In two years, Danny and his mom have moved more often than most kids lose teeth...When Danny moves into a new basement apartment, the kids he meets seem to have way more problems than just being hungry. But Danny’s imagination creates a community that allows his friends to cope with their problems and ultimately to help Danny—because his crisis isn’t losing a home. It’s gaining one…

Music Makers examines and celebrates the extraordinary lives of composer Harry Freedman and his partner, soloist Mary Morrison.Harry, with roots in jazz and popular music, was a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for 25 years. Canada’s Composer of the Year in 1979, he has written an enormous repertoire that celebrates Canada and is sung and played around the world.After a stellar career in Canada as a popular singer and opera diva, Mary became an esteemed exp...

Canadian composer Louis Applebaum devoted his life to the cultural awakening of his native land, and this "magnificent obsession" drove him to become a founder of the Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre. He was an instrumental figure in the early development of the National Film Board, the Stratford Festival, and the National Art Centre in Ottawa. For nearly half a century he composed music for the Stratford Festival, television, radio, and films. This illustrated bi...

In a career that spanned five decades, Elmer Iseler proved himself pivotal to the development of choral music in Canada. After founding Canada’s first professional choir in 1954, he became artistic director and conductor of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. In 1979 he established Canada’s leading chamber choir, the Elmer Iseler Singers. He also enjoyed a long association with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducting more than 150 performances of Handel’s Messiah and premiering complex twent...

The Orchestra: A Very Short Introduction considers the structure, roots, and day-to-day functioning of the modern philharmonic society. Far from an anachronistic organization that cannot long survive, it is shown to be powerful political and social force, occupying critical positions in cultural diplomacy, national identity, and civic pride.

American writer, composer, artist, and philosopher John Cage (1912–92) is best known for his experimental composition 4’33,” a musical score in which the performer does not play an instrument during the duration of the piece. The purpose, Cage said, was for the audience to listen to the sounds of the environment around them while the piece was performed. Groundbreaking pieces such as 4’33”, as well as Sonatas and Interludes not only established Cage as a leading ...

Stuart Hamilton is a well-known Canadian musician who has been in the forefront of music in Canada for more than 60 years. Here, in this memoir, he recounts his sometimes hectic assault on the Canadian music world. Along the way, Hamilton encountered, as a vocal coach and accompanist, most of the great Canadian singers of the last half of the 20th century and some international ones, as well.For 27 years Hamilton was an erudite and funny personality on CBC's Saturday Afternoon ...

The first major biography of Glenn Gould to stress the critical influence of the Canadian context on his life and artGlenn Gould was not, as has previously been suggested, an isolated and self-taught eccentric who burst out of nowhere onto the international musical scene in the mid-1950s. He was, says Kevin Bazzana in this fascinating new full-scale biography, very much a product of his time and place – and his entire life and diverse work reflect his Canadian heri...

(Keyboard Instruction). Legendary jazz pianist Oscar Peterson has long been devoted to the education of piano students. In this book he offers dozens of pieces designed to empower the student, whether novice or classically trained, with the technique needed to become an accomplished jazz pianist.

In the 1940s it was unheard of for women to be members of a professional orchestra, let alone play “masculine” instruments like the bass or trombone. Yet despite these formidable challenges, the Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra (MWSO) became the only all-women orchestra in Canadian history. Formed in 1940, the MWSO became the first orchestra to represent Canada in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and one of its members also became the first Canadian black woman to play in a symphony in Car...

The life, times, and travels of a remarkable instrument and the people who have made, sold, played, and cherished it.A 16-ounce package of polished wood, strings, and air, the violin is perhaps the most affordable, portable, and adaptable instrument ever created. As congenial to reels, ragas, Delta blues, and indie rock as it is to solo Bach and late Beethoven, it has been played standing or sitting, alone or in groups, in bars, churches, concert halls, lumber camps, even concentra...

Short-listed for the Ottawa Book Awards, 2010This is the story of the creation and first four decades of one of Canada’s pre-eminent cultural organizations. While it documents the history of Canada’s National Arts Centre in Ottawa, it also tells the story of the arts in Canada from the 1960s to 2006. The story breaks down into three parts: the years of creation and early growth, fuelled by the talent and resources generated by Canada’s 1967 Centennial celebration; the turb...