Jane Evrard Miroirs

Description

Albert Roussel (1869-1937) : Sinfonietta for string orchestra op. 52 to Madame Jane Evrard- Jean Rivier (1896-1987) : 3rd Symphony in G for string orchestra For Jane Evrard - Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) : Symphony No. 2 for string orchestra and trumpet ad lib. H. 153 to Paul Sacher
Sometimes wrongly considered as the first female conductor in history, Jane Evrard was nonetheless one of the most original prominent figures of the interwar period. Before her, Nadia Boulanger had proven that the conductor's podium was not necessarily a male enclosure. But Jane Evrard's originality lies in her profile of activity in the field of the orchestra. A trained violinist, first prize at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1912, wife of Gaston Poulet, she began a career as an orchestral musician that allowed her to participate in the creation of The Rite of Spring in 1913. After World War I, she occasionally joined the Poulet Quartet and, starting in the 1920s, devoted herself mainly to teaching. She gathered some of her students for orchestra auditions and Émile Vuillermoz encouraged her to found the Women's Orchestra of Paris. She left her violin for the baton and the first concert took place on June 3, 1930, at the Salle d’Iéna. This orchestra, composed of twenty-five string instrumentalists, enjoyed great success and also performed in Europe until the early 1940s. She solicited many composers who wrote for her: Eugène Bozza, Daniel-Lesur (Variations for piano and strings, 1943), Yvonne Desportes (Suite of dances for harp and strings, 1933), Arthur Honegger (Prelude, arioso and fughette on the name of BACH, 1936), Maurice Jaubert, André Jolivet (Andante for strings, 1936), Georges Migot, Darius Milhaud, Jean Rivier (Symphony No. 3, 1940), Marguerite Roesgen-Champion (six creations including the Suite for strings and the Third concerto for harpsichord and strings) Albert Roussel (Sinfonietta, 1934), Florent Schmitt (Janiana, 1942). After the Liberation, she resumed conducting during dance evenings of Janine Solane at the Palais de Chaillot and also conducted in the provinces and on national radio. She ended her days in obscurity in 1984, but since 2002, a square bears her name in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. Alain Pâris