Frank Laubach

Laubach, Frank

Frank (Ludwig Franklin) Laubach. Bandmaster, conductor, cellist, composer, b Edinburgh July 1857, d Vancouver 20 Feb 1923. He played cello in English and Scottish orchestras and was a bandmaster to the 1st Edinburgh City Royal Garrison Artillery and the King's Bodyguard for Scotland. In 1904 he moved to Regina and founded the Regina Philharmonic Society; in 1908 he established the Regina Orchestral Society (Regina Symphony Orchestra). The former began to perform Handel, Haydn, and Mendelssohn oratorios in 1906. Laubach was in part responsible for the first (1909) competitive music festival held in Saskatchewan. He wrote The Saskatchewan (a march and two-step for piano or band or orchestra) in celebration of the inauguration of the new province in 1905 and also composed other marches, church music, dances, and Gaberlunsie, a Scottish Overture. In 1913 he co-wrote and co-produced a musical comedy, The Mystic Light, with Charles Shrimpton. After service overseas 1915-17 as bandmaster of the 68th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Forces, Laubach returned to Regina and in 1919 inaugurated the Regina Choral and Orchestral Society. He also served 1917-22 as chief reference librarian for the Regina Public Library, contributed three sections on the orchestra and the military band to John Greig's The Musical Educator (Edinburgh 1893), and arranged Scottish music (published by Augener). Until his retirement in 1922, Laubach was an acknowledged leader of Regina's musical life. The L. Frank Laubach Scholarship ($1000) for undergraduate students in string instruments or conducting was established in 1990 at the University of Regina and first awarded to Peter Pavlovsky.