André Charlet passes away
Choirmaster André Charlet died of cancer on the night of February 23-24. He was 87 years old.
A monument to the choral arts has passed away. André Charlet founded the Chœur Pro Arte and, inspired by the Paléo festival, the first Schubertiade in 1978. He also directed the Le Brassus choir and the Radio Suisse Romande choir.
He had discovered music at the Ecole Normale, then at the Academy of Music in Vienna, in Schubert's hometown, in 1953.
A simple, modest man, as the RTS tribute notes, André Charlet founded the Schubertiades in Champvent in 1978. He took part in all the other editions, right up to the last one in Monthey in 2013, notably conducting the famous German Mass, which he had the hundreds of spectators sing along to.
