On the Job - Muscians


Musicians & composers
Norma Abernethy	Born Vancouver, British Columbia June 11, 1914. Died April 26, 1973. She is perhaps best known and remembered as a piano accompanist and soloist on radio and with performing with orchestras. She worked with the Vancouver chamber Orchestra and the Victoria symphony Orchestra. She was an accompanist for the British Columbia Music Festival throughout the 1930's and 1940's.
Frances Marr Adaskin	née Marr. Born Ridgetown, Ontario August 23, 1900. Died March 8, 2001. She studied piano at the Toronto Conservatory of Music and in Paris, France. In 1926 she married renouned violinist Harry Adaskin and the two formed a lifetime musical duo. They performed and introduced Canadian music abroad and from 1944-1954 they toured Canada and performed on CBC Radio. She was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1976. The couple retired in 1991 and settled in Vancouver.
Cora Bell Ahrens	Born Stratford, Ontario January 23, 1891. Died August 26, 1964. She studied music in Toronto where she received her B. MUS. She played in a trio which accompanied silent movies in Stratford theatres. In the 1930's she was one of the firs itinerant rural school music teachers and taught throughout Perth County, Ontario. She would lecture in pedagogy at the University of Western Ontario, London, the University of Toronto and McGill University, Montreal. She conducted summer workshops in piano pedagogy in major Canadian cities. Her published credits include tutorial texts to help student including Ear Training which was 6 volumes and Rudiments of Music (Toronto 1943-46) which was 9 volumes. She was co-author of For all Piano teachers (Oakville, 1955 reprinted 1980) which was translated into Braille in 1985 for blind musicians.
Violet Archer.	Born Montreal, Quebec April 24, 1913. Died February 21, 2000. She studied music with the best of her era. As a composer she has produced a wide variety of scores for voice, instrumentals, films and even a comic opera. She taught in the U.S.A. but moved to teach at the University of Alberta before she retired. She was named composer of the Year in Canada and was the first North American woman composer to be honoured with a festival of her own works.
Francoise Aubut.	(married name Pratte). Born St-Jérome, Quebec September 5.. Died October 8, 1984. A renowned organist and educator. She was the first North American to win the Grand Premier Prix in Music. In 1961 she also received the Prix de musique Calixa Lavallée.
Melissa Auf Der Maur	Born Montreal, Quebec. March 17, 1972. She stared studying photographic Arts at Concordia University when she was asked in 1994 to play for Courtney Love's band, HOLE. She was bas guitarist with the group until 1999. She not only plays guitar and sings but she plays piano and trumpet as well. She toured for awhile with the group the Smashing Pumpkins before making her solo debut album in 2004. She was the person who defended David Suzuki as the Greatest Canadian in the popular 2004 television contest.
Ellen Ballon	Born Montreal 1898. Died December 21, 1969. She performed on the piano at the age of 6 as a child prodigy. She studied in Europe and New York. Her patrons, Including , Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada, helped her pay for her studies. She had her New York City Debut in 1910. In 1912 she performed, by request, at the White House for the President ( she would return by request to perform for two other presidents in 1934 and 1954) She made her first European tour in 1927 returning to North America just prior to World War ll. She became a fund raiser and philanthropist , establishing a scholarship in her name at McGill University in the Faculty of Music.
Sara Barkin	Born Umen, Ukraine September 6, 1908. She was studding piano with her father when she was 5 years old. She emigrated to Canada in 1925 and began studies on scholarships at the Toronto Conservatory of Music for voice. In the 193's and 1940's she sang with orchestras in Toronto and gave recitals throughout Ontario. She also performed from 1940 through 1973 as a concert and radio accompanist on piano.
Madeleine Bernier	Born Quebec, Quebec August 26, 1929. She was born to a musical family where her grandfather, father, aunt and uncle an her brothers all has successful musical careers. She studied in her home province of Quebec and earned a B MUS from Université Laval. She completed her studies in Paris, France, London, England and Geneva, Switzerland. Returning to Canada she began her teaching career at the School of Education and school of Music at Université Laval. She is also known as an expert accompanist and applied her skills in Italy and Austria as well as at home in Quebec.
Fleurette Marie Berthe Beauchamp-Huppé	née Beauchamp. Born Montreal, Quebec December 12, 1907. She studied voice and piano appearing in the productions of the Societé canadienne d'opérette. On piano she won awards in the 1930's from the Canadian Institute of Music and the Prix de Paris in 1933. she remained in Paris to study piano returning to perform public and radio recitals in Canada. She enjoyed playing works of Canadian composers, some of whom dedicated works to her! She continued her career as a teacher of her fine music.
Louise Bessette	Born Montreal, Quebec June 20, 1959. She began learning piano at 5 years of age and carried on with training in Montreal, New York and Paris. In the 1980's she gained recognition by winning international awards for her performances. She has appeared all over Europe, England and North America. She has enjoyed working with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France. She excerpts extraordinary energies in her playing which has impressed the public and professional critics alike. In 1989 she was named Woman of the Year in the Arts Category at the Salon de la femme in Montreal.
Jocelyne Binet	Born East Angus, Quebec September 27, 1923. Died January 13, 1968. She studied for her degrees in music in Montreal before going to Paris France to continue studies with instrument of choice, the piano. Returning to Canada in 1951 she taught at Ecole Vincent d"Indy and the Orford Art Centre and the Montreal conservatory of Music. She composed for piano, violin, cello, flute and choir music. Her works were performed at concerts and on radio not only in Canada but also in Europe and South America.
Linda Bouchard.	Born May 21. 1957. Linda is a composer and orchestra conductor who currently works with the Putnam Symphony in New York.
Lise Boucher	Born Montreal, Quebec May 21, 1941. In 1958 she was awarded the Prix d'Europe for her aptitude in playing the piano. For the next 6 years she continued her studies in Paris, France. Back in Canada she has performed numerous recitals o concerts in public tours and on CBC radio. She has performed with the CBC orchestra, the Quebec and Vancouver Symphony orchestras. She has also toured and recorded in Europe. She began to teach in Montreal in 1967.
Liona Boyd.	Born London, England July 11, 1949. At the age of six she immigrated to Canada from England. In 1996 she toured North America with Gordon Lightfoot. She has brought the classical guitar to new recognition by performing with such notables as Tracy Chapman, George Zamphir, Roger Whitaker, Eric Clapton, and Chet Atkins. She also known for her solo performances with symphony orchestras. She insists that her neighbours, the Ossie Osborne's are not noticeable noise at all!
Gena Brancombe	Born Picton, Ontario November 4, 1881. Died July 26, 1977. She took her BA in Chicago and continued studies there with leading musicians of her era. She taught piano in Chicago and became director of Piano Department at Whitman College in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. leaving only in 1909 to continue her studies in Europe. She has to her publishing credit an opera, hymns orchestral works. Her choral drama Pilgrims of Destiny won the 1928 League of American Pen Women prize for best work by a woman. She was guest conductor throughout North America and England and was leader of numerous choirs during her long and successful career. She also served per profession as president of the Society of American Women composers and Vice President of the National Association of American Composers and Conductors.
Alma Brock-Smith	née Sheasgreen. Born Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.A. February 21, 1908. As a young woman she lived and taught piano in Saskatoon. She continued to study in Chicago, New York City, Seattle and Los Angeles. Her career took her from staff pianist for a Vancouver radio station to live radio and TV performances, to teaching at the San Francisco Conservator of Music and to being a professor at the university of Manitoba. She now specializes in coaching duo-piano teams.
Ada Bronstein	Born Harbin, China 1916. Educated in China she performed many concerts of British and French Chamber Music. She emigrated to Canada in 1952 and settled in Winnipeg to re-establish her career in her new country. Performing across North America she participated ins some 800 public, radio and television concerts! In 1984 she began teaching at the University of Manitoba.
Marilyn Edythe Broughton.	Born February 15, 1940. After her university studies she taught mathematics but she still kept up her interest in music and composing. She is a mother of children who no doubt enjoy the songs their mother writes. Perhaps one of the most famous of her several works is Un Canadien Errant.
Jane Burnet.	Born October 22, 1955. As a young girl she studied classical piano but at 20 she turned to jazz and enjoys playing flute and soprano saxophone. In 1983 she and her husband started a band. She has 7 CD’s of jazz and Cuban Music. In 1993 for the album “Spirit of Havana” she won a Juno Award.
Agnes Butcher	Born Edmonton, Alberta April 11, 1915. She studied piano in Ontario and in 1932 began teaching at the Royal Hamilton Conservatory of Music. She made her professional debut at Massey Hall in Toronto in 1935. In 1936 she won both the Eaton Scholarship and the Dominion Gold Medal of the Toronto Conservatory of Music. She studied and toured in Hungary and in 1940 she performed throughout North America and continued performing through the 1950's in England and Europe.
Charlotte Cadoret (Sister St-Jean-du Sacré-Coeur)	Born Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A. February 29, 1908. She received her teaching diploma and studied music in Montreal. She especially enjoyed studies in Gregorian Chants. She was director of Ecole normale de musique and general director of Musical Studies of the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame in Montreal. She composed choral works, masses, cantatas, songs and arrangements for folksongs, many of which are published.
Albertine Caron-Legris	née Caron. Born Louisville, Quebec 1906. Died 1972. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Montréal in 1942 and went on to study voice, piano and music composition. She is best known as a composer and writer of songs and piano music as well as harmonization for folk music. In 1962 she published Mes plus belle chansons, for children to play on piano. Her personal papers are available for research and the National Library of Canada.
Victoria (Prudenca Victorine) Cartier	Born Sorel, Québec April 4, 1867. Died January 1, 1955. She studied organ and piano in Québec and later in Paris, France. She returned to Montreal in 1898 and founded Ecole e piano Paris-Montréal which remained active for 25 years. Her own performing career began on October 27, 1898. She widened the horizon of music education in Canada through her teachings and her public and radio performances. She was in great demand as a teacher and taught in several institutions. She enjoyed play the organ and was organist for several Montreal churches. She was named an Officer of the Académie in France in 1901 and of the Instruction Publique of France in 1912.
Jean Coulthard	Born Vancouver, British Columbia February 10, 1908. Died March 9, 2000. She studied music in England and New York's famous Julliard School. She was a talented composer, performer and teacher. She is considered a pioneer in the musical world of Vancouver. Her compositions have been performed at many concerts, radio and TV productions. Her works have also been celebrated at music festivals across Canada and abroad. In 1978, in recognition of her contribution to Canadian music she was appointed an Officer in the Order of Canada.
Rachel Cavalho	Born Queensland, Australia. She studied and performed as a pianist in England prior to emigration to Canada in 1948. She enjoyed working with children and music and with the CBC Radio presented "Music for young musicians" and "Music for young pianists" in the late 1950's. She was also a sought after lecturer on contemporary music. She was one of the principal founders and a director of Contemporary Showcase.
Nadia Cole	Born Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A. October 28,1974. A dual citizen, she came to Canada as an infant. As a toddler she played both piano and violin! Living with her family in Saudi Arabia she also studied flute. In 1984 she entered the Royal Conservatory of Music and the followed studies the Université de Montréal and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. She was the first Canadian classical artist to sign with Deutche Grammophon/Universal Music Canada. She has performed piano recitals all over the world and become the highest-placed Canadian in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in its 40s years of existence. She released her first album in 2002.
Jane Austin Coop.	Born April 18, 1950. She loved to play the piano when she was 5 years old and at 19 she determined to make the piano her career. She won the CBC talent Festival in 1970. She continued her studies in England and the U.S.A.. In 1975 she won the Washington International Competition. She has toured and played with orchestra across North America, England, Europe, Russia, Japan and China. She has appeared on radio and television, been nominated for two Juno Awards and recorded more than a dozen titles. She began teaching as a professor at the University of British Columbia in 2003 and the following year the university designated her a Distinguished University Scholar.
Jean Coulthard	Born Vancouver, British Columbia February 10, 1908. Died March 9, 2000. A composer and educator she was the first of Canada’s West Coast composers to receive wide recognition. She began to compose music as a child. She has more then 350 compositions for a wide variety of vocal and instrumentals. She is an officer in the Order of Canada.
Debbie Danbrook	A composer and a recording artist, she performs original, contemporary compositions on the Shakuhachi, an ancient Japanese Bamboo flute. She is the first professional female player to specialize in the unique healing abilities of this sacred Japanese instrument. By 2004 she had recorded some 16 CD's, fourteen of which specifically for healing and meditation. Her music has been embraced by healers and spiritual practitioners around the globe. She has performed before Japanese royality and travelled extensively around the world with her music. She is a professor of Music at the University of Toronto and also hosts classes in Ottawa.
Gwendda Dorothy Owen Davies	Born Wickham Market, England August 5, 1896. Died July 4, 1988. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and began her piano concert career in 1916. In 1923 she came to Canada for a one year teaching assignment at Rupertsland College. She stayed in Canada. For 50 years she was Winnipeg’s most advanced music teacher for piano and theory. She also appeared as soloist and accompanist on Winnipeg concert stages.
Gladys Egbert	née Mckelvie. Born 1897. Died 1968. As a child she demonstrated remarkable musical talent. At the are of 12 she won a 3 year scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London, England. She was the first North American to win such an honour and the youngest. She continued her studies at the famed Julliard Scholl of Music in New York City but turned down the opportunity to become a concert pianist so that she could return home to Calgary to be with her mother. It was here that she would marry and have two pianos in her living room and she would offer the adventure of learning music to many of the best in Alberta. In 1936 she was elected as a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in England, the first North American to be granted this honour. She has been described as he world's best music teacher. A Calgary school and the top prize at the Calgary annual Kiwanis Music Festival are named in her memory.
Janina Fralkowska.	Born Montreal May 7,1951. This pianist studied in Montreal, Paris, and the Julliard School in New York City. She is celebrated as one of the great interpreters of the music of the composer Liszt. She also enjoys performing works from Mozart, Chopin, Prokofiev, and Rachmanninoff. She is known as a pianist of great power who also plays with warmth and tone. She is the founding director of the successful Piano six bringing together some of Canada's greatest classical pianists, instrumentalists and vocalists with Canadians who , for either geographical or financial reasons would otherwise be unable to here this caliber of live classical performance. In 2000 Piano Six won one the Chalmers Award, one of Canada's top Arts Awards. In 2003 she had major surgery of muscle transfer on her left arm. Not wanting to stop performing she changed arrangements to right hand playing and continued to perform! She is now playing with both hands. In October 2002 she became an Officer in the Order of Canada.
Ofra Harnoy	Born Hadera, Israel January 31, 1965. An internationally acclaimed cellist. As a youngster she firs was tutored by her father. The family immigrated to Canada in 1972 and she studied in London and Toronto. She made her debut at 10 and has toured and performed around the world doing public, radio and television performances. She performs in the hopes of eradicating the barrier between classical and pop culture music. She is comfortable performing music of the Beatles and chamber music. She has won several Juno Awards for her recordings.
Angela Hewitt	Born Ottawa, Ontario July 26, 1958. Born into a musical family, her father was the Cathedral organist in Ottawa, and her mother was her first piano teacher, Angela began her piano studies aged three, performing in public at four and a year later winning her first scholarship She won First Prize in Italy’s Viotti Competition in 1978 and was a top prizewinner in the International Bach competitions of Leipzig and Washington D.C. as well as the Schumann Competition in Zwickau, the Casadesus Competition in Cleveland and the Dino Ciani Competition at La Scala, Milan. In 1985 she won the Toronto International Bach Piano Competition. This Ottawa native, who studied music at Ottawa U, and is particularly well known for playing Bach, though she's recorded other composers as well. In 2005 completed a ten year project to record all of Bach's major keyboard repertoire that has been very well received. In 2002 she was inducted into the Order of Canada. Submitted by Teresa Gariepy, Ottawa Ontario.
Juliette Kang.	Born Edmonton, Alberta September 6, 1975. She began studying the violin at the age of 4! She attended university and holds a Masters degree from the famous Julliard School. She is an international celebrity. She has played with the most prestigious orchestras of Europe and North America. A CD was made of her Carnegie Hall recital in 1996.
Diana Krall .	Born Nanaimo, British Columbia November 16, 1964. One of the world's greatest jazz performers she began to study piano when she was 4 years old. Performing in a local restaurant at 15, she was soon studying on scholarship in Boston, U.S.A. She continued her studies/career in LA playing with the great jazz performers of the era. Back in Toronto she released her first album in 1993. Her albums released in 1998 and 1999 won Grammy Awards. Her albums have turned double platinum in Canada, platinum in Portugal, New Zealand, and Poland and turned gold in France, Singapore and England. She has won several of Canada's Juno Awards for her music and in 200 she received the Order of British Columbia. In the spring of 2004 she received her own star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto.
Greta Krause	Born August 3, 1907. Greta immigrated to Canada in 1938. She is a very talented musician. She is a harpsichordist who has appeared as a soloist and a chamber musician. She appeared on the CBC through to the 1980"s.
Jeanne Lamon	Born New York City, New York, U.S.A. 1949. She began studying violin at age 7. She continued her studies as a young woman earning her Bachelor of Music at Brandeis University at Boston, U.S.A. and then studied abroad in the Netherlands. Returning to North America she established her career as a baroque specialist and became a concertmaster. In the late 1970's while a teacher at Smith College in Boston, she made guest appearances in Canada. She must have like what she saw of the country. In 1981 , when she was offered the position at Tafelmusik in Toronto as Music Director, she took the job. By 1988 she had settled herself and became a Canadian citizen. Her talents in baroque, as a violinist, a concertmaster and a teacher were used to good means at Tafelmusik and has garnered many awards including the Muriel Sherrin Award , presented for excellence in international initiatives in music, the Prix Alliance, the Joan Chalmers Award and the Molson Prize. She is a Member of the Order of Canada.
Stephanie Lemelin.	Born April 2, 1960. She studied her beloved music all the way through university. She was the winner of the Canadian Music Competitions in 1977, the CBC National Competition in 1979, the Robert Casadesus International Competition in 1983 and has performed on the piano as a soloist and with orchestras across Canada, the U.S., France England, Ireland, Switzerland, Hungary and Brazil! She is frequently heard on the CBC Radio and has recorded for CBC Records. She taught music at Yale University before returning to teach in Canada at the University of Alberta.
Alexina Louie.	Born July 30, 1949. A musician and composer when writes music for orchestra, chamber music and electronic music. She is known for a work that she dedicated to the memory of the famous Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.
Loreena McKennitt.	Born Morden, Manitoba February 17,1957. As a young girl, she was trained in classical singing. During her teens she experimented with folk music and performed in clubs in her home town of Winnipeg. In the 1970's she became familiar with Celtic music. She worked as a singer, actress and writer at the famous Stratford Festival in Ontario. She learned to play the harp and even played as a busker on the streets of Toronto. She has written musical scores for works by the National Film Board of Canada as well as producing albums of her work. Her 1991 album won a Juno Award. The recording "The Bells of Christmas" was recorded for the Walt Disney film The Santa Claus in 1994.
Kathleen Parlow.	Born Calgary, Alberta September 20, 1890. Died August 19, 1963. This internationally known violinist made her professional debut in 1907 in Berlin Germany. She toured Europe, Russia, North America and Asia. After 1927 she settled into teaching and playing chamber music. She founded the Parlow String Quartet. She enjoyed introducing the works of young Canadian composers.
Barbara Lally Pentland	Born Winnipeg, Manitoba January 2, 1912. Died February 5, 2000. One of the first Canadian composers to use avant-garde techniques, she has helped introduce 2 generations of young Canadians to modern Music. She was named to the Order of Canada in 1989.
Shauna Rolston	Born Edmonton, Alberta January 31, 1967. She began Cello lessons at age 3! She had her first public performance at age 6! It is no wonder this musical prodigy was accepted in the gifted youth programme at the Banff centre for the Arts in Alberta. She went to Yale University in the U.S. to earn a degree in art history and returned to studying the cello at the Yale School for Music. Her New York debut was in 1983. Since then she has performed world wide and made numerous recordings. In 1994 she accepted a position to teach cello at the University of Toronto.
Micheline Saint-Marcoux	(née Coulombe). Born Notre-Dame-de-la-Doré, Quebec August 19,1938. Died February 2, 1985. She was a composer and teacher who played a profound role in the development of contemporary music in both North America and Europe.
Gloria Saarinen	Born Dunedin, New Zealand September 21, 1934. A child prodigy on the piano she studied first in New Zealand and then winning scholarships she studied in London, England and Europe. She settled in Calgary, Alberta in 1963 and that same year won the Harriet Cohen Commonwealth Medal. She has toured and performed throughout North America, Europe and in her homeland of New Zealand. She founded the Chinook Piano Competition , which became a national event by 1985. She formed part of the Chinook Trio with Susan Hoeppner (flutist) and Ofra Harnoy (cellist) and later joined the Canadian Piano Trio, an ensemble in-residence at Your University in Toronto. She was artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Calgary and hosted a Calgary TV program called Musical Portraits. She has also enjoyed a career in teaching with the Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music. and at a private studio. She has received awards for her contribution to her community from both provincial governments of Alberta and Ontario.
Ethel Stark.	Born Montreal Quebec, August 25, 1916. The violin is her personal instrument of choice. She studied in Canada and the U.S. She was the first woman soloist heard on radio when she performed under conductor Fritz Reiner the Tchaikovsky “Concerto. “ She Founded the New York Women’s Chamber Orchestra and when she returned to live in Quebec in 1940 she founded and became the conductor of the 80 member Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra. In 1947 the women were the first Canadian Symphony Orchestra to play in the famous Carnegie Hall in New York City!! The Orchestra would continue to perform well into the 1960’s. Ethel has been awarded many honours for her contributions to the Canadian music scene. She has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary, the Order of Canada and the Canada 125 Medal in 1992.
Blanche van Ginkel	(née Lemco). Born London, England December 14, 1923. Blanche and her husband are Architects and urban planners. They have worked on plans for old city of Montreal, new Montreal, New York City, Calgary, and even development sites for the Canadian Arctic. She was Dean of Architecture at the University of Toronto, 1977-1982.

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