Composers
Louis Applebaum
Composer, conductor and arts administrator, the late Louis Applebaum was intimately connected with music in Canada. He was instrumental in the formation and administration of many national arts institutions—the Canada Council, the Canadian League of Composers, the Canadian Music Centre and the National Arts Centre, to name only a few. He helped focus the direction of culture in Canada, a primary example of his contribution being his chairmanship of the Federal Cultural Policy Review Committee, a country-wide consultation on cultural concerns, which resulted in the Applebaum-Hébert Report.
Applebaum composed hundreds of scores: for film producers in Canada, Hollywood and New York; for the National Film Board; for radio and television (CBC, BBC, CBS, NBC, United Nations Radio and others) for theatre, orchestra, band, and smaller ensembles. His many awards included the Canadian Film Award, the Wilderness and Anik Awards, as well as an Academy Award nomination. He was an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Applebaum was widely known in association with the Stratford Festival since its inception, both as music director and composer. He established the music program there and provided incidental music for festival productions. His career as a composer and his remarkably extensive range of commissions, together with his energetic administrative leadership, established Applebaum as one of the most prolific and accomplished musicians in Canada.
Howard Cable
Howard Cable, CM, has been a leading figure in the musical life of Canada for over 50 years. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto with Sir Ernest MacMillan, Ettore Mazzoleni and Healey Willan. His early years were spent in radio when he succeeded Percy Faith on CBC in 1941. He has composed and conducted over 1000 radio dramas and variety programs. For several years, the Howard Cable Concert Band was heard nationally on the CBC and throughout the U.S. on the Mutual Radio Network. On television, he was musical director and arranger for many celebrated telecasts, including the highly popular “Showtime.”
Cable’s familiarity with a broad range of repertoire has kept him in demand as a composer and arranger, for the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Sharon, Lois and Bram, the Toronto Children’s Chorus, True North Brass and the Hannaford Street Silver Band. This has resulted in the recording of his compositions and arrangements on many record labels and performances worldwide.
His work in musical theatre has led to notable collaborations. On Broadway, he arranged for Richard Rodgers, Meredith Willson and Frank Loesser. In the entertainment world, he has conducted for Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Bob Hope, Victor Borge and Danny Kaye. In Canada, his theatrical credits include appearances as guest conductor at the Banff and Shaw festivals and he has provided numerous scores for the Charlottetown Festival.
His 20-year association with the Canadian Brass has resulted in his writing over 80 compositions and arrangements. He has arranged for the Canadian Brass collaboration with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as well as their Lincoln Center concerts with the New York Philharmonic Brass.
Donald Coakley
Donald Coakley, a native of Preston (now Cambridge, Ontario), was for 22 years responsible for the administration of instrumental music at the Scarborough Board of Education. He holds degrees from the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York, the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music and Temple University, and has done additional studies in electronic music at the State University and in choral writing and arranging at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey.
Prior to coming to Scarborough, Coakley was director of bands at Cardinal Dougherty High School in Philadelphia, conductor at the Camden Choral Arts Society in Camden, New Jersey, and assistant professor of Music at Temple University in Philadelphia. A composition student of Vincent Persichetti while in Philadelphia, Coakley is well known for his work as a composer. He has written extensively for band, orchestra, choir and chamber ensemble. Vive la Canadienne has been recorded by the University of Toronto Wind Symphony on compact disc (Arbordisc: UTWS 9501).
Coakley is a member of the Canadian League of Composers and an Associate Composer with the Canadian Music Centre.
John Herberman
John Herberman comes to music composing, arranging, and production via a wide range of musical experiences. Herberman has degrees in Music and in Education from the University of Toronto, as well as extensive training in composition from the Royal Conservatory of Music and with the late Gordon Delamont. He has also done graduate work in film scoring and arranging at the Eastman School of Music. He taught high school music for seven years before leaving the teaching profession to devote all his time to music production. Since that time, Herberman has written and recorded music for film, television, radio, and TV commercials, live theatre and industrial shows, and jazz groups—both vocal and instrumental. He composed original music for Family Passions on CTV, Once Upon a Hamster for YTV, and created soundscapes for Dan Gibson’s acclaimed “Solitudes”series of recordings. Several band compositions have been published and receive international distribution. Herberman also has extensive corporate and private market experience as leader/arranger for a successful top-40 dance band and a classical trio.
Herberman has had the distinction of being asked to design the sound and music for two national museums in Ottawa: the National Aviation Museum, and the Canada In Space exhibit in the Museum of Science and Technology. Out of the Aviation Museum was produced a one-hour CBC co-production featuring Pierre Berton, which has won several international awards.
J. Scott Irvine
J. Scott Irvine’s compositions and arrangements have been performed and broadcast across Canada, in the U.S. and in Europe. Several have been recorded for commercial release on various record labels, including RCA Victor and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s SM 5000 series. He has also been the recipient of commissioning grants from the Ontario Arts Council and the Laidlaw Foundation, and is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre.
Irvine is also active as a performer, and has played tuba with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, the Esprit Orchestra, the Hannaford Street Silver Band, and in commercial recording studios for many years. He is perhaps best known for his playing on the acclaimed children’s television series Sharon, Lois and Bram’s Elephant Show. Highly committed to new music, Irvine has commissioned solo works for the tuba by several noted Canadian composers.
John Wilson
Born and raised in Bowmanville, Ontario, John Wilson studied writing and arranging in his music degree studies at the University of Toronto, as well as with Boss Brass member Ian McDougall.
A multi-talented musician, Wilson holds a degree in trombone performance from the University of Toronto, and has experience in both the classical and jazz idioms. Wilson’s first arrangement for concert band, The Huron Carol, has become a popular Canadian concert selection during the Christmas season.
In addition to his compositions for concert band, Wilson’s work includes original pieces and arrangements for stage band and trombone choir.