Art Snider

Snider, Art

Art (Arthur) Snider (b Sniderman). Pianist, arranger, record producer, b Ottawa 24 Aug 1926, d Toronto 26 May 1987. He studied arranging with Benny Louis and harmony with Philip Podoliak. In his teens he played piano in Toronto dance bands and in 1946 he began coaching pop performers. He managed many singers in the years following, among them, briefly, Gordon Lightfoot. In 1948 he established the United Music School which he sold in 1956 to his brother Dave (trumpeter, b Hull, Que, 16 Aug 1919, who later converted the school to the Dave Snider Music Centre, which retailed sheet music).

Snider worked in the 1940s as a conductor's copyist and directed the chorus 1956-65 for CBC TV's 'Country Hoedown' and 1965-70 for 'The Tommy Hunter Show.' He established and 1956-61 operated Chateau Records, which released some 30 LPs and 60 singles by the Allen Sisters (of whom Jackie was his wife), Tommy Ambrose, Trump Davidson, the Hames Sisters, Pat Hervey, Gordon Lightfoot (as a member of the Two Tones), the Mercey Brothers, his brother Lou Snider, and others. He later established and 1967-81 operated Sound Canada, a studio that produced recordings for various companies, including a second Snider label, Periwinkle, begun in 1973 with a roster that eventually included Mickey Andrews, Dave Broadfoot, Ina Harris, the Peaches, Tammi Rafferty, and Lee Sanford.

See also Jack Snider (his father).