Fonds 1473 - Maurice Zbriger Fonds

Maurice Zbriger was a Canadian composer, conductor, and violinist born on July 10, 1896 in Kamenets-Podolskiy, Ukraine in 1896. Trained in violin as a child and into adult under Leopold Auer at the St Petersburg Conts (alongside Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein), Zbriger spent his budding music career performing at cafes around Europe until 1924, when he emigrated to Montreal.

Zbriger devoted the following decades of his life to his music career, beginning with co-founding the Traymore Quartet (later Traymore Salon Orchestra) in 1925 where he popularized the “gypsy music” genre in Canada and produced 78s for Compo. Zbriger was primarily a soloist and conductor, and collaborated with numerous radio programs--most notably CKAC, through which he hosted a radio program for 40 years, and CBC. Zbriger joined the Montreal Orchestra in the early 1930s, and later on in the decade became a member of the orchestra of the CSM (MSO) and Montreal festivals. Zbriger co-composed a number of his 250 songs (including 42 marches and 8 overtures) with his wife Mary Zbriger; some notable musicians who performed his works include Yolande Dulude, Yoland Guérard, and Erna Sacks.

For the last several decades of his life, Zbriger was the sole owner of Schwartz’s in Montreal. Zbriger passed away in 1981. In 1982 the NFB produced a film about him entitled The Concert Man.