Adaskin Family

Harry Adaskin  was born Latvia, he emigrated with his family to Toronto  At the age of twelve, he started at the Toronto Conservatory of Music, and at the age of 16 became a member of Frank Welsman’s Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In 1923, he formed the Hart House String Quartet and played second violin.  From 1946 to 1958, he was the head of the new Department of Music at the University of British Columbia and taught there until his retirement in 1973. In December 1974 he was awarded the Order of Canada. On 16 April 1975, Adaskin was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada.  Harry Adaskin died in 1994.

Frances Adaskin (nee Marr) was a pupil of Paul Wells at the TCM and, in the summers of 1930 and 1931, of Céline Chailley-Richez in Paris. In 1926 she married the violinist Harry Adaskin, with whom she had formed a duo in 1923. The couple premiered several Canadian works and performed Canadian music abroad, as well as touring Canada 1944-54 and performing for CBC radio. Frances Adaskin appeared as duo-recitalist or guest pianist with many leading instrumentalists and singers. Frances Adaskin was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 1976.  She died in 2001.

Murray Adaskin(March 28, 1906 – May 6, 2002) a brother of Harry was a violinist, composer, conductor and teacher. He began his career playing the violin in silent film presentations in his native city. Afterwards, he was a violinist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1923 to 1936. He was head of the Department of Music at the University of Saskatchewan from 1952 to 1966, including four years as conductor of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra.  By 1972, he retired to Victoria where he started composing more than half his total of 130 compositions  In April 981, Adaskin was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada.