Alexina Louie

Canada's Alexina Louie is among her country's most widely performed and honored composers. Some of her operas have a comic flavor, including a group of "mini-operas" composed for television or radio. For several years, she taught at various schools in the Los Angeles area, where she wrote piano music. Louie moved to Toronto in 1980 and began to create compositions for high-profile situations. O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould remains one of her most popular works. Songs of Paradise brought Louie the first of several Juno Awards. She has written chamber music and film scores. Louie has received an award from the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada three times and is an Officer of the Order of Canada. The Centrediscs label issued Music for a Thousand Autumns, a collection of her chamber music, and Take the Dog Sled, a work for Inuit throat singers.