Growing with Canada

Based on years of detailed and extensive interviews, and supplemented by a wide range of archival material, Growing with Canada showcases the men and women who came to Canada and the roles they played in developing the country's musical culture.

Paul Helmer shows that émigrés were at the centre of the new musical milieu and uses the lively testimony of those involved to weave together the larger story of post-war Canadian music performance, production, and education.

By introducing the sounds and techniques of their homelands, émigré artists were able to overcome the dominating British presence in post-secondary music education — vastly expanding the role music played in universities — while pioneering the performance and production of opera in Canada.

From British Columbia to Newfoundland, they served as educators, teachers, and administrators as well as outstanding performers, conductors, composers, music historians, radio and television producers, and benefactors.