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Create AccountJack Snider (Sniderman). Teacher, composer, drummer, b Russia 1897, d Delray Beach, Fla, 10 Oct 1977. Moving to England and then to Canada, he played drums in pit bands in Toronto and, during the 1920s, at the B.F. Keith Theatre in Ottawa. In Ottawa he formed and conducted the Young Judea Orchestra.
Spivak, Elie. Violinist, b Uman, Ukraine, 2 Feb 1902, d Toronto, 23 Jul 1960. He studied at the Paris Cons 1910-15 with Henri Berthelier and at the Royal College of Manchester 1916 with Adolf Brodsky.
Toronto Bach Choir. Name used by various choirs in Toronto 1922-89.
John Slatter. Bandmaster, composer, arranger, b London 21 Feb 1864, d Toronto 7 Dec 1954. After studies at the British Army Training School of Music, he became a euphonium soloist with the First Life Guards Band in London in 1882. In 1884 he joined the Victor Herbert Orchestra in New York.
Casey Sokol. Composer, pianist, b New York 6 May 1948; BA music (State U of New York) 1970, MA (California Institute of the Arts) 1971.
Geoffrey Waddington. Conductor, administrator, violinist, b Leicester, England, 23 Sep 1904, d Toronto 3 Jan 1966; honorary LL D (Dalhousie) 1956. His mother, Elizabeth, was a pianist, and his father, Frank, appeared in light opera in England.
Nadia Strycek, pianist, teacher (born 20 December 1934 in Herentals, Belgium; died 3 January 2016 in Montréal, QC). Born of Czech parents, Nadia Strycek became a naturalized Canadian in 1972. At the age of 11 she was admitted to the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where she won premiers prix in solfège, dictation, theory, piano and chamber music.
Diane Tell (b Fortin). Singer, songwriter, guitarist, b Quebec City, to a Canadian father and US mother, 24 Dec 1957. Her childhood was spent between Paris, Montreal and Val-d'Or, Que. She studied violin and classical guitar at the CMM, and jazz guitar at Saint-Laurent College.
Max Wyman. Writer, critic, educator, administrator, actor, b Wellingborough, England, 14 May 1939, naturalized Canadian 1979; honorary D LITT (Simon Fraser) 2003. Max Wyman studied piano and theory as a youth and began his career in journalism with the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph at 14.
Frederick (Caton) Silvester. Organist, choir conductor, administrator, composer, b Darwen, near Manchester, England, 21 Jan 1901, d Toronto 24 Jun 1966; FRCO 1931; FRCCO 1943. He studied organ with C. Spencer Heap in England and, after moving in 1921 to Canada, with Lynnwood Farnam in Saskatoon.
Charles Tanguy. French hornist, teacher, composer, b France ca 1845, d ?; premier prix french horn (Académie de Valenciennes and Paris Cons).
Noah Zeller. Bandmaster, teacher, b near Breslau, Canada West (Ontario), ca 1852, d Berlin (Kitchener), Ont, 8 Feb 1914. He was the clarinet soloist in 1875 and the conductor 1878-82 of the 29th Regiment Band of Berlin. In 1882 he became the first conductor of the Waterloo Musical Society Band.
(Joseph Jean) Edmond Trudel. Pianist, conductor, teacher, composer, b St-Roch (Quebec City) 10 Apr 1892, d Quebec City 13 Sep 1977. He studied 1912-15 at the Paris Cons with Félix Fourdrain (composition, harmony), Alfredo Casella, Joaquin Nin, and Lazare Lévy (piano).
Robert Watkin-Mills. Bass-baritone, teacher, b Painswick, Gloucestershire, England, 4 Mar 1849, d Toronto 10 Dec 1930.
Halifax-based film director Thom Fitzgerald can be forgiven for feeling as if he has suddenly become a character in someone elses movie. On Sept. 14, Fitzgeralds first feature film, The Hanging Garden, which was shot in Halifax on a modest $1.
Denny (Dennis) Vaughan. Singer, arranger, pianist, b Toronto 20 Dec 1922, d Montreal 2 Oct 1972. He performed in his teens on CFRB radio and with Horace Lapp and studied at the University of Toronto before touring Europe with The Army Show during World War II.
Harold Gordon Pemberton "Steep" Wade, pianist, saxophonist (born 19 January 1918 in Montréal, QC; died 6 December 1953 in Montréal). A jazz musician of considerable legend, Wade is thought to have been largely self-taught.
Spitfire Band. Toronto dance band, formed in 1981 as a studio orchestra by the singer Jackie Rae, with the trumpeter Mickey Erbe as music director and arranger and the trombonist Laurie Bower as vocal arranger.
Marshall Sumner. Pianist, teacher, b Melbourne 22 Sep 1907, naturalized Canadian 1956; B MUS (Chicago Musical College) 1933. He studied 1923-7 at the University of Melbourne and 1927-33 with Percy Grainger, Rudolph Ganz, and Alexander Raab at the Chicago Musical College.
Taranto, Émile. Violinist, teacher, b Montreal, of Italian parents, 1878, d there 27 Aug 1936. At six he began studying violin with Frantz Jehin-Prume, and by 1894 he was a member of Couture's MSO. He also gave many recitals at that time.
