Book excerpt: "Based on years of detailed and extensive interviews with some seventy people, and supplemented by a wide range of archival material, Growing with Canada reveals how these men and women came to Canada and the roles they played in developing musical culture here, weaving the larger story of post-war Canadian music performance, production, and education around their testimony. Paul Helmer shows that émigrés were at the centre of the developing musical milieu, particularly in Toronto and Montreal. They were able to overcome the dominating British presence in post-secondary music education and vastly expanded the role music played in universities. They also pioneered the performance and production of opera in Canada. From British Columbia to Newfoundland, they served as educators, teachers, and administrators as well as outstanding performers, conductors, composers, music historians, radio and television producers, and benefactors."--Pub. desc.