Allan McIver

Joseph Allan McIver (17 January 1904 – 15 June 1969) was a Canadian composer, arranger, pianist, and conductor. As a pianist he performed with orchestras in the Quebec region in his early career and was the longtime accompanist and arranger for Trio lyrique. He had a long and fruitful relationship with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, serving as a music director, composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist for nearly four decades. Early life, education, and career Born in Thetford Mines, McIver grew up in Sherbrooke. In his youth he studied the violin and the flute and was a piano student of Alfred Whitehead. He later studied harmony with Oscar O’Brien. He started his performance career playing for silent films in Montreal in 1926. He began performing on Canadian radio programs as a pianist and singer (baritone) around 1930. In the early 1930s, he started appearing as a concert pianist with orchestras like the Ottawa Philharmonic Orchestra. The TL continued to perform actively in public concerts and on CBC Radio programs like The Play of the Week, Light Up and Listen. and Serenade for Strings up until the mid-1960s when it disbanded. The group re-united briefly in the autumn o