About the author
François Verschaeve
Born in France, François Verschaeve started his professional career by following in his father’s footsteps, in the French national railroads (SNCF). After passing several exams relating to his job, he had already gone up the ladder to reach the position of Assistant District Manager, looking after the maintenance of tracks, bridges and buildings, when, in 1972, on a train from Paris to London, he met Katherine, from Canada. Love being what it is, he soon decided to leave his job, family, friends in France and follow her to Canada.
He officially immigrated in 1973 and settled with Katherine in Waterdown, Ontario. After a few years working as a free-lance English-French translator for various translation companies in Southern Ontario, he had the opportunity in 1980 to take the reins of Girard Translation Service, a Hamilton-based translation company, founded in 1953, which he has successfully managed for thirty years and where he still works as a translator.
Two of his main interests in life are, obviously, languages and... classical music. He got the bug for music when he was very young, what with his grandmother and mother playing the piano and singing at home and his father listening to long-playing records. This is when he began to learn about composers and their music.
Consequently, he has become addicted to classical music. Starting back in France and over the years, he has acquired an extensive collection of LPs, cassettes, CDs of classical music; he has attended numerous concerts, recitals, lectures about music; he is an avid reader of anything pertaining to this art form; he has been a fervent subscriber, donor, sponsor and volunteer for various local musical groups or organizations.
Among the associations he has been involved with are: the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra for over thirty years, the Hamilton Community Concert Association, Opera Hamilton, the Burlington-based Mozart Chamber Orchestra, the Great Romantics Festival, Moments musicaux founded by Royden Taylor, Five at the First Chamber Ensemble, SOLO (Southern Ontario Lyric Opera) and other smaller groups. For a few years, he was one of the major sponsors of the Hamilton-based chamberWORKS! Music Ensemble.
François is truly a music-lover. For over forty years, he has employed his spare time arduously researching and compiling a useful collection of classical music titles, which he has published as What’s What in Titles of Classical Music... and beyond, now in its fourth edition. You can check out this reference book by clicking on About the book and Sample pages. You may contact François by sending an e-mail to verschaeve@sympatico.ca.