Adélard Joseph Boucher

Adélard Joseph François-Arthur Boucher (28 June 1835 – 16 November 1912) was a Canadian publisher, importer, choirmaster, organist, conductor, writer on music, composer and numismatist. In 1865 he founded the A.J. Boucher Co. in Montreal which published the works of Canadian and foreign composers until it closed in 1975. In 1862, he founded the Société de numismatique de Montréal, serving as the organization’s first president. He composed several works for solo piano, of which his most well known are Coecilia, a mazurka caprice; Les Canotiers du St-Laurent, a ‘quadrille canadien’; Jolly Dogs Galop; and Souvenir de Sabatier, a suite of waltzes. Most of his compositions were written and published before 1866. Early life and education Born in Maskinongé, then in Lower Canada, Boucher’s parents died in 1845 when he was 10 years old. He spent the next six years living and studying at the St. Joseph’s College and Mother Seton Shrine in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He was particularly influenced by his music teacher at the school, Henry Dielman, who instructed him in the organ, piano, flute, violin, and singing. He then was a pupil at the Séminaire d’Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris where his fost