Founded in 1905 by Alphonse Lavallée-Smith as the Conservatoire national de musique et de l'élocution, the school gained the official right to teach music, diction, elocution, drawing, and painting and to grant diplomas through a 1906 letters patent from Secretary of State Richard William Scott.
Eugène Lapierre, who had been the conservatory's secretary since 1922, was appointed the school's director kn 1927, a post he held until 1970.
This restructuring was made possible through the generous financial support of Edmond Archambault of Archambault Musique and Joseph Versailles, and through the administrative help of Lapierre's brother Albert, Alexandre d'Aragon, and Antonio Létourneau.
[1] In 1951 the conservatoire broke its ties with the UM and resumed independent management.
Élise Chapdelaine, who had been secretary since 1940, served as interim director following Lapierre's death in 1970.