Calixa Lavalée (1842-1891) was born near Montréal, Canada, the son of a bandmaster who was his early teacher.  In 1859 (at the age of 17) he started professional work in a theatre orchestra; later that year he was hired as an instrumentalist with an itinerant minstrel troupe based in New Orleans. He spent most of the next twelve years as musical director of several travelling minstrel companies, briefly interrupted by a stint as a bandsman in a Rhode Island regiment during the Civil War. He abandoned minstrelsy in 1872 and briefly returned to Montreal. He travelled to Paris to study (1873-75) then lived in Montréal and Quebec, where he taught, performed, directed operas, and composed.  He moved to Boston in 1880, where he served as a church musical director and teacher.  He composed a cantata, several orchestral works, many songs and piano pieces, and two comic operas; his most famous work is ‘O Canada,” which was made the Canadian National Anthem in 1980.