Music educator Alain Nonat helped put young Canadian opera singers on global stages

Not long ago, from his Montreal hospital bed, Alain Nonat called the director of an arts centre in Burgundy about a young opera singer soon to arrive from Canada. It was the middle of the night in France, but six time zones away, Mr. Nonat was planning the singer’s travel arrangements and had some pressing concerns. The doggedness was typical.“I was awoken by a video call from Alain, and there he was, tubes in his nose and intravenous tubes and everything,” said Jeannette Aster, general director of the Académie de la Roche d’Hys – Domaine des Arts. “I told him he was crazy, but he was completely invested in this young singer’s adventure.”