Robert Farnon
b. 24 July 1917, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Gifted with a prodigious musical talent, Farnon was skilled on several instruments and at the age of 11 was playing with the Toronto Junior Symphony Orchestra. In 1932 he joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra where the musical director, Percy Faith, made him responsible for many of the choral arrangements. During the '30s Farnon's First Symphony was performed by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. At the start of World War II Farnon enlisted in the Canadian army and was sent to Europe as leader of the Canadian Band of the American Expeditionary Force. After the war, he remained in the UK, writing arrangements for popular bands such as those of Ted Heath and Geraldo. He formed and led a studio orchestra for a long-running BBC radio series and many of his light orchestral compositions became popular most notably, Jumping Bean, Portrait Of A Flirt, The Westminster Waltz and The Colditz March. In the late '40s and early '50s he wrote scores for several films including I LIVE IN GROSVENOR SQUARE (1946), SPRING IN PARK LANE (1948), MAYTIME IN MAYFAIR (1949), LILACS IN THE SPRING (1949), and CAPTAIN HORATION HORNBLOWER RN (1951). In 1962, Farnon arranged and conducted for Frank Sinatra's GREAT SONGS FROM GREAT BRITAIN, the first album the singer had recorded in the UK. Subsequently, Farnon worked in television, still making occasional radio broadcasts and assembling orchestras for special concerts and recording dates. By the late '80s he was living in semi-retirement.