Murray Adaskin

Murray Adaskin

Murray Adaskin in 1929
Background information
Born (1906-03-28)28 March 1906
Toronto, Ontario
Died 6 May 2002(2002-05-06) (aged 96)
Victoria, British Columbia
Occupation(s) composer

Murray Adaskin, OC (March 28, 1906 – May 6, 2002) was a Toronto-born Canadian violinist, composer, conductor and teacher. After playing violin with a band, he studied composition and became the director of the Music department of the University of Saskatchewan. Many of his compositions were written while in Victoria after his retirement.[1]

Life

Born in Toronto, Ontario,[2] to Jewish Latvian immigrant parents who raised their four children to become persevering kids, Adaskin studied the violin with Alexander Chuhaldin at the Toronto Conservatory of Music. He began his career playing the violin in silent film presentations in his native city. Afterwards, he was a violinist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1923 to 1936. He married his first wife, soprano Frances James, around that time. From 1938 to 1952 he was with the Royal York Hotel trio.[1]

By 38 years of age, he studied for seven years with John Weinzweig to become a composer. Other composers he studied with include Charles Jones and Darius Milhaud. He was head of the Department of Music at the University of Saskatchewan from 1952 to 1966, including four years as conductor of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. He then became the Composer-in-Residence until 1972, the first position of its type ever created at a Canadian university. Among his notable pupils were composers Boyd McDonald, Paul Pedersen, Rodney Sharman and Timothy Williams; and violinist Andrew Dawes. See: List of music students by teacher: A to B#Murray Adaskin. By 1972, he retired to Victoria where he started composing more than half his total of 130 compositions.[1]

Adaskin lost his first wife in 1988, to later remarry to a woman named Dorothea, who was his helping hand in recording some pieces on their own label. He died in 2002, just before the release of two CDs of a five-disc collection for his memory. He is the brother of Harry Adaskin, Leslie Adaskin and John Adaskin.[1]

It was announced on December 15, 1980 that he was awarded the Order of Canada.[3] On April 8, 1981, Adaskin was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada.[4]

Music inspiration

Igor Stravinsky was a major inspiration for Adaskin. "Stravinsky's neo-classical and rugged rhythms echo through his work."[1] Additionally, his training as a violinist affected his sense of melody. Through his works, one can feel the presence of landscapes, birdsongs and different local surrounding sounds.[1]

The melody of his compositions often seem abstract, similar to Canadian visual art from his early years. His avid interest in Canadian visual art was expressed in his work: In Praise of Canadian Painting in the Thirties.[1]

Selected works

See also

Footnotes

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Everett-Green, Robert. Composer expressed joy in art's beauty, The Globe and Mail, Wednesday, May 8, 2002. R7. accessed on October 18, 2006.
  2. ↑ Randel, Don Michael, ed. (1996). "Adaskin, Murray". The Harvard biographical dictionary of music. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 0-674-37299-9.
  3. ↑ The Right Honourable Edward Richard Schreyer (20 December 1980). "Canada Gazette Part I, Vol. 114, No. 51" (PDF). Governor General of Canada. Government House. p. 1 (7627 in the Canada Gazette). Retrieved 5 February 2011.
  4. ↑ The Right Honourable Edward Richard Schreyer. "Murray Adaskin, O.C., D.Mus.". Governor General of Canada. Retrieved 5 February 2011.

References

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