Canadian Academy of Music

Canadian Academy of Music

Canadian Academy of Music. Toronto school founded and financed by Col Albert Gooderham, its president during its entire existence, 1911-24. Established for the purpose of keeping gifted students in Toronto and bringing outstanding teachers from Europe, it was known, during its first year in the Heintzman building on Yonge St, as the Columbian Conservatory of Music (Toronto). In 1912 the school became the Canadian Academy of Music, moved to a spacious building at 12-14 Spadina Road, and absorbed the Metropolitan School of Music, which became its Parkdale branch. Peter C. Kennedy was director until 1918. In that year, the academy took over the Toronto College of Music, and until 1923 featured both names. In 1918, also, a musical directorate was formed, with Kennedy, Frank S. Welsman, and Alfred Bruce, the latter serving as managing director. W.O. Forsyth, Albert Ham, and Ernest MacMillan later joined the directorate, and in 1922 Welsman assumed the role of music director. Among the outstanding teachers were Luigi von Kunits (who also founded the Academy String Quartet) 1912-24, Walter Kirschbaum 1912-14, Ham 1919-24, Welsman 1918-24, Forsyth 1919-24, MacMillan 1920-4, and Arthur Friedheim 1921-4. The school awarded associate and licentiate diplomas (ACAM, LCAM). In June 1924 the academy amalgamated with the TCM (RCMT).

A Columbian Conservatory of Music in Montreal on Sherbrooke St, directed by J.F.H. Wallace, is less well documented. It is known that Salvator Issaurel taught there 1911-14 and that Paul-G. Ouimet, Fleurette Contant, and Ulysse Paquin were among the pupils. In 1913 a group of teachers from this conservatory founded the Canadian Academy of Music of Montreal, with Frederick H. Blair as artistic director and W.D. Birchell as president. Other teachers at the academy were Albert Chamberland, J.-B. Dubois, Théo Henrion, Frank Rowe, and F. Whitely. The relationship, if any, between the Toronto and Montreal institutions of the same names has not been established.