“Is music a language per chance? Yes, music is a language, the most harmonious there is. Like other languages, it has its own grammar and literature, and expresses thoughts and feelings,” says Sister Marie-Stéphane, a Doctor of Music summa cum laude.
Since the founding of the SNJM Congregation, many students have studied and continue to study music with religious and lay staff at institutions such as Marylhurst College in Oregon and Holy Names College in California, as well as the École de musique Vincent-d’Indy in Quebec.
Some students became religious and went on to pursue careers in music teaching and conducting. For a long time, this discipline was reserved exclusively for men, but the presence and perseverance of the teaching religious, combined with other factors, contributed to the advancement of women in this field. This conductor’s baton belonged to one of these SNJM religious.
“Music, like litterature, is a means of elevating our spirit, of letting it taste the flavor of the good and the beautiful, all the way up to the supreme Goodness and Beauty, that is, up to God.” – Amédée Gastoué
(Quotation used on the cover of the Programme des études musicales des sœurs SNJM, Maison-mère des Saints Noms de Jésus et de Marie, Hochelaga, Montréal, 1921)
