National Network for Equitable Library Service

Winner of the 2002 National Choral Award for Outstanding Choral Publication They are at the heart of every community in Canada, whether they be singing in concert or rehearsal, in a worship service or at a special event. They are Canada’s choirs, and their dedication to their craft is a source of both entertainment and inspiration. And at the heart of every choir, there is a choir master who, through talent and commitment, brings the voices together. In Their Own Words relates the stories of Canada’s most distinguished and innovative choir masters.

In a career that spanned five decades, Elmer Iseler proved himself pivotal to the development of choral music in Canada. After founding Canada’s first professional choir in 1954, he became artistic director and conductor of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. In 1979 he established Canada’s leading chamber choir, the Elmer Iseler Singers.

Simply entitled Céline, this is the long-awaited, authorized biography of Céline Dion, the rags-to-riches story of a woman who has become the leading recording artist in the world. First published in French in Quebec in December 1997, Céline has sold in excess of 120,000 copies in Quebec alone. A French-language edition will be released in France this fall, to coincide with the release of a new French album. Céline Dion is one of the world’s best-loved and best-selling recording artists; her singles and albums have topped the international charts for several years.

Born in Montreal, Oliver Jones performed his first piano concert at five years old. He has become one of the most celebrated representatives of the Montreal Jazz Festival and a worldwide musical ambassador for Canada on many international tours. This exclusive authorized biography begins with his roots – the enslavement of his African ancestors and immigration of his parents to Canada from Barbados – and takes us to the present.

Born in Quebec, Emma Lajeunesse studied in Europe and in 1869 at the age of 23 launched her opera career in Italy. Almost overnight she became Albani, the world-renowned diva.

Short-listed for the 2011 Golden Oak Award From the moment three-year-old Jeff Healey first laid a guitar across his lap in what was to become his signature style, it was clear he was no ordinary kid. Losing both eyes to retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer, opened a door to another world for Jeff, a newly adopted infant. Out of darkness he created music, becoming one of the most influential blues-rock and jazz performers of our time, beginning with his first hit album, See the Light.

Born and raised in Port McNicoll, John Arpin discovered his musical talents early: at the age of four he could pick out tunes on the piano that he had heard on the radio; by ten, he had been identified as a child prodigy by a Royal Conservatory of Music adjudicator. He would go on to become one of Canada’s finest keyboard virtuosos, playing at concert halls around the world.

Music is for Everyone is sure to get you excited about making music! Singer-songwriter Jill Barber takes her young readers through many different kinds of music—hip hop, jazz, classical, folk—and instruments in an energetic, rhyming tour. Sydney Smith’s gleeful illustrations capture all the joy that comes from making music—in all its forms!

Born in tiny Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, Hank Snow enjoyed a musical career that spanned five decades and sales of more than 80 million albums. In I’m Movin’ On, journalist Vernon Oickle chronicles Snow’s hardscrabble life, from his destitute childhood in Queens County to international fame. Leaving no stone unturned in his richly detailed profile of The Singing Ranger, Oickle exposes the highs and lows of Snow’s career, and his journey (“Everywhere, man,”) from small East Coast radio stations to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

In this narrative history and memoir, journalist, musician, and Monctonian Jason Murray follows the rise of the band that put the Maritimes on the map.Eric's Trip was a band defined as much by its DIY ethos as its low-fi, discordant music. The four-piece formed in an early-'90s Moncton basement and in a few short years, went from recording themselves on a four-track and selling cassettes at local record stores to signing on Seattle's Sub Pop records, opening for Sonic Youth, and touring internationally.