| Biography | Lois Catherine Marshall, CC (29 January 1924, Toronto, Canada - 19 February 1997, Toronto, Canada) was a Canadian soprano. Her husband, Weldon Kilburn, had been her early coach and piano accompanist.
She enjoyed a long career, primarily as a concert and recital singer, first as a soprano and later as a mezzo-soprano. She recorded extensively and in a very wide repertoire. Especially prized are the live recordings, which provide something of the vitality and warmth she radiated on those occasions. The lifelong effects of childhood polio severely limited her mobility, especially in later years. Nevertheless, she appeared occasionally on opera stages and in televised opera, including Boston productions especially staged for her by Sarah Caldwell. Her final performances in opera were as the old nurse in Eugene Onegin, in both Ottawa and Toronto. Early fame came with appearances and recordings with Toscanini and Beecham. For many years, she toured as the soprano soloist in the Bach Aria Group, and sang in annual Toronto performances of Messiah and St. Matthew Passion under Sir Ernest MacMillan and successive conductors of the Toronto Symphony. |