Tireless Advocate of Contemporary Music

Arthur Kaptanis, The Gazette, 1 October 2011

Maryvonne Kendergi (1915-2011) was a pioneer of contemporary music. Her contributions are widely recognized by the arts community. The below article is belatedly presented as a tribute to the great Canadian-Armenian musicologist. Ms. Kendergy was outspoken in her demand that Turkey recognize the Genocide of Armenians..- Editor

Arthur Kaptanis, The Gazette, 1 October 2011

Maryvonne Kendergi (1915-2011) was a pioneer of contemporary music. Her contributions are widely recognized by the arts community. The below article is belatedly presented as a tribute to the great Canadian-Armenian musicologist. Ms. Kendergy was outspoken in her demand that Turkey recognize the Genocide of Armenians..- Editor

Maryvonne Kendergi, born in [Aintab, Cilicia, present day Turkey] and Paris trained Montreal musicologist who worked tirelessly in promotion of contemporary music, died Tuesday, the Université de Montréal has announced. She was 96.

 

Of Armenian descent, Kendergi fled the Ottoman Empire with her family during the First World War. They initially settled in Syria, then Paris, where she came in contact with such notables as pianist Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) and the composition teacher Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979).

A lively presence at contemporary music concerts who was known to composers in Canada and abroad, Kendergi was a founding member of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec in 1966 and its president from 1973 to 1982.

In the 1950s and 1960s, she interviewed many composers and musicians in Europe, including figures as iconic as Igor Stravinsky. Kendergi became known as a passionate voice for contemporary music in the late 1960s as a radio commentator on Radio-Canada.

Her notable achievement at Université de Montréal, where she began teaching in 1966, was to establish Canadian music of the 20th century – including music written by her colleagues – as a field of academic research. The university named her professor emeritus on her retirement in 1981.

Related Material:

1) The Canadian Encyclopedia
2) La Presse.ca Maryvonne n’est plus
3) Le Devoir.com La «grand-mère des compositeurs» n’est plus
4) Université de Montréal Décès de la musicologue Maryvonne Kendergi
5) Hurtubise  La musique en partage