Search for "New France"

Edward (Constantin) Laufer. Theorist, composer, teacher, b Zurich 25 Nov 1938, naturalized Canadian 1953; B MUS (Toronto) 1957, M MUS (Toronto) 1960, MFA (Princeton) 1964. He was raised in Halifax, where his family settled in 1939.

Robert (Earl) Witmer. Ethnomusicologist, bassist, b Kitchener, Ont, 24 Feb 1940; B MUS (British Columbia) 1965, M MUS (Illinois) 1970. While studying bass with J.P.

Mary Ann (Elizabeth) Parker. Musicologist, teacher, b Toronto 21 Nov 1951; ARCT piano (1971), BA (Toronto) 1972, M MUS (Southern Illinois) 1976, PH D musicology (ESM, Rochester) 1982. Her PH D thesis, completed under the supervision of Alfred Mann, was on 'Handel's Latin Psalm settings.

Roderick Andrew Francis MacKenzie, priest, scholar (b at Liverpool, Eng 15 Nov 1911; d at Pickering, Ont 30 Apr 1994). He came to Peterborough, Ont, with his family in 1924, then entered the Society of Jesus at Guelph, Ont, in 1928.

Lloyd Slind (Hilmer). Educator, b Dahlton, near Saskatoon, 21 Jun 1910, d Vancouver 2 Jan 2004; B SC (Saskatchewan) 1933, B MUS (Montreal) 1947, LRSM 1948, D ED (Florida State) 1955.

Residential schools were government-sponsored religious schools created to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. Schools in the North were run by missionaries for nearly a century before the federal government began to open new, so-called modern institutions in the 1950s. This was less than a decade after a Special Joint Committee (see Indigenous Suffrage) found that the system was ineffectual. The committee’s recommendations led to the eventual closure of residential schools across the country.

Thomas (Edmund) Rolston. Violinist, violist, teacher, b Vancouver 31 Oct 1932, d there 29 May 2010; LRSM 1949, ARAM 1961, honorary LLD (Wilfrid Laurier) 1998.

Robert Kroetsch, writer, editor, teacher (born at Heisler, Alta 26 Jun 1927, died at Edmonton, 21 Jun 2011). Kroetsch grew up on his father's farm and studied at the University of Alberta and the University of Iowa.

Owen Underhill. Composer, conductor, teacher, flutist, b Regina 26 Jan 1954; B MUS (Victoria) 1975, MA (Stony Brook) 1978. Owen Underhill was raised in Edmonton and Victoria, BC.

Alex (Alexander Peter) Pauk. Composer, conductor, teacher, b Toronto 4 Oct 1945; B MUS (Toronto) 1970, B ED (Toronto) 1971.

Residential schools were government-sponsored religious schools that many Indigenous children were forced to attend. They were established to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. Indigenous parents and children did not simply accept the residential-school system. Indigenous peoples fought against – and engaged with – the state, schools and other key players in the system. For the duration of the residential-school era, parents acted in the best interests of their children and communities. The children responded in ways that would allow them to survive. 

Maria Rika Maniates. Musicologist, born Toronto 30 Mar 1937, died there 20 Oct 2011; ARCT 1958, BA (Toronto) 1960, MA (Columbia) 1962, PH D (Columbia) 1965.

Loring Woart Bailey, geologist, educator (b at West Point, NY 28 Sept 1839; d at Fredericton 10 Jan 1925). Son of a professor at the US Military Academy, Bailey was educated at Harvard and Brown and knew many important scientists.

Marya Fiamengo, poet, critic and educator (b at Vancouver 24 Oct 1926).

Marc Durand. Pianist, teacher, b St-Samuel, Que, 28 Aug 1949; B MUS (Montreal) 1969, M MUS (Montreal) 1970, Concert Diploma (Sherbrooke) 1972, M MUS (Temple, Philadelphia) 1975.

​François Ricard, O.Q., literary critic, essayist, editor, professor of literature (born 4 June 1947 in Shawinigan, QC).

Gustav Ciamaga. Composer, teacher, writer, b London, Ont, 10 Apr 1930, d Toronto, 11 Jun 2011; MFA (Brandeis) 1958. He attended the University of Western Ontario 1951-4 while studying privately with Gordon Delamont.

Komorous, Rudolf. Composer, bassoonist, teacher, b Prague 8 Dec 1931, naturalized Canadian 1974. In Prague he studied bassoon 1946-52 at the State Cons and 1952-6 with Karel Pivonka at the Academy of Musical Arts. He also studied composition with Pavel Bořkovec at the academy.

Alberto (b Antonio Alberto García Guerrero) Guerrero. Teacher, pianist, composer, b La Serena, Chile, 6 Feb 1886, d Toronto 7 Nov 1959. Alberto Guerrero's early music studies were with his mother and his older brother Daniel; he was otherwise self-taught.

Thomas Phillips Thompson, journalist, socialist intellectual (b at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Eng 25 Nov 1843; d at Oakville, Ont 20 May 1933). Under the pseudonym "Jimuel Briggs," Thompson wrote political satire for the St