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Don Wright Orchestras

Don Wright was born in 1908 to James Wright, owner of the Wright Piano Company of Strathroy, Ontario. Don began studying cello at seven and trumpet at ten. With his brothers, Clark (Alto Sax), Ernest (Banjo), and William (Drums), he organized the Wright Brothers' Orchestra, which performed 1922 - 35 in Ontario dance halls. They played three summers 1922 - 1925 at Brights Grove Pavilion, and during this time Don was beginning to display his talents as arranger and finding out how to produce big band sounds with few instruments. During the summers of 1926 -1928 they then played the Port Elgin Casino. The band was in great demand in the winters and since the brothers were all attending the University of Western Ontario it became associated with that institution. From 1929 they toured, playing in Hamilton, Oshawa and Peterborough, and in 1930 were booked for the whole season at the Embassy a top-flight night club in Toronto. Futher engagements followed at the Brant Inn Burlington (1931-1932) and the Terrace Burlington (1932 - 1934). At the end of summer 1934 the group disbanded and each of the brothers went on to develop their own careers. Unfortunately there are no recordings of this band although they broadcast many times on local radio stations.

Don began his teaching career in 1934 at Sir Adam beck Collegiate in London teaching classics and history but with a mandate to promote music in the school. He also resumed his position of director of the UWO Band where his innovations included herald trumpets, tall girl drum major, and dance music played on the rugby field at intermissions.

His success with music at Beck resulted in him in 1940 becoming director of music for all London publlc schools, a position he held until !946. During this time he wrote many books on music and arranged for changing voices. These were also the war years. He and other volunteers (including Alf Tibbs,and Gayle Gordon) put on three shows a week with three troups at military bases throughout SW Ontario. Don planned the shows, wrote all the music and conducted the band during the performances (Don Wright reminisces about those days - see video -courtesy of Rogers TV)

.In 1946 Don gave up his teaching career to become manager of CFPL Radio in London. He developed a staff orchestra with music directed and arranged by Neil McKay, and a choir which became known as the Don Wright Chorus. Soon both became famous and were featured on regular coast-to-coast broadcasts which were also eventually carried in the USA.

Don Wright moved in 1957 to Toronto, where he formed the Don Wright Singers (1957-62) and composed commercials and scores for films and TV, including the CBC's 'Trail of '98' (1958) and 'Seaway to the World' (1959). He also composed Proudly We Praise (Thompson 1966), a tribute to Canada, which has been performed by school choirs across the country. As an educator he took a particular interest in the changing voice; his publications, choral and educational, included The Collegiate Choir (2 vols, Waterloo 1938, 1939), Youthful Voices (3 vols, Thompson 1945, 1949, 1954), Fun to Read Music (Thompson 1952), and Pre-teen Song Settings (Thompson 1961). His Fifty Years of Music with Don Wright, a photocopied collection of writings and music (20 vol, two cassettes) prepared in 1980, was distributed to Canadian universities and is also held at Library and Archives Canada.

In 1966 Don Wright began to establish music education university scholarships in his own name. He extended his philanthropic endeavours by giving millions of dollars to university music programs, notably to the University of Western Ontario, which renamed its music faculty after him in 2002.

Don died in 2006 at the age of 98.

Many thanks to Mary J Wright's book "Zestful Lives" for much of the information.