Walter Pitman - Victor Feldbrill: Canadian Conductor Extraordinaire

In the research that accompanies such a volume, there are a host of people who have made a considerable contribution.

First, my wife and children have contributed their wisdom and caring to this project. Ida has read every word several times over as has my daughter, Anne. Both Wade and Mark have ensured that disasters in the technological mysteries of the computer have been avoided. In the latter stages, I was assisted by my grandson, an Ottawa University student, Jared Davidson, who provided valuable guidance in manuscript editing.

Once again, I must thank those at the York University Archives who have not stinted in their efforts to secure Victor Feldbrills papers and organize them to my timetable. Suzanne Dubeau has been my main contact over these years but the entire staff deserves my deepest appreciation. In preparing this volume I was also dependent on the records of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and it was the volunteer archivist, John Dunn, who assisted me beyond all I could have expected. Thank you also to the TSOs director of artistic administration, Loie Fallis, who ensured that I had access.

As always, my experiences throughout the publication process of this book have been made pleasant by the professionalism of those at Dundurn Press, from the office of the CEO, Kirk Howard, and his colleague, Beth Bruder, to those who have contributed so much to its production, especially publicist Marta Warner, editors Shannon Whibbs and Allison Hirst, and designer Courtney Horner.

Throughout the entire process, Victor has given countless hours to being interviewed, as has the Feldbrill family, his present companion Mae Bernstein, daughters Debbi and Aviva, sister Eileen, along with others whose knowledge of these events was essential.

Then there were the sixty or seventy individuals who were contacted by email, by telephone, and in some cases, in person. All gave their time and perceptions without restraint. Listing them in a paragraph so inadequately displays their contribution, but appropriate introductions would fill another volume.

The individuals listed below were major contributors but there were others whose comments were invaluable but have been necessarily omitted: Andrea Alexander, Trish Baldwin, Douglas Bairstow, John Beckwith, Elizabeth Bihl, Ruth Budd, Howard Cable, Joseph Caron, Lawrence Cherney, Esther Cole, Robert Cooper, Johnny Cowell, Lori Davies, Victor Davies, Peggy Dettweiler, Takani Egami, James Ehnes, Angela Elster, Glyn Evans, Mary Lou Fallis, Carol Fitzpatrick, Ann Cooper Gay, Errol Gay, Jerrold Gerbrecht, Evelyn Greenberg, Klemi Hambourg, Joanne Harada, Rosemary Hazelton, Harcus Hennigar, Walter Homburger, Harry Hurwitz, Morry Kernerman, William Krehm, Patricia Kreuger, John Lawson, Leon Major, James Manishen, Christmann Mieke, Mary Morrison, Ken Murphy, Nancy Nelson, Kazushi Ono, Ron Polinski, Jackie Poplack, John Reeves, William Richardson, Roxalana Roslak, Val Saunders, Ezra Schabas, Robert Sirman, Stanley Solomon, James Spragge, Steven Staryk, Leonard Stone, Janet Stubbs, Stella Sung, Gwen Thompson, Patricia Wardrop, Joan Watson, John Weinzweig, Nancy Westaway, Lee Willingham, and Kenneth Winters.

Not included in this list are the dozens, yea, hundreds of casual conversations with individuals who were members of Victors audiences, mainly in Toronto, but as well in many other Canadian cities. Their insight was essential in weighing the role this individual played over so many decades.

In spite of all this assistance, there will be errors and omissions which will be regarded as unforgivable. I take all responsibility for them and express my sorrow in advance.

Copyright 2010, Walter Pitman

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Editor: Allison Hirst

Design: Courtney Horner

Printer: Transcontinental

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Pitman, Walter

Victor Feldbrill : Canadian conductor extraordinaire / by Walter Pitman.

Includes index.

Issued also in an electronic format.

ISBN 978-1-55488-768-2

1. Feldbrill, Victor, 1924-. 2. Conductors (Music)--Canada--Biography. I. Title.

ML422.F312P68 2010 784.2092 C2010-902447-8

1 2 3 4 5 14 13 12 11 10

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

Printed and bound in Canada.
www.dundurn.com

To my wife, Ida, my partner for over half a century

VICTOR FELDBRILL

Victor Feldbrill has spent some sixty years on the orchestral conducting podiums of virtually every concert hall across Canada, as well as several in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia. He has led all of the major and many of the minor symphony orchestras of his native land and built a formidable reputation in Japan, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, the former Soviet Union, the Czech Republic, and China.

His career has been marked by honours bestowed by his country (Officer of the Order of Canada), by the province in which he was born and where he worked over many decades (Order of Ontario), and by the most significant orchestral performance venue in the city of Toronto, where he has lived most of his life (Roy Thomson Hall Award). In his mind the most prestigious honour he has received is the Canadian League of Composers Award, which was presented to him in 1967. It was given in recognition of his promotion of Canadian music the only such recognition ever presented to an orchestral conductor. The fact that the latter award came from his composer colleagues and friends in appreciation of his intense commissioning and performing of contemporary Canadian works made it particularly welcome and appropriate as well as unique.