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16 Facts About Oliver Schroer

1.

Oliver Schroer was a Canadian fiddler, composer, and music producer.

2.

Oliver Schroer grew up in Vandeleur, Ontario, a small farming community near Markdale in rural Grey County.

3.

Oliver Schroer attended Grey Highlands Secondary School in Flesherton, where he played French horn in the school band.

4.

Oliver Schroer graduated in 1974, having earned several academic awards.

5.

Oliver Schroer was a prolific composer, recording ten CDs in 14 years.

6.

Oliver Schroer performed in Europe and North America in clubs, cathedrals, and New York's Lincoln Center.

7.

Oliver Schroer recorded with artists such as Jimmy Webb and Barry Mann, Canadian singers James Keelaghan, Loreena McKennitt and Sylvia Tyson, acoustic guitar artists Jesse Cook and Don Ross, and Canadian rock bands Great Big Sea and Spirit of the West.

8.

Oliver Schroer taught music and mentored extensively in Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast, and Smithers, British Columbia, in Northern British Columbia during the last seven years of his life.

9.

Oliver Schroer wrote a piece of music for each of his 59 young students in Smithers, and recorded each with Emilyn Stam, a young pianist from Smithers.

10.

Oliver Schroer's album Smithers is a thank-you album dedicated to the town.

11.

Oliver Schroer composed large orchestral arrangements for these groups and performed with them at Music festivals throughout Canada.

12.

In 2007, Oliver Schroer was diagnosed with leukemia, which proved to be untreatable.

13.

The fundraising effort was broadcast on CBC radio, and unbeknownst by Oliver who was confined in the hospital, the group's visit remained a secret to Schroer until just days before the concert.

14.

Oliver Schroer asked that his sold-out audience clap, not cry, and apologized for not being his normal glad-handing self; the risk of infection from personal contact would have been much too great.

15.

Oliver Schroer was guested at the concert by long-time friends, musical collaborators and students; David Woodhead, Ansgar Oliver Schroer, Jaron Freeman-Fox, Emilyn Stam and Chelsea Sleep.

16.

Oliver Schroer shared a tune he called, Poised with two of his students on July 2,2008.