Ezra Schabas was active in Canada's musical life beginning in 1952, when he emigrated from Cleveland with his family.
17 Facts About Ezra Schabas
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Ezra Schabas wrote several books on Canadian and American musical history, and he was appointed to the Order of Ontario and made a Member of the Order of Canada.
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Ezra Schabas attended the Juilliard School for clarinet, where he studied with clarinetist Arthur Christmann.
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The interruption of World War II led Ezra Schabas to leave Juilliard in 1943 with an Artist Diploma to serve with the US Army forces in France and Germany.
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In 1960, Ezra Schabas helped to found the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, a musical organization dedicated to discovering and nurturing talented young Canadian musicians, and he was the Orchestra's first administrator.
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Ezra Schabas became the head of the performance and opera department from 1968 to 1978.
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Ezra Schabas collaborated with the Ontario Arts Council again in 1968 to establish the University of Toronto Conductors' Workshop.
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In 1972, Ezra Schabas was one of the founders of Orchestras Canada and was elected its first president.
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Ezra Schabas followed up his time as Principal by returning to the University of Toronto's faculty of music in 1983, only to retire the following year.
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Not only a teacher and administrator, Ezra Schabas performed and conducted in Canada, the United States and overseas.
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Ezra Schabas worked as a freelance clarinetist for the CBC Orchestra until 1960 and played in a number of ensembles around Toronto, including the Toronto Woodwind Quintet from 1956 to 1960.
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Ezra Schabas wrote three biographies on musicians and two on musical institutions, winning the 1995 City of Toronto Annual Book Award for Sir Ernest MacMillan: The Importance of Being Canadian.
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Ezra Schabas lived in Toronto and was married to Ann Ezra Schabas, the former dean of the Faculty of Library and Information Sciences at the University of Toronto.
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Ezra Schabas is the daughter of Margaret Fairley, a notable Canadian activist and writer, and Barker Fairley, a well-respected Canadian artist and German literature scholar.
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Ezra Schabas had twelve grandchildren, including the novelist and Globe and Mail dance critic Martha Schabas, and eleven great-grandchildren.
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Ezra Schabas died in Toronto, Ontario in October 2020 at the age of 96.
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Ezra Schabas was awarded the Canadian Centennial Medal in 1967, appointed to the Order of Ontario in 1996, and made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2000.