Milton Barnes (composer)

Milton Barnes (16 December 1931 – 27 February 2001) was a Canadian

During the 1960s and 1970s, Barnes was highly active as a conductor in North America, both as a guest conductor and in staff positions. He notably founded the Toronto Repertory Ensemble (TRE) in 1964, a group which commissioned and performed contemporary Canadian music under his leadership through 1973. A number of the TRE's concerts were broadcast on CBC Radio and Television. From 1961 to 1963 he conducted and composed music for the Crest Theatre in Toronto. In 1964 he was appointed principal conductor of the St Catharines Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (now the Niagara Symphony Orchestra), a post he held until 1972. At the same time he served as conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of Niagara Falls, New York from 1965 to 1973. He also conducted and composed music for the Toronto Dance Theatre from 1968 to 1973 and periodically did similar work for the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts during the 1960s and 1970s.^[1]

In 1973 Barnes abandoned his work as a conductor in favor of putting his full concentration towards composition. From here on he only conducted performances of his own works, notably doing so for three broadcasts on the CBC Radio program Morningside and for several film and television scoress for the CBC. His 1975 cantata Shir Hashirim was premiered under his baton in July 1999 in Toronto. His last complete composition, Songs of Arrival, premiered at the Historic Old Toronto Summer Music Festival 2000.^[1]

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