Louis Waizman

Waizman, Louis

Waizman, (Waizmann), Louis (Ludwig). Composer, arranger, librarian, teacher, violist, trombonist, pianist, b Salzburg 6 Nov 1863, d Toronto 24 Aug 1951. Purportedly born in the same house as Mozart, Waizman studied composition privately with Joseph Rheinberger and graduated from the Mozarteum in 1884. He spent 10 years with the Austrian Army Band touring Europe and Africa, then moved in 1893 to Canada. After 10 years in Ottawa he moved to Toronto, where he worked first as a band trombonist and theatre musician (playing viola, cello, and piano) and taught theory and composition. His pupils included Leslie Bell, Percy Faith, Robert Farnon, Samuel Hersenhoren, Charles Jordan, Paul Scherman, and Morris Surdin. Waizman was a violist 1923-32 and the librarian 1923-46 with the New SO (TSO) and was also a staff arranger 1933-51 for the CRBC (after 1936, CBC). On his retirement from the TSO he was made honorary librarian (1946-9), the occasion marked 5 Apr 1946 by the orchestra's third performance of his Suite de Ballet dedicated to Luigi von Kunits. Waizman's other compositions (listed in the Catalogue of Canadian Composers) include piano trios, cantatas, orchestral suites, and a piano caprice. Several piano rolls were recorded by the composer after 1910 for Solodant, Solo Art, and Star and Word, and other piano pieces were published in 1927 by Waterloo and 1928-9 in Musical Canada. Several unpublished works are held in the CBC Toronto Music Library.