E.M. (Ted) Culliton, University Chancellor, making presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree to Lois Marshall. famed Canadian soprano, at Regina Campus Convocation. Other dignitaries in background.

Bio/Historical Note: Lois Catherine Marshall was born in Toronto in 1924, studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto from the age of 12, giving her first recital when only 15. Despite being partially paralyzed as the result of polio, the soprano won the Eaton Award upon graduation, representing Canada at the Sesquicentennial celebrations in Washington in 1950. Early fame came with appearances and recordings with Toscanini and Beecham. She also appeared in recital in New York Town Hall as a Naumberg Award winner in 1952. Marshall was chosen by Toscanini as soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and by Sir Thomas Beecham for his recording of Handel’s Oratorio Solomon in 1956. Marshall toured extensively in Europe, including Russia, and in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Her operatic debut was in the role of Mimi in Puccini’s La Boheme with the Boston Opera Company. Marshall 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. Marshall's final performances in opera were as the old nurse in Eugene Onegin, in both Ottawa and Toronto. For many years Marshall 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. Marshall died in Toronto in 1997.