National Network for Equitable Library Service

A vivid look inside the elite and cutthroat classical music world

When Patti Niemi was 10 years old, all the children in her school music class lined up to choose their instruments. Boy after boy chose drums, and girl after girl chose flute — that is, until it was Patti’s turn. From that point onward, Niemi devoted her life to mastering the percussive arts. Cymbals, snare drum, marimba, timpani, chimes: she practised them all, and in 1983, she entered Juilliard, the most prestigious music conservatory in the world.

Neil Peart is an internationally critically acclaimed, bestselling, and award-nominated author, and for more than thirty years has been the legendary drummer and lyricist for Rush, the most successful band in the history of Canadian rock music. Defying categorization, his books have earned a devoted readership by combining elements of memoir, travel writing, and social commentary with a thoughtful, musical sense of self-discovery.

There is no greater enigma than Rick Rubin working in record production today. As mysterious personally as the Buddhist religion he practices, Rubin has made one thing crystal clear: the records he produces are sonically and stylistically beyond reproach. MTV has called Rubin “the most important producer of the last 20 years,” while Rolling Stone ventured even further, deeming Rubin the most successful “of any genre.”

A forgotten musical and cultural history of drunks and miscreants, future country stars and political strategists. Perfect Youth is the story of the birth of Canadian punk, a transformative cultural force that reared its head across the country at the end of the 1970s. Bands like D.O.A., the Subhumans, the Viletones, and Teenage Head--alongside lesser-known regional acts from all over Canada--reshaped a dull musical landscape, injecting new energy and new sounds into halls, bars, and record stores from Victoria to St. John's.

A celebration of a beloved Canadian icon, featuring dozens of original interviews and exclusive photos

Famous guitarists reveal the stories behind their first six-string and their lifelong passion for music

Canadian songwriters have always struggled to create work that reflects the environment in which they were raised, while simultaneously connecting with a mass audience. While nearly every songwriter who successfully crossed this divide did so by immersing themselves in the American and British forms of blues, folk, country, and their bastard offspring, rock and roll, traces of Canadian sensibilities were never far beneath the surface of the eventual end product. What were these sensibilities, and why did they transfer so well outside Canada?

When singer, musician, and broadcast journalist Malka Marom had the opportunity to interview Joni Mitchell in 1973, she was eager to reconnect with the performer she’d first met late one night in 1966 at a Yorkville coffeehouse. More conversations followed over the next four decades of friendship, and it was only after Joni and Malka completed their most recent recorded interview, in 2012, that Malka discovered the heart of their discussions: the creative process.

On October 15, 1967, bass player Steve Boone took the Ed Sullivan Show stage for the final time, with his band The Lovin’ Spoonful. Since forming in a Greenwich Village hotel in early 1965, Boone and his bandmates had released an astounding nine Top 20 singles, the first seven of which hit the Billboard Top 10, including the iconic Boone co-writes “Summer in the City” and “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice.”

With more Top 10 hits than any other female-fronted music group in history, beginning with such '70s classics as "Crazy on You," "Barracuda," "Magic Man," and "Straight On," Rolling Stone hailed Heart's "sister team of Nancy and Ann Wilson...[for] shrewdly pulling off a Led Zep role reversal," while still succeeding in mainstream Top 40 Radio.