The University of Toronto’s fall convocation is fast approaching on November 18, 2021. Once again this year, due to the pandemic, degrees will be conferred in absentia in a virtual ceremony.

In celebration of our more than 7,500 illustrious alumni at the Faculty of Music, we have created a display at the Music Library of scores and books written by various alumni and a Naxos playlist featuring Faculty of Music alumni. Follow us on Instagram to see weekly highlights throughout November.

Remember, you can always listen to alumni performances in our Faculty Events Collection.

Update: Since the publication of this blog article, we have changed access to our Faculty Events Collection. See this blog post from January 6, 2023 for details. If you have any questions, please contact our Music Archivist Becky Shaw (r.shaw@utoronto.ca).

Select alumni highlights from the Music Library collections

Measha Brueggergosman, Soprano (BMus in Performance, 1999)

Soprano Measha Brueggergosman "is an internationally-renowned soprano who is respected as both a classical music sensation and contemporary singer.... [She] is a Juno Award winner and was nominated for a Grammy in 2011. She performed the Olympic Hymn at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics – a performance that was watched by more than 3.2 billion viewers worldwide." Read more in this featured alumni article.

Listen to recordings and more at the Music Library.

Listen to a 2003 concert at the Faculty of Music by Measha Brueggergosman, soprano and Tobias Truniger, piano, as part of the library's Faculty Events Collection.

Russell Braun, Baritone (BMus and Op.Dip.)

Juno award winner and Canadian operatic lyric baritone, Russell Braun, is renowned for his "luminous voice 'capable of the most powerful explosions as well as the gentlest covered notes' (Toronto Star)." He is currently a lecturer and Resident Operatic Performance Specialist at the Faculty of Music. Read his full bio on the Faculty of Music website.

Listen to recordings at the Music Library.

Listen to recordings in the Faculty Events Collection

David Braid, Jazz pianist (BMus, 1998)

"Hailed in the Canadian press as 'one of his country’s true renaissance men when it comes to music' (The Ottawa Citizen), composer and pianist, David Braid is a nine-time Juno nominee, and winner of three Juno Awards for his solo piano recording, Verge, large-ensemble recording, The David Braid Sextet Live, and small-ensemble recording, The North. His debut classical composition, Corona Divinae Misericordiae received a Juno nomination for Classical Album of the Year." Read his full bio on the Faculty of Music website.

Listen to recordings and borrow his compositions at the Music Library.

Listen to recordings in the Faculty Events Collection.

Liona Boyd, Guitarist (BMus, 1972)

"Five time Juno Award winner, Liona Boyd, 'The First Lady of the Guitar', has enthralled millions with her romantic and unique brand of classical, folk and world music." Read her full bio on her website.

Listen to recordings and more at the Music Library.

Emily D’Angelo, Mezzo-Soprano (BMus, 2016)

"Emily D’Angelo is the first and only vocalist to have been presented with the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Schleswig Holstein Festival. One of WQXR NYC Public Radio’s '40 Under 40' singers to watch, Canada's 'Top 30 Under 30' Classical Musicians, and the recipient of a 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, D'Angelo has won first prize in opera’s most prestigious international competitions..." Read her full bio on her website.

Listen to recording at the Music Library.

Listen to recordings in the Faculty Events Collection.

Mychael Danna, Composer (BMus, 1986 and BEd, 1987)

Mychael Danna, an Oscar-winning Film composer of scores including Moneyball and Life of Pi, "has put his composing talents to evocative use in a wide array of acclaimed and popular films. Many of his film scores have been issued as albums." He was the inaugural winner of the Glenn Gould Prize Composition Scholarship in 1985. Read more in this featured alumni article.

Watch movies, listen to recordings, and borrow scores from the Music Library.

Sienna Dahlen, Jazz vocalist (MMus, 2008)

"Juno-award winning vocalist, Sienna Dahlen is a performer in high demand. She is currently based in Toronto and Montreal, Canada where she works as a full time educator and freelance musician." Read her full bio on the Faculty of Music website.

Listen to recordings at the Music Library.

Listen to a performance of her piece "Des Cristaux de Givres," by the University of Toronto Vocal Jazz Ensemble, directed by Christine Duncan (performed March 30, 2010), in the Faculty Events Collection.

Robin Elliott, Musicology (PhD, 1990)

"Robin Elliott is Professor of Musicology and holds the Jean A. Chalmers Chair in Canadian Music at the University of Toronto. In the field of Canadian music studies, he has published 10 edited books and volumes of music, 30 articles, and 60 reviews and shorter articles. Elliott’s interest in Canada’s musical legacy begins in the present day but extends back in time to the 19th century and earlier." Read his full bio on the Faculty of Music website.

Borrow books and more at the Music Library.

Listen to recordings from the Faculty Events Collection.

Mark Fewer, Violinist

"Described as “genre-bending” by the National Post, and “intrepid” by the Globe and Mail, Mark Fewer has performed around the world to critical acclaim in virtually every role asked of a violinist - and then some." Read his full bio on his website.

Listen to recordings at the Music Library.

Listen to recordings from the Faculty Events Collection.

Srul Irving Glick, Composer (BMus, 1955 and MMus)

"Srul Irving Glick is one of Canada's most prominent and prolific composers having written in most major forms including chamber, oratorio, orchestral, vocal and choral." Read his full bio on his website.

Borrow scores and listen to recordings at the Music Library.

Listen to recordings of his music from the Faculty Events Collection.

Barbara Hannigan, Soprano and Conductor (BMus, 1993 and MMus, 1999)

Juno and Grammy-winning soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan received an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto in November 2017, alongside her former teacher Mary Morrison. "Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation." Read her full bio on her website.

Listen to recordings and more at the Music Library.

Listen to recordings in the Faculty Events Collection.

Elmer Iseler, Conductor (BMus, 1950)

"In a career that spanned five decades, Elmer Iseler, the Dean of Canadian Choral Conductors, was pivotal to the development of choral music in Canada." Read his full bio on the Elmer Iseler Singers website.

Borrow scores edited by Elmer Iseler, and listen to recordings at the Music Library.

Owen Pallett, Composer and Violinist (BMus, 2002)

"Indie-pop songwriter, prodigy violinist, and U of T Faculty of Music alumnus Owen Pallett received an Academy Award nomination on January 16 for his contributions to the score of Spike Jonze’s feature, Her." Read more in the U of T News article.

Listen to recordings and more at the Music Library.

Listen to recordings in the Faculty Events Collection.

Adrianne Pieczonka, Soprano (Opera School, 1988)

"Internationally celebrated for her interpretations of Wagner, Strauss, Verdi and Puccini, Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka has brought to life such powerful women as Senta, Chrysothemis, Sieglinde, the Marschallin, the Kaiserin, Tosca, Elisabetta, and Amelia on leading opera and concert stages in Europe, North America and Asia." Read her full bio as vocal chair for The Glenn Gould School, Royal Conservatory of Music.

Listen to recordings and more at the Music Library.

Listen to recordings in the Faculty Events Collection.

Angela Schwarzkopf, Harpist (MMus, 2009 and DMus, 2015)

"JUNO award winning harpist Angela Schwarzkopf concertizes throughout the Toronto area and beyond as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral harpist. The first harpist to receive a Doctorate of Music in harp performance in Canada, she now teaches at a number of esteemed institutions and performs with top ensembles nationwide." Read her full bio on her website.

Listen to recordings and more at the Music Library.

Listen to recordings in the Faculty Events Collection.

Teresa Stratas, Soprano (Artist Diploma, 1959)

"When Stratas was sixteen years old, she attended her first opera, which happened to be La Traviata. Stratas was astounded by the performance and, the same year, decided to audition at the Royal Conservatory of Music, having never previously received any formal vocal training, and having only ever seen one opera in her entire life. At the audition, she sang “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”, and yet her artistic potential was so great that she earned a three-year scholarship." Read more on the Faculty of Music's 100 Years (1918-2018) website.

Listen to recordings and more at the Music Library.

Barry Shiffman, Violinist

"Internationally acclaimed violinist and violist Barry Shiffman is well-respected as a musician, educator and administrator. He was co-founder of the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ), and since 2010 has been both the Associate Dean and Director of Chamber Music at the Glenn Gould School and Director of the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists at The Royal Conservatory of Music." Read his full bio on RCM's website.

Listen to recordings at the Music Library.

Jeremy Strachan, Musicology (PhD, 2015)

Currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculté de musique, Université de Montreal, Jeremy Strachan received the Alvin H. Johnson American Musicology Society (AMS) Fellowship in 2013 for his dissertation "Music, Communications, Place: Udo Kasemets and Experimentalism in 1960s Toronto." Read his full bio on his website.

Read articles and more at the Music Library.

Listen to recordings in the Faculty Events Collection. Explore the Udo Kasemets archives, used in Strachan's dissertation.