Frédéric Viret

Frédéric Viret (18 February 1822 – 3 May 1898) was a French choirmaster, composer of sacred music and leader of a well-established society of amateur male and female choristers of high vocal range and very rare quality among most choristers in Paris.

[1] A pupil of the masters of the Church of Saint-Merri and Saint-Roch,[2] Viret was kapellmeister of the Imperial Church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois from 1854,[2] with several scholarly associations appointing him a founding member of the "Société des sciences industrielles, Arts et Belles lettres de Paris" and the "Société libre des Beaux-Arts".

[2] Praised for his sensitivity, he was admired for his fine character, the warmth of his singing and the beauty of his voice.

He conducted masses performed by an orchestra composed of 150 artists together with scholar J.

B. Stiegler,[3] a member of the Bavarian Academy of Music whom he had met in Paris and accompanied to Germany while he perfected in the art of singing, and organist Johann Peter Cavallo with whom he had published Les Veillées des Salons, a musical magazine of piano music and vocal scores.