Gilles Lefebvre

During the 1948–49 season, Gilles Lefebvre performed some 50 recitals in Canada with pianist Colombe Pelletier and was struck by young people’s interest in music and by the shortage of concerts in remote areas.

Working with a group that shared his ideals, he founded Hélicon (1949), an association that would become the Jeunesses musicales du Canada. Supported by the Fédération internationale des jeunesses musicales, Jeunesses musicales du Canada would see remarkable growth, first in Québec and then in the other Canadian provinces. He headed up Jeunesses musicales du Canada from 1942 to 1972.

With modest grants and his remarkable talent as a cultural facilitator, he founded the JMC Music Camp in 1951, which became the JMC Orford Arts Centre in 1967, a nerve centre of Canadian culture. Gilles Lefebvre oversaw the creation of many activities in the Jeunesses musicales movement, including the Journal musical canadien, the Jeunesses Musicale national competition and Jeunesses Musicale World Orchestra. He became an Officer of the Order of Canada when it was created in 1967. He also received accolades from around the world.

Gilles Lefebvre was associate artistic director for Expo 67, director of the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris (1972–78) and director general of international cultural relations at the Department of External Affairs (1979–83). He was also associate director of the Canada Council for the Arts in March 1983.

Musician, teacher, humanist and cultural facilitator, Gilles Lefebvre devoted his life to promoting the arts, seeking out new talent and developing the careers of Canadian artists at home and abroad.

Gilles Lefebvre died in 2001. He was inducted into the Academy of Great Montrealers in the Cultural category in 1997 and was named a Commander of the Ordre de Montréal in 2016.