December 28, 2012
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Calixa Lavallée, (December 28, 1842 – January 21, 1891), born Calixte Lavallée, was a French - Canadian - American musician who composed the music for O Canada, which officially became the national anthem of Canada in 1980.

 Calixa Lavallée was born at Verchères, a suburb of Montreal, Quebec. His father, Augustin Lavallée, was accomplished in many trades, including those of blacksmith, logger, bandmaster, and self - taught luthier. Calixa began his musical education with his father and studied in Montreal with Charles Wugk Sabatier. In 1857, he moved to the U.S. and lived in Rhode Island where he enlisted in the 4th Rhode Island Volunteers of the Union army during the American Civil War, attaining the rank of Lieutenant.

During and after the war, he traveled between Canada and the United States building his career in music. Lavallée resided in Louisiana, California, and in the French Canadian community of Lowell, Massachusetts, where he married an American woman, Josephine Gentilly (or "Gently"), in 1867. He conducted major orchestral and operatic productions in important concert halls such as the Montreal Academy of Music in Montreal and directed at the Grand Opera House in New York. Among his notable pupils was composer Alexis Contant.

To celebrate St. Jean - Baptiste Day in 1880, the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, Théodore Robitaille, commissioned Lavallée to compose O Canada to a patriotic poem by Adolphe - Basile Routhier.

During the latter years of his life, Lavallée was the choirmaster at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston and he died in that city in 1891. As the result of the campaign by the Montreal based music director of the Victoria's Rifles, Joseph - Laurent Gariepy, his remains were returned to Montreal and reinterred at Côte - des - Neiges Cemetery in 1933.

The town of Calixa-Lavallée, northeast of Montreal, is named after him. The following roads were named to honour Calixa Lavallée: Avenue Calixa - Lavallée, located in Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada; Avenue Calixa - Lavallée, located in Quebec, Quebec, Canada; Rue Calixa - Lavallée, a dead-end street entering into Lafontaine Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Calixa - Lavallée Privée (Calixa - Lavallée Pvt.) a small dead-end laneway on the University of Ottawa campus.

The professional training school Calixa - Lavallée in Quebec also bears his name.