Calixa Lavallée
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Calixa Lavallée, (28 December 1842 – January 21, 1891), born Calixte Paquet, was a French-Canadian musician who composed the music for the Canadian national anthem "O Canada".
He was born at Verchères, Quebec. He went to the U.S in 1857 and lived in Rhode Island where he enlisted in the Northern army in the American Civil War eventually attaining the rank of Lieutenant.
During and after the war he moved between Canada and the United States and developed a career in music. He was also a director, conducting major orchestral and operatic productions in important concert halls like the Montreal Academy of Music in Montreal and the Grand Opera House in New York. He was commissioned to compose "O Canada" to be performed during the St. Jean-Baptiste Day celebrations in 1880. He died in Boston in 1891. His remains were reinterred to Montreal in 1933 and laid to rest in the Montréal Côte-des-Neiges Cemetery.
