Canadian Amateur Musicians/Musiciens Amateurs du Canada

Canadian Amateur Musicians/Musiciens Amateurs du Canada is a nonprofit organization supporting amateur music making at all ages and levels. It is commonly known by its acronym, CAMMAC.

CAMMAC runs a summer music centre (CAMMAC Lake MacDonald in the Laurentian mountains northwest of Montreal, Quebec. CAMMAC also holds regional activities year-round in Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, Nova Scotia and Ottawa-Gatineau. The Music Centre offers individual weeks of classes and music-making opportunities for adults and children during nine summer weeks. The different weeks emphasize different kinds of music. The regions support a variety of music-making, including, in different regions, monthly choral readings, orchestral performances, and specialized groups such as madrigal singing, jazz band, chamber music workshops and recorder ensembles. The Music Centre also offers occasional activities on weekends during the year and is available for rental.

The Montréal region, which is the largest by membership, organizes a regularly rehearsing amateur orchestra. All regions organize local readings and workshops.

CAMMAC was founded in 1953 by George and Carl Little, with their wives, Madeleine and Frances. Other important founding members were Mario Duschenes, who taught recorder for many years; and Walter and Otto Joachim. Canadian baritone and educator Jan Simons was general director from 1969 to 1990, and taught at the Lake MacDonald centre for 50 years. While CAMMAC's focus has been amateur music making, a number of alumni have gone on to professional careers in music, in some cases coming back as teachers.

From 1978 to 2009, CAMMAC also operated a second music centre in the Toronto area (various locations), called the CAMMAC Ontario Music Centre. This centre was renamed Lake Field Music [1] in 2010, moved to the Lakefield College School in the Kawartha Lakes area of Ontario), and operates as an independent entity.

External links

• CAMMAC's website
• Entry on CAMMAC at the Canadian Encyclopedia
• Chan, Wah Keung. "CAMMAC: Fifty Years and Counting," La Scena Musicale, vol 9, Dec 2003