Donald Alan Freeman Heard died on 24 July 2022 after a long illness. He passed the last days of his life at St. Joseph’s Hospice in Sarnia, Ontario, with his wife Anne Wilson at his side.

Alan was born on 7 February 1942 in Halifax. He was brought up in Montréal, where he received his early musical training. He began violin lessons around age nine with D’Arcy Shea at the McGill Conservatory, who at the time played first violin in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. On graduation from Westhill High School he was awarded the school trophy for music and the Lieutenant General of Quebec’s medal. He then pursued studies at McGill University Faculty of Music.

Alan arrived at McGill with advanced standing in 1958 at age 16, and was taught composition by Istvan Anhalt, and received private instruction from Anhalt in his final year. Alan held Anhalt in very high regard, and was deeply influenced by him. “It would be difficult to exaggerate the influence Istvan has had on my professional life, especially in the area of teaching. Even after more than forty years, when confronted with a tricky technical problem in dealing with a student, I ask myself “What would Istvan have done?”

He graduated with a Bachelor of Music in 1962 and was awarded a scholarship to Princeton University, where he obtained in 1964 his Master’s degree under the supervision of Roger Sessions and Earl Kim. A Canada Council grant then allowed him to study with Boris Blacher at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. He taught 1967-71 at McGill University and then at Kirkland College in Clinton, NY, before joining the Faculty of Music at the University of Western Ontario in 1976 as a professor of Theory and Composition, serving for some years as chairman of that department.

In his early compositions he used serial techniques and aleatoric procedures, but in 1977 he began writing tonally, eg, in his Sinfonia nello Stile Antico. Of the earlier works, Voices (1969), a setting of Japanese poetry for soprano and five instruments, was a Canadian entry in the 1972 ISCM competition and was performed and recorded by the SMCQ, and Prelude was commissioned by the CBC and premiered by the Orford String Quartet. A notable exception to the tonal orientation of his works after 1977 is the Symphonic Étude for Small Orchestra (1989) which is based on a hexachord manipulated with serial techniques.

In 1980 the organist and sometime Dean of the UWO Music Faculty, Hugh McLean, observed that “Heard has embraced a neo-romanticism of almost Mahlerian cast, but with a predilection for counterpoint not shared by the symphonist.” His catalogue includes numerous small ensemble works, including Timai (a 1973 New Music Concerts commission that appropriates direct quotations from Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder) and a Concerto Grosso commissioned by the Woodstock Strings, and a Symphony No. 2, composed for the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.

The last work he completed was a concerto in five movements for double bass and orchestra written for Benjamin Heard, a professional player of the double bass, and a grandson of Alan’s brother Kenneth.

Alan is survived by his wife Dr. M. Anne Wilson, his step-daughter Ariel Harwood-Jones, his brother Kenneth (Martin Padgett), Kenneth’s son Christopher (Alexandria), and their two sons Benjamin and Matthew.

The family thanks Dr. Chai Phua, at the London Regional Cancer Centre, and Dr. Glen Maddison, of St. Joseph’s Hospice, Sarnia. Cremation has been performed as per Alan’s wishes, and a Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.