Marshall, Lois Catherine

▪ 1998

      Canadian soprano (b. Jan. 29, 1924, Toronto, Ont.—d. Feb. 20, 1997, Toronto), was considered one of Canada's greatest singers. Even though paralysis resulting from a bout of polio she suffered at the age of two largely prevented her from performing in staged opera productions, she enjoyed an international concert career for over 25 years, singing operatic arias, lieder, oratorios, and folk songs in appearances with such conductors as Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Thomas Beecham, and Sir Ernest MacMillan. In 1938, when she was 12, Marshall began studying voice with Weldon Kilburn; they performed together for many years and were married in 1968. A performance of Bach's St. Matthew's Passion in Toronto in the late 1940s brought her to national attention, and she made her New York debut in 1952. That led the following year to a recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with Toscanini that established her reputation. Marshall was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1968. She gave her farewell concert in 1982 but continued to teach voice at the University of Toronto, a job she had begun in 1976. Following her death, the Lois Marshall Memorial Scholarships were created there, and on March 19 a memorial tribute was held.

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