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Steven Gellman is a Canadian composer, pianist, and former professor of composition and theory at the University of Ottawa. Gellman was born in Toronto (1947) where he began studying piano and composition at an early age under the instruction of Dr. Samuel Dolin. He appeared frequently as a pianist and composer throughout his teens. At the age of 16, he appeared as a soloist with the CBC Symphony Orchestra in a performance of his own composition Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. Gellman won the International BMI award in 1964, making him the first Canadian to be awarded the accolade.
Gellman studied at Juilliard in New York City under Vincent Persichetti, Luciano Berio and Roger Sessions from 1965 to 1968. He attended the Aspen Music Festival and School during the summers of 1965 and 1966 as a student of Darius Milhaud. In 1973, Gellman entered the Paris Conservatory where he studied with Olivier Messiaen from 1973 to 1976. During his time at the Conservatory, Gellman was awarded the Premier Prix. In 1970, Gellman’s piece Mythos for flute and string quartet won the UNESCO prize for the best work by a composer under the age of 25. In 1975, Gellman’s work Chori was premiered by the Toronto Symphony.
Gellman returned to Canada in 1976 and began teaching composition and theory at the University of Ottawa. He composed several pieces in the late 70s, notably Poème for Angela Hewitt; Wind Music, commissioned by the Canadian Brass; and Deux Tapisseries, commissioned by the French Government in honor of Olivier Messiaen’s 70th birthday in 1978.
Gellman received two commission from the Toronto Symphony in the 80s. The overture Awakening was premiered in 1983, and was featured during Toronto Symphony’s European tour of 1983. The second commission resulted in a five movement work for orchestra featuring the synthesizers of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble as soloists. The work was premiered in 1986, and was performed throughout Canada. Shortly after, Gellman received a commission from Jon Kimura Parker, which led to the composition Keyboard Triptych for Piano and Synthesizer. Gellman was named the Canada Council Composer of the Year in 1987.
Gellman became an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa in 1984 and was promoted to Full Professor in 1994. While teaching, Gellman continued to compose many works that have been performed throughout Canada and internationally, by ensembles such as the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Musica Camerata, Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), the Ottawa Symphony, and the Gryphon Trio. Gellman retired from his position at the University of Ottawa in 2011 as Professor Emeritus. His most recent work was completed in 2014.
Prior to his position at the University, Gellman travelled extensively throughout the world. In addition to his studies abroad, he spent time in places such as New Zealand, the Middle East, Greece, India, South Africa, Morocco, and Europe. In his early 20s, Gellman married Cheryl, a visual artist, with whom he had two children, Dana and Misha. Gellman remains a resident of Ottawa.

Born in Canada in 1945 to Jewish-Polish survivors of World War II, Judith Lermer Crawley grew up and went to school in Montreal, eventually obtaining an MA in English Literature. She bought a camera in the summer of 1968 and spent the better part of that summer in San Francisco in a publically funded city darkroom, where she experimented, practised, learned from others and taught herself photography. Upon her return to Montreal, she set up her own darkroom and continued to explore photography while teaching English Literature at Loyola College. With the opening of Vanier College (CEGEP) in Montreal in 1970, she joined its faculty as an English and photography teacher. Greta Nemiroff was instrumental in hiring Judith Lermer Crawley to teach at Vanier College because of shared attitudes to education. Judith taught the course “Images: photographic and Poetic” which became the basis of the photography component of the Creative Arts program at Vanier. Along with her colleague Alanna Stalker, they brought feminist ideas, skills and teaching philosophy to a new Women’s Studies Programme at Vanier College. Judith worked on the Executive of the Teachers’ Union. Her concern over the conservative direction the government was taking in education led her to participate in the 1983 strikes and to edit the newsletter of the union local.
Judith Lermer Crawley was also part of the Montreal Health Press Collective/Les Presses de la Santé de Montréal, a collective that produced and distributed handbooks on issues of health and sexuality. She was the photography coordinator for the collective but also participated also in the entire process of revising, publishing and distributing the publications.
As a photographer, most of Judith’s work was based in Montreal, where she lived, worked and raised her two children on her own. Her photographic work took the point of view of the women’s community. Her main subject was women’s “private” daily life, which often showed a network of relationships. She placed intimate images within a cultural, political context and used her photography as part of a process of reflecting on and understanding her life as a woman. For Judith Lermer Crawley, photography was also a collaborative process between artist and subject, artist and community, and involved place, culture and voice: “My camera shoots not up, not down, but around.” The starting point of her image-making was the social reality of women’s experience and the need to challenge predominant stereotypes of women as either passive/subordinate (and in middle years, also invisible) or active/sexually provocative. She wanted to reflect her feminism in her engagement with art.
Judith Lermer Crawley exhibited and published her photographs widely in Canada and the United States. She created her own exhibitions and also participated in group shows, the first held in Little Shop Gallery in 1980. In March 1982, she mounted a photographic exhibit entitled “Relations” at Galerie Dazibao in Montreal. In 1985, she realized the project titled “Giving Birth is just the beginnings: Women speak about mothering”. In this project, Judith Crawley presented black and white photographs of women with their children, co-parents and friends. The photographs were integrated with text, in English and French, drawn from conversations about mothering with the women she has been photographing for years. A book version of the project was produced.
In 1986, she exhibited “You can’t hug kids with nuclear arms”. The photographs and texts in this exhibition questioned “how children can be raised in the face of a possible nuclear holocaust. It ended with a list of the names and phone numbers of disarmament groups in Montreal. In 1988, she participated in “Mexico/Canada: A photographic Exchange” and in 1993, she exhibited the project “One in Five…” which combined photographs of her children taken after the death of their father with their comments and her memories as a single parent. In 1997, she worked on the exhibition “The 50s/La Cinquantaine”. The project focused on issues that the women of her community faced in their middle years - as individuals, with partners, friends, colleagues, family and adult children. In 2001, she participated in the group exhibition “Urbanité” shown at the Centre de Creativité du Gesu. In 2002, Judith Lermer Crawley travelled to Poland with one of her friends and her brother, and a project based on this trip resulted. The project was shown for the first time at Vanier College in Montreal in 2003. In 2006, another exhibition “Women’s Daybook Series" was also hosted at Vanier College.
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Née au Canada en 1945, de parents juifs-polonais ayant survécu à la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Judith Lemer Crawley a grandi et a été scolarisée à Montréal. Elle obtient une maîtrise en littérature anglaise et enseigne ensuite la littérature anglaise. Elle achète son premier appareil photo durant l'été 1968. Elle passe la plus grande partie de l'été à San Francisco utilisant une chambre noire mise à disposition du public et financée par l'État. Elle y fait ses premières expériences en matière de photographie. Son apprentissage de la photographie est autodidacte. À son retour à Montréal, elle met en place sa propre chambre noire et continue d'explorer la photographie tout en enseignant la littérature anglaise au Collège Loyola. Lors de l’ouverture du Collège Vanier (CEGEP) à Montréal en 1970, elle se joint à la faculté en tant que professeure d'anglais et de photographie. Greta Nemiroff a joué un rôle déterminant dans l'embauche de Judith Lemer Crawley en tant qu’enseignante au collège. Leurs conceptions de l’éducation se rejoignent. Judith Lemer Crawley enseigne le cours "Images : photographique et poétique" qui est devenu la base du volet « Photographie » du programme d’Arts créatifs. Elle travaille en collaboration avec Alanna Stalker dont elle partage la philosophie, et les visions féministes. Elles contribuent au développement du programme d'études sur les femmes du Collège Vanier. Judith Lemer Crawley fait partie de l'exécutif du Syndicat des enseignantes et des enseignants. Elle est également membre du département d'études des femmes à Vanier. Inquiète de l’orientation conservatrice prise par l'État en matière d'éducation, elle participe aux grèves de 1983. Elle rédige le bulletin de sa section locale et collabore avec Alanna Stalker sur divers projets pendant cette période de grèves. Judith Lemer Crawley a fait partie du collectif Les Presses de la Santé de Montréal / Montreal Health Press Collective, un collectif qui a produit et distribué des manuels traitant de questions de santé et de sexualité. Elle a été photographe-coordonnatrice du collectif, et a également participé à l'ensemble du processus de révision, de publication et de distribution.
La plupart de ses travaux photographiques se déroulent à Montréal, où elle a vécu, travaillé et a élevé seule ses deux enfants. Elle a travaillé à partir du point de vue de la communauté des femmes. Son sujet principal est la vie quotidienne et ""privée"" des femmes, souvent présentée comme un réseau de relations. Elle place ces images intimes dans un contexte social et politique qu’elle question. Elle utilise la photographie dans le cadre de son processus de réflexion et de compréhension de sa vie de femme. Pour Judith Lemer Crawley, la photographie est aussi un processus de collaboration entre l'artiste et le sujet, l'artiste et la communauté, impliquant le lieu, la culture et la vision du photographe. "" My camera shoots not up, not down, but around. "Le point de départ de sa création d'image est la réalité sociale de l'expérience des femmes et la nécessité de remettre en question les stéréotypes prédominants selon lesquels les femmes sont soit passives/subordonnées (voir invisibles) ou actives/sexuellement provocatrices. Elle utilise le médium photographique pour refléter ses perceptions et préoccupations concernant la place des femmes dans la société.
Elle a exposé et publié ses photographies au Canada et aux États-Unis. Elle développe ses propres expositions et a également participé à d'autres expositions de groupe. Sa première participation à une exposition de groupe a eu lieu à la Little Shop Gallery en 1980. En mars 1982, elle monte une exposition photographique intitulée ""Relations"" qui est exposée pour la première fois à la Galerie Dazibao à Montréal. En 1985, elle réalise le projet intitulé "Donner naissance n'est qu'un début : Les femmes parlent de maternité’’. Dans ce projet, Judith Crawley présente des photographies en noir et blanc de femmes avec leurs enfants, issues de sa parenté ou de son cercle d’amis. Les prises de vue sont accompagnées de textes, en anglais et en français, tirés d’entrevues menées avec ses sujets abordant des questions relatives à la vie des femmes en tant que mères. Ce projet donna naissance à un ouvrage, pour la publication duquel elle recueilli des fonds et travailla en collaboration avec son proche entourage.
En 1986, elle expose "You can’t hug kids with nuclear arms". Les photographies et les textes de cette exposition soulèvent des questionnements sur l’éducation des enfants face "à un éventuel holocauste nucléaire". L’exposition se termine par une liste de noms et de numéros de téléphone de groupes de désarmement présents à Montréal. En 1988, elle participe à ""Mexico/Canada : Un échange photographique"". En 1993 a été exposé pour la première fois le projet "One on Five...". Dans ce projet, des photographies de ses enfants sont accompagnées de leurs commentaires. Certains commentaires sont personnels à l’artiste et reliés à ses souvenirs de mère célibataire. En 1997, elle travaille à l'exposition "The 50s / La Cinquantaine". Le projet met l'accent sur les problèmes auxquels les femmes de sa communauté font face au milieu de leur vie. Il éclaire leur parcours en tant qu’individu, conjointe, mère, amie, collègue, etc. En 2001, elle participe à l'exposition collective "Urbanité" exposée au Centre de Créativité du Gesu. En 2002, Judith Crawley s'est rendue en Pologne avec une de ses amis et son frère. Ce voyage a donné lieu à des prises de vue dont certaines ont été utilisée pour le projet d’exposition "About Auschwitz / A Propos d'Auschwitz", présenté pour la première fois au Collège Vanier en 2003. Judith Lemer Crawley a également réalisé plus récemment l'exposition "Women's Daybook Series" présentée au Collège Vanier à Montréal en 2006.

Ray Ellenwood est né à Edmonton en Alberta en 1939. Il a obtenu un Mater en Anglais de l'Université d'Alberta, puis un doctorat en littérature comparative (Comparative Literature) de l'Université Rutgers, l'Université d'État du New Jersey, aux États Unis. Son projet de recherche doctoral portait sur André Breton et Freud. Il a voyagé en France pour effectuer des recherches et rencontrer des personnes impliquées dans l'histoire du surréalisme, dont Jacques Baron. Il a fait de nombreuses recherches et a beaucoup écrit sur la littérature, la traduction et les arts visuels. Il a été professeur à l’Université de York, à Toronto de 1972 à 2005. Il est, entre autres, l'auteur d’"Egregore: A History of the Montréal Automatist Movement" publié en 1991. Il a publié plusieurs articles concernant les signataires de "Refus global", ainsi que des traductions de "Refus global", et de la poésie.
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Ray Ellenwood was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1939. He received his M.A. in English from the University of Alberta and his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey, in the United States. His doctoral research project focused on André Breton and Freud. He traveled to France to research and meet with people involved in the history of Surrealism, including Jacques Baron. He has researched and written extensively on literature, translation and the visual arts. He was a professor at York University in Toronto from 1972 to 2005. He is, among others, the author of "Egregore: A History of the Montréal Automatist Movement" published in 1991. He has published several articles about the signatories of "Refus global", as well as translations of "Refus global", and poetry.

L’udovít Kandra (pseudonym: Peter Klas), was born in Banská Štiavnica, on July 6, 1904. Between 1914 and 1922, he completed his primary and secondary education in his local community. Between 1922 and 1924, he studied in Banská Bystrica where he obtained his teaching certificate from the Institute of Pedagogy. In 1928, he married Paula Päták. While working as a teacher, and later, as a school director, Mr. Kandra was already interested, and much involved, in Slovak cultural and literary life. In the Spring of 1945, Mr. Kandra and his family left Slovakia and emigrated to Austria where they lived until 1949. In 1949, the Kandras emigrated to Canada; with their two daughters, Dana and Olga. They lived in various Ontarian cities: Oil City, Glencoe and Kitchener.
After his arrival in Canada, Mr. Kandra worked for different employers including Electrohome Limited but he also began to write and publish his work. Most of his fiction work was published under the pen name of Peter Klas. He is the author of two published novels (“Satan proti Bohmu”and “Svetlo pod halenou”), a collection of short stories (“Na strome života) and hundreds of individual short stories published in various almanacs, calendars and newspapers. He became one of the prolific prose writers among Slovak immigrant.
L’udovít Kandra was also an author “on a political mission.” A determined activist, he used his talent as a great communicator to bring forth the horrors of the occupation of Slovakia and the hard life of Slovaks under communism. He published hundreds of articles on these issues in newspapers such as Kanadský Slovák, Slovák v Amerike, Kalendar Kandaskej Slovenskej Ligy, Slovenská Obrana and other Slovak periodicals abroad. In addition to his prose and poetry, L’udovit Kandra maintained an exchange of correspondence with members of the Slovak intelligentsia abroad, among others, Imrich Kružliak (pseudonym: Marian Žiar), Ernest Žatko (pseudonym: Ján E. Bor), Ignác Zelenka (Eugen Vesnin) and Michal Lošonsky (pseudonym: Michal Želiar).
Throughout his writing career, Mr. Kandra was also involved as a lobbyist and political activist in a number of nationalist organizations. Of particular significance were his extensive work and significant influence as vice-president and president of the Slovak National Council Abroad (Slovenská Národná Rada v Zahraniči. SNRvZ).
A devout Lutheran, Mr. Kandra also had a long and generous involvement with the “Ustredna Rada Martina Razus”, where he served as president.
In Slovakia, as well as in Canada, L’udovít Kandra was a very humble citizen. An elementary school teacher by profession, he took on blue-collar work as an immigrant living in Canada. He was not a member of the Slovak “intellegencia,” nor did he hold an elected political office. He lived as a man of limited financial means throughout his life, yet through his prolific work as poet, author and freelance writer, and through his extraordinary personal contribution as a member of the Slovak diaspora, L’udovít Kandra made a significant contribution to Slovak literature and has had a long-lasting impact on the cultural and social conditions of Slovaks living in exile. He died in Belleville, Ontario, in 1993, at the age of 89.

Martha Kona (nee Mistina) was born in Bánovce nad Bebrazou in Slovakia on May 12th, the daughter of Albert and Ann (née Kubican) Mistina. The family fled to Austria where Martha attended high school and a semester at the University of Salzburg. In the early 1950s, she received a scholarship to attend Rosary College at River Forrest in Illinois (USA).
She earned a B.A. in economics and German from Rosary College and met her future husband, Villiam Kona, a librarian, there. In 1955, the couple wed. In 1958 Martha Kona completed a Master's in Library Science and later completed an MBA at Roosevelt University (USA).
As a librarian, Martha Kona worked as the Assistant Director of Technical Services at Rush University Library (USA). From 1958 to 1963, she worked as a cataloguer-librarian at the University of Illinois Library of Medicine and Science (USA). She also published reference books and articles on various subjects such as soybean protein, multi-media cataloguing and Slovak Americans and Canadians.
Both Martha and Viliam Kona were committed to the Slovak community and the preservation of Slovak culture in exile. Martha Kona was part of the Slovak League of America, Slovak Catholic Sokol and the Slovak Institute in Rome (Italy). In 1990, Martha Kona held the position of Chair of Heritage and Communication at the Slovak World Congress, a position previously held by Ján Okáľ.
Over the years, Martha Kona has received several awards of distinctions. She has been the recipient of the Imperial and Sovereign Order of Saint Constantin the Great, the Imperial Byzantine Order of Constantin the Great and St. Helen and the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, etc.
Martha Kona died in 2014.

Teressa (Terri) W. De Wolf lived in Toronto and then moved to British Columbia in 1984. She worked in Kelowna Status of Women’s Office, in the 1970’s.
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Teressa (Terri) W. De Wolf a vécu à Toronto avant de s'installer en Colombie-Britannique en 1984. Elle a travaillé au bureau de la condition féminine de Kelowna dans les années 1970.