46 Facts About Ernest MacMillan

Sir Ernest Alexander Campbell MacMillan, was a Canadian orchestral conductor, composer, organist, and Canada's only "Musical Knight".

Ernest MacMillan is widely regarded as being Canada's pre-eminent musician from the 1920s through the 1950s.

Ernest Alexander Campbell MacMillan was born in Mimico, Ontario, the first-born of Reverend Alexander MacMillan, and Wilhelmina "Minnie" Ross.

Ernest MacMillan's parents had moved to Mimico the previous December, when Rev MacMillan, educated in Edinburgh, Scotland, was called to be the first resident minister of Mimico Presbyterian Church, that had been formed in 1889.

Ernest MacMillan's mother, was a third generation of ministers daughters from Scotland, and in her case from Pictou, Nova Scotia.

Ernest MacMillan's talents astonished the public and critics alike in 1904 when he performed in the "Festival of Lillies", which "firmly established him a prodigy".

Between 1908 and 1910, Ernest MacMillan held his first professional appointment as an organist and choirmaster in Toronto at Knox Church.

Ernest MacMillan earned the associateship and fellowship diplomas of the Royal College of Organists, and from 1911 to 1914 studied modern history at the University of Toronto, earning his BA.

Ernest MacMillan was a member of the Canadian fraternity, Phi Kappa Pi.

Ernest MacMillan travelled to Paris in the spring of 1914 and began to study piano privately with Therese Chaigneau.

Ernest MacMillan was interned for the duration of the war at Ruhleben, a British civilian detention camp, located on the site of a former horse racing track, on the outskirts of Berlin.

Ernest MacMillan transcribed the music for the former from memory with the help of four other musicians, including Benjamin Dale.

Ernest MacMillan was a member of the Ruhleben Drama Society and acted in productions of Othello, Twelfth Night, and The Importance of Being Earnest.

Ernest MacMillan gave lectures on each of the nine symphonies of Beethoven; at the end of each lecture, Ernest MacMillan and Dale would perform a four hand piano arrangement of the symphony under discussion.

Ernest MacMillan was later interviewed about his experiences as an internee at Ruhleben, as part of a series of CBC interviews with Canadian First World War veterans.

Ernest MacMillan was especially known there for his performances of Handel's Messiah and Brahms' Requiem His career as a conductor truly began when he conducted a performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion in the Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in 1923.

Ernest MacMillan conducted annual performances of this work for the next 30 years.

Ernest MacMillan "appeared in overalls with a monkey wrench for a baton to conduct Alexander Mosolov's Iron Foundry".

Ernest MacMillan included Canadian music, as well as works by Hungarian and Russian composers Bela Bartok, and Dmitri Shostakovich.

Ernest MacMillan conducted many Hollywood Bowl concerts, and the National Broadcasting Company Symphony Orchestra in NYC.

Ernest MacMillan toured Australia as well for three months and conducted 30 concerts in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Later in his career, Ernest MacMillan introduced Canada to entirely new prospects of recording and broadcasting.

Ernest MacMillan composed less during his commitment to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Apart from composing his own works, Ernest MacMillan made arrangements of works by composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Handel, and Tchaikovsky, all of whom he said had great influence on his style.

Ernest MacMillan became well known in Toronto music circles after he first started giving performances in his earlier career.

Ernest MacMillan gave "all Bach recitals" which attracted members of the congregation and Toronto musicians.

Ernest MacMillan was frequently asked to perform there, as well as in the United States, and at the 1935 Convention of the Royal College of Organists in Toronto.

Alongside musicians Zara Nelsova and Kathleen Parlow, Ernest MacMillan often performed in Toronto and occasionally elsewhere.

Furthermore, Ernest MacMillan founded "The Canadian Duo" with Kathleen Parlow; their performances were broadcast on CBC Radio as well.

Ernest MacMillan gave 100 concerts and recitals between the 1920s and 1950s.

Ernest MacMillan eventually stopped performing due to his other responsibilities as a conductor, composer and an educator.

Ernest MacMillan was sent to lead examination tours at McGill University in Southern Ontario, and in various parts of the west coast on the Academy's behalf.

Ernest MacMillan made many innovations during his tenure with its music department.

Ernest MacMillan then established a conservatory choir in 1927, because he felt that the vocal students "needed experience in choral singing".

Ernest MacMillan started the first opera classes at the conservatory in 1920, with performances of Hansel and Gretel, The Sorcerer, Dido and Aeneas and Hugh the Drover.

Ernest MacMillan worked in children's concerts and secondary school concerts, which were presented by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Alongside composing, conducting and performing, Ernest MacMillan became recognized internationally as an adjudicator starting in 1924, when he adjudicated for the Ottawa Music Festival.

On June 3,1935, For his "services to music in Canada", MacMillan was knighted by King George V, during the Silver Jubilee on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, R B Bennett.

Ernest MacMillan became an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in 1938, and was made a recipient of the University of Alberta National Award in Music.

Ernest MacMillan received the Canada Council Medal twice for "outstanding achievements in the arts, humanities or social sciences".

Sir Ernest MacMillan died in Toronto on May 6,1973.

Ernest MacMillan is buried along with family at Toronto's Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

The Sir Ernest MacMillan Collection is included as part of the overall collections of Library and Archives Canada.

Ernest MacMillan conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in two films produced by the National Film Board of Canada in 1945.

In 1942, Ernest MacMillan conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in a recording of the orchestral suite The Planets, by Gustav Holst, recorded on 78 RPM phonograph records, for RCA Victor.

Ernest MacMillan conducted the TSO in a number of recordings with Canadian pianist Glenn Gould as soloist, playing works by various composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven.