Ernest Lavigne

Tchaikovsky Research
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Ernest Lavigne (1822-1910)

Canadian bandmaster, cornettist, composer and publisher (b. 17 December 1851 in Montreal; d. 18 January 1909 in Montreal).

After successful tours of western Europe and the United States in the 1870s, Lavigne became the leader of Montreal's Bande de la Cité, and in 1881 he went into partnership with the music publisher Louis-Joseph Lajoie as Lavigne & Lajoie. In 1889 Lavigne encouraged the firm to acquire large piece of land on the St. Lawrence River, and there he set up an amusement park known as Sohmer Park, in which he also sought to establish a music conservatory. It was in this connection that he wrote to invite Tchaikovsky to become an honorary member of the Comité de Patronage du Conservatoire de Montréal au Canada — a proposal which Tchaikovsky was glad to accept [1], although he played no active role in the project (which ultimately failed in its objective) [2].

Correspondence

One letter from has survived from Tchaikovsky to Ernest Lavigne, and has been partly translated into English on this website:

External Links

Notes and References

  1. See Letter 4358a to Ernest Lavigne, 26 March/7 April 1891.
  2. See also Luis Sundkvist, Čajkovskijana aus alten Auktionskatalogen (2015), p. 115-117.