The Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal (CMQM) is a music conservatory located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In addition to the Montreal region, the school takes in students from nearby cities, including Granby, Joliette, St-Jean, Saint-Jérôme, Sherbrooke, and Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. The school is the first of nine conservatories in Quebec which form the Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec (CMADQ). The current director is Manon Lafrance. In addition to practice rooms, classrooms and rehearsal halls, the conservatory contains 85 teaching studios, a 225-seat theater, a concert hall of 225 seats, a recital hall with 100 places, and a large music multimedia center with a recording studio. The conservatoire is also home to a substantial musical library. History In the 1940s a report examining music education in Europe and in Canada, compiled by Canadian composer Claude Champagne, was presented to the Quebec government by Champagne and Wilfrid Pelletier. The government decided to establish a network of state-subsidized schools modeled after European conservatories, particularly the Conservatoire de Paris. On 29 May 1942 The Conservatory Act ('Loi du conservatoire') was passed by the Legislative Assembly of Quebec which allocated a $30,000 budget to form the CMADQ's first school, the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal (CMQM). The Conservatoire opened its doors in January 1943; at the time it was the first North American music institution of higher learning to be entirely state-subsidized. Orchestra conductor Wilfrid Pelletier served as the school's first director from 1943 through 1961; Champagne was the first assistant director. The school's first classes were held at the Saint-Sulpice Library at 1700 Saint Denis Street and in nearby buildings. The first full academic school year began the following October with 175 students enrolled. Pelletier and Champagne hired an international staff which included bassoonist Simon Kovar and Louis Letellier; cellists Jean Belland and Roland Leduc; clarinetist Joseph Moretti; double bass players Roger Charbonneau and Anselme Fortier; flautists Hervé Baillargeon, René Le Roy, Arthur Lora, and Marcel Moyse; harpist Marcel Grandjany; horn players Harry Berv and Bernard Baker; pianists Lubka Kolessa, Fleurette Beauchamp, Jean Dansereau, Auguste Descarries, Yvonne Hubert, Arthur Letondal, Germaine Malépart, Isidor Philipp, and Edmond Trudel; oboists Harold Gomberg, Bruno Labate, and Michel Nazzi; organists Joseph Bonnet and George M. Brewer; percussionist Saul Goodman; trombonist Charles Gusikoff; and violinists Noël Brunet, Albert Chamberland, Camille Couture, Maurice Onderet, and Ethel Stark. Isabelle Delorme was the CMQM's first teacher of