The Conservatoire de musique in Montreal has a nomadic history, having been obliged to relocate several times in its relatively short existence for reasons of expansion, renovation, or economy. During the period of Vivier’s studies there, 1967–70, it was located in the premises of the former Palais du commerce at 1700 rue Berri, in what was felt by general student consensus to be “a horrible building” with poor soundproofing: the present state-of-the-art facilities on avenue Henri-Julien were still several decades in the future. The place had a long prehistory, with the pianist Léo-Pol Morin and the composer Claude Champagne proposing as early as 1927 to the Quebec government to open a state-funded conservatoire that would be free to students, one in which talent and a willingness to develop would be the only admission criteria. That year, Morin had visited conservatoires in Brussels and Paris and proposed them as models in the columns of the Montreal newspaper La Patrie. The Montreal Conservatoire finally opened its doors in March 1943, proudly claiming to be the first institution of higher musical learning in North America operating entirely under state subvention. Its first director, Wilfrid Pelletier, steered the place for eighteen years, and was succeeded in 1961 by the cellist and conductor Roland Leduc. The director during Vivier’s studies there was the composer Clermont Pépin (1926–2006), who took up his duties in the year of Vivier’s arrival.

Enrolling at the Conservatoire in the autumn of 1967 brought Vivier into steady contact, for the first time, with a professional musical environment. Although he continued to live with his parents in Pont-Viau, not only was he now in the company of other young students whose tastes and aspirations resembled his own, but he had access to the teaching of a range of professionals of broad experience, many of whom had studied in Europe with distinguished practitioners. During his years at the Conservatoire, Vivier studied piano with the American-born pianist Irving Heller; “écriture” (harmony and counterpoint) with the composer and pianist Isabelle Delorme; fugue with the organist Françoise Aubut-Pratte; and, most important of all, analysis and composition with the composer Gilles Tremblay. The teaching he received reflected the strongly French orientation of the Conservatoire. The director, Pépin, had spent several years in Paris studying with Honegger and Jolivet, and attended Messiaen’s analysis class (at the same time as the young Stockhausen).