Hoffert, Paul

Person

Hoffert, Paul

1943-

Paul Hoffert (1943-), composer, musician, author and administrator, was born in Brooklyn, New York on 22 September 1943 and educated at the University of Toronto where he received a B.Sc. in 1966. He mastered classical and jazz piano at a young age and made his first recording, "Jazz Routes of Paul Hoffert" in 1959. He also performed on the TV series "While We Were Young" with Gordon Lightfoot and Tommy Ambrose from 1960 to 1962. As a musician, Hoffert is best known for his work with the musical group Lighthouse that he co-founded in 1969. Lighthouse was the first rock group to feature jazz horns and classical strings. Lighthouse sold millions of records, toured the world and was awarded three Juno awards as Canada's top pop band for the years 1971, 1972 and 1973. Hoffert was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Lighthouse in 1995. In 1975, Hoffert began focusing on composing film and television music and penned dozens of feature film and hundreds of television program scores. His film music earned him a San Francisco Film Festival and three SOCAN Film Composer of the Year awards. His concert music includes a Juno-award winning violin concerto. In many of his musical endeavours, Hoffert collaborated with his wife, Brenda. Hoffert has parallel achievements in science and technology. He was a researcher at the National Research Council of Canada in the early 1970s and returned to research in 1988 as Vice President of DHJ Research, where he invented digital audio technology for Newbridge Microsystems telephone circuits, Mattel Cabbage Patch Dolls, and Akai and Yamaha musical instruments. In 1992, Hoffert founded CulTech Research Centre at York University, where he developed advanced new media such as digital video telephones and networked distribution of CD-ROMs. From 1994 to 1999, he directed Intercom Ontario, a $100 million trial of the world's first completely connected broadband community that landed him on the cover of the Financial Post and in the Wall Street Journal. Hoffert has been an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts at York University since 1984. As an author, Hoffert has written numerous articles in newspapers and magazines as well as several books including "The New Client", "All Together Now", and "The Bagel Effect", which detail recipes for living in the Information Age. Hoffert is Chair of the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, Chair of the Guild of Canadian Film and Television Composers and a Board Director of the Glenn Gould Foundation, the SOCAN Foundation, Ontario Foundation for the Arts, Virtual Museum of Canada, United Nations World Summit Award (Information Society), Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, and Ontario Arts Council Foundation. He is former President of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, Chair of the Ontario Arts Council (1994-1997), and former Board Director of Canadian Independent Record Producers Association (CIRPA), Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, Smart Toronto, Performing Rights Society of Canada, and Music Promotion Foundation. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his work including the Pixel award as the New Media industry's "Visionary of the Year" in 2001, and the Order of Canada in 2005.

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