Jean-Marie Beaudet

Jean-Marie Beaudet (20 February 1908 – 19 March 1971) was a Canadian conductor, organist, pianist, radio producer, and music educator. He had a long career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, serving variously as a music producer, programing director, conductor, and administrator. With the CBC Symphony Orchestra he conducted the premiere recordings of works by many Canadian composers, including pieces by Maurice Blackburn, Claude Champagne, J.-J. Gagnier, Clermont Pépin, and Healey Willan.

Born in Thetford Mines, Beaudet was the brother of pianist Pierre Beaudet. He began his musical education at the Collège de Lévis where he was a piano and organ student of Father Alphonse Tardif. He pursued further studies in those instruments with Henri Gagnon and Robert Talbot at the Séminaire de Québec where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1928. In 1929 he won the prestigious Prix d'Europe for organ performance, a prize which provided him the funds necessary to continue his education in France from 1929-1932. He studied with Pierre Lucas at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau and with Louis Aubert (harmony), Marcel Dupré (organ), and Yves Nat (piano) at the Conservatoire de Paris.