Walter Eiger

Polish-born Canadian songwriter, conductor, bandleader, pianist and teacher. Born in Lodz, Poland February 6, 1917, naturalized Canadian c.1955. Died in Pensacola, Florida May 11, 1991 (74 years of age). Eiger studied music in France at the University of Grenoble and at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. He wrote soundtracks for Polish films and accompanied singers Charles Trenet and Patachou, with whom he performed in Montreal in the late 1940s. Eiger moved to Canada in the early 1950s and worked as a conductor. orchestra and composer for the CBC television programs “Feux de joie”, “Silhouette”, “Quartiers de Paris”, “Domino” and “Music-Hall”. Eiger was an orchestrator for Broadway shows, including "The Music Man" (1961) and "Oh, Captain!" (1968), for Maurice Chevalier, and for comedian Victor Borge's TV shows. He later became a professor at some U.S. and Canadian universities.