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Arthur Laurendeau. Bass, choirmaster, conductor, teacher, writer on music, b St-Gabriel-de-Brandon, near Joliette, Que, 30 Nov 1880, d Montreal 26 Oct 1963.

A.S. (Augustus Stephen) Vogt. Choir conductor, administrator, educator, organist, pianist, b Washington, near Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont, of German and Swiss parents, 14 Aug 1861, d Toronto 17 Sep 1926; FRCO, honorary D MUS (Toronto) 1906.

Andrew (Paul) Homzy. Musicologist, composer, arranger, bandleader, b Toledo, Ohio, 31 Oct 1945; B Mus (Baldwin-Wallace College) 1967, MMA (McGill) 1971.

Ann Southam. Composer, teacher, b Winnipeg 4 Feb 1937, d Toronto 25 Nov 2010; Licentiate Diploma (Toronto) 1963. Early on, Ann Southam was interested in visual arts, but she turned to composing at age 15 after attending a summer music camp at the Banff School (now The Banff Centre).

Al-Hajj Sayyd Abdul Al-Khabyyr (né Russell Linwood Thomas), soprano, alto and tenor saxophonist, clarinetist, flutist, composer (born 22 March 1935 in New York, New York; died 15 February 2017 in Montréal, QC).

Alain Trudel. Trombonist, conductor, composer, b Montreal 13 Jun 1966; premiers prix chamber music, trombone (CMM) 1985. Alain Trudel studied (1981-5) at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec with Joseph Zuskin.

Alfred Leopold Kunz, composer, conductor, administrator (born 26 May 1929 in Neudorf, SK; died 16 January 2019 in Kitchener-Waterloo, ON). Alfred Kunz studied composition and conducting 1949–55 at the RCMT and for several summers in the 1960s with Stockhausen and others in Europe. In 1965 he completed the state examinations in choral conducting at the Musikhochschule in Mainz and was assistant conductor of the Mainz City Opera Theatre. He began teaching in Kitchener, Ontario, in 1955. He organized the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Orchestra and Choir in 1959 and was organist-choirmaster 1959-64 at Mount Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.

André Gagnon, OC, OQ, pianist, composer, conductor, arranger, actor (born 2 August 1936 in St-Pacôme-de-Kamouraska, QC; died 3 December 2020). André Gagnon was renowned for an eclectic mix of pop and classical music. He worked as accompanist, conductor or arranger for some of the great Quebec chansonniers before his career as a soloist. His compositions span a wide variety of musical styles and were especially popular in Japan. He won Juno Awards for his records Saga (1974) and Neiges (1975), and as best instrumentalist (1977 and 1995). He received the Prix Félix for instrumental album of the year 12 times between 1978 and 2017 and was awarded SOCAN’s William Harold Moon Award for his contribution to Canadian music. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and an Officier of the Ordre National du Québec.

In 1977, Dutoit was appointed principal conductor of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (having guest-conducted it 15 Feb 1977) and began what was unarguably the most successful conductor-orchestra partnership in Canadian history.

Charles Dutoit, conductor (b at Lausanne, Switzerland, 7 Oct 1936). He received his musical education (in violin, viola, piano, percussion, composition and orchestral conducting) at the conservatories of Lausanne and Geneva, where he obtained a premier prix in conducting in 1958.

Callixte Lavallée, composer, pianist, conductor, teacher, administrator, soldier (born 28 December 1842 in Verchères, Canada East; died 21 January 1891 in Boston, Massachusetts). A pioneer in music both in Canada and the United States, Calixa Lavallée was considered one of the “national glories” of Quebec. He is best known for composing the music for “O Canada” and was twice president of the Académie de musique de Québec. Despite this vaunted stature, he spent much of his life outside Canada, served with the Union Army during the American Civil War and called for Canada to be annexed by the United States. The Prix de musique Calixa-Lavallée, awarded by the St-Jean-Baptiste Society of Montreal for outstanding contributions to the music of Quebec, is named in his honour.

Yannick Nicholas Nézet-Séguin, CC, OQ, conductor, pianist (born 6 March 1975 in Montréal, QC). Known for brilliance, energy and consummate skill from an uncommonly young age, Yannick Nézet-Séguin made a meteoric rise to prominence as a conductor, particularly of operas. His appointments as music director of Montréal’s Orchestre Métropolitain (2000–) the Philadelphia Orchestra (2012–) and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (2008–18) made him an international star. He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada at age 37 and an Officer of the Ordre national du Québec at 40. In 2016, he was named music director of The Metropolitan Opera, a position he officially began in September 2018. His many honours include numerous Félix Awards, the National Arts Centre Award, the Virginia Parker Prize and the Prix Denise-Pelletier.

Despite this, his father withdrew Antoine from the conservatoire in October 1841 and took him and his older brother on a concert tour to promote his music business, first to the USA, and then to the French provinces, Italy, Austria, and Germany.

Antoine Dessane, organist, pianist, cellist, teacher, composer (b at Forcalquier, near Aix-en-Provence, France 10 Dec 1826; d at Québec City 8 June 1873). Founder of the choral Société musicale.

Amanda Meta Marshall. Singer, songwriter, b Toronto 29 Aug 1972. Marshall began performing at age 16 and was discovered two years later by Toronto guitarist Jeff Healey, whose drummer, Tom Stephen, eventually became her manager.

In 1944 Koldofsky became concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and conductor of the Junior Symphony. In 1945 he moved to Los Angeles, where he played in the RKO studio and in chamber music recitals and established a local chapter of the International Society for Contemporary Music.

Anton (Emil) Kuerti. Pianist, teacher, composer, concert organizer, artistic director, social activist, b Vienna 21 Jul 1938, naturalized US 1944, naturalized Canadian 1984; B MUS (Cleveland Institute) 1955, honorary FRHCM 1978, honorary D MUS (Laurentian) 1985, honorary D MUS (Western) 2007.

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

Ben (Benjamin) Mink. Producer, songwriter, violinist, mandolinist, guitarist, composer, b Detroit, of Polish parents, 22 Jan 1951, naturalized Canadian 1967. Ben Mink was raised in Cleveland and taken at age 11 to Toronto.