Art Morrow

Morrow, Art

Art (Arthur) Morrow. Conductor, arranger, composer, b Westmount (Montreal) 11 Dec 1919. Morrow studied piano 1930-5 with Rose Blackwell in Montreal. He began his career as a saxophonist and arranger with Johnny Holmes' dance band before serving in World War II as leader of one of The Army Show's Tin Hat revues. He was an arranger 1946-55 for the CBC conductors John Adaskin, Giuseppe Agostini, Neil Chotem, Jean Deslauriers, Maurice Durieux, Henry Matthews, and Allan McIver.

Morrow served as music director and conductor 1951-66 for more than 25 CBC Montreal radio and TV shows, including 'Sunshine Society' 1951-2, 'Fiddle Joe's Yarns' 1951-4, 'Songs Chez Nous' 1952-5 with Alan Mills, 'A Date with Fred Hill' 1953-6, 'Cap-aux-Sorciers' (TV) 1955-7, 'Music Hall' (TV) 1955-9, 'Meet Mr. Morrow' 1958-60, 'Variety Showcase' 1960-2, 'Sheila Sings' 1962 with Sheila Graham, and 'Music Scene' 1964-6. After 1966 Morrow worked with Bob Hahn, played piano 1967-71 at the Queen Elizabeth and Bonaventure hotels, and wrote arrangements for the Nick Martin orchestra and for singer Danièle Dorice. In later years he held an administrative position with the Musicians' Guild of Montreal.

Morrow's compositions include the scores for the film Séraphin (1950) and the jazz ballet Postscript (1956, choreography by Brian Macdonald, performed for three seasons by the Montreal Theatre Ballet). He wrote the arrangements for two folksong anthologies by Alan Mills - Folk Songs for Young Folk and Chantons un Peu.