Biography
Murray Adaskin (1906 - 2002) was a Canadian violinist, composer, conductor and music teacher. He was born in Toronto, Ontario on March 28, 1906, to Jewish immigrant parents from Latvia and had 3 siblings. He studied violin at the Toronto Conservatory of Music and began his career playing the violin in silent film performances in his hometown. He then became a violinist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1923 to 1936. At that time he married his first wife, the soprano Francis James. From 1938 to 1952 he was in the trio of the Royal York Hotel.
At the age of 38, he studied to become a composer for seven years. From 1952 to 1966 he was head of the Department of Music at the University of Saskatchewan, including four years as conductor of the Symphony Orchestra. It then became Composer-in-Residence until 1972, the first place of its kind ever set up at a Canadian university. In 1972, he retired to Victoria, where he composed more than half of his 130 compositions. His training as a violinist influenced the sense of his melody, through his works one can feel the presence of landscapes, songs, birds and nature's sounds.
Andaskin lost his first wife in 1988, he remarried later his assistant. He died on May 6, 2002.