped build. Her career, spanning over five decades, was marked by her unrelenting commitment to nurturing generations of young musicians through a rigorous yet inspiring approach to teaching. After studying piano at the Université de Montréal, she was recruited in 1967 by Fernand Graton, founder of the CMG, to join the faculty of the then newly established Conservatoire de musique de Hull.

From that point forward, Froment-Savoie remained a central figure at the Conservatoire until her retirement in 2020. Her teaching repertoire was vast—piano, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, analysis, keyboard harmony, sight-reading, solfège, dictation, theory, and ear training—demonstrating a rare breadth of knowledge and pedagogical excellence. Her classroom was both a crucible of discipline and a haven for musical curiosity.

“Through her exemplary commitment, Pierrette Froment-Savoie profoundly shaped the identity of the Conservatoire de musique de Gatineau,” said Marc Langis, Director of the CMG. “She passed on a love of music with extraordinary generosity and admirable rigour. It is an honour for us to preserve the memory of a teacher beloved by her students through this hall now bearing her name.”