John Sheard is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

, producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 and arranger

Arranger

In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...

, who throughout his thirty year career has recorded and performed with many North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n artists, and is most recognized for his work on Stuart McLean

Stuart McLean

Andrew Stuart McLean is a Canadian radio broadcaster, humourist and author, best known as the host of the CBC Radio programme The Vinyl Cafe. He is often described as a "story-telling comic", though he has written many serious stories...

’s Vinyl Cafe. He currently lives in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

.

He is the brother of novelist Sarah Sheard

Sarah Sheard

Sarah Sheard is a Canadian novelist.Sheard published her first novel, Almost Japanese, in 1985. She has also been a creative writing instructor at Glendon College and Humber College in Toronto, and a member of the editorial board of Coach House Press...

 and singer-songwriter Mia Sheard

Mia Sheard

Mia Sheard is a Canadian pop singer-songwriter.Sheard was classically trained at the Royal Conservatory of MusicShe is the sister of novelist Sarah Sheard and pianist John Sheard, and the great-great-granddaughter of Joseph Sheard, a former Mayor of Toronto....

, and the great-great-grandson of Joseph Sheard

Joseph Sheard

Joseph Sheard was a Canadian architect and politician. He was Mayor of Toronto from 1871 to 1872.Born in Hornsea, near Hull, Yorkshire, England, his father died when he was only 6 weeks old, leaving 4 young children to be raised by his mother...

, a former Mayor of Toronto.

Career

Sheard has served as the music director for Stuart McLean

Stuart McLean

Andrew Stuart McLean is a Canadian radio broadcaster, humourist and author, best known as the host of the CBC Radio programme The Vinyl Cafe. He is often described as a "story-telling comic", though he has written many serious stories...

’s Vinyl Cafe touring orchestra since 1998, and has also been the music director for many CBC Radio

CBC Radio

CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...

 programs, including Peter Gzowski

Peter Gzowski

Peter Gzowski, was a Canadian broadcaster, writer and reporter, most famous for his work on the CBC radio show Morningside. His first biographer argued that Gzowski's contribution to Canadian media must be considered in the context of efforts by a generation of Canadian nationalists to understand...

’s famous “Red River Rally” Morningside show.

Sheard's recording history has led to over 200 records, as both solo and backup, with such artists as Rita MacNeil

Rita MacNeil

Rita MacNeil, CM, ONS is a Canadian country and folk singer from the community of Big Pond on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island. Her biggest hit, "Flying On Your Own", was a crossover Top 40 hit in 1987 and was covered by Anne Murray the following year, although she has had hits on the country...

, Ian

Ian Tyson

Ian Tyson CM, AOE is a Canadian singer-songwriter, best known for his song "Four Strong Winds". He was also one half of the duo Ian & Sylvia.-Career:Tyson was born to British immigrants in Victoria in 1933, and grew up in Duncan B.C...

 & Sylvia Tyson

Sylvia Tyson

Sylvia Tyson, CM , is a musician, performer, singer-songwriter and broadcaster. From 1959 to 1974, she was half of the popular folk duo Ian & Sylvia with Ian Tyson....

, Dan Hill

Dan Hill

Daniel Grafton "Dan" Hill IV is a Canadian pop singer and songwriter. He had two major hits with his songs, "Sometimes When We Touch" and "Can't We Try," a duet with Vonda Shepard.-Early life and career:...

, Rita Coolidge

Rita Coolidge

Rita Coolidge is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American vocalist. During the 1970s and 1980s, she charted hits on Billboard's Pop, Country, Adult Contemporary and Jazz charts.-Career:...

, Olivia Newton-John

Olivia Newton-John

Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...

, Mary Margaret O'Hara

Mary Margaret O'Hara

Mary Margaret O'Hara is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress, who has been hailed as one of the greatest cult heroines in rock music despite having released very few of her own recordings. She is best known for the critically acclaimed album Miss America, released in 1988.-Early stages:O'Hara...

, Celine Dion

Celine Dion

Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...

, Ronnie Milsap

Ronnie Milsap

Ronnie Lee Milsap is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country’s most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s...

, Colm Wilkinson

Colm Wilkinson

Colm Wilkinson is an Irish tenor, best known for originating the role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and for playing the title role in The Phantom of the Opera .Due to his association with these musicals, he reprised the role of...

, Tom Paxton

Tom Paxton

Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...

, Willie P. Bennett

Willie P. Bennett

Willie P. Bennett was a Canadian folk-music singer and song writer.-Life and career:Born William Patrick Bennett in Toronto, Ontario, Bennett was part of the 1970s folk music scene in Canada, alongside such figures as Bruce Cockburn, Stan Rogers and David Wiffen...

 and The Henrys

The Henrys

The Henrys is a Toronto-based, "nearly instrumental" quartet. Their music features the sound of an antique slide guitar called a Kona , along with various other instruments: conch shell, quarter-tone trumpet, chordette, drums, sonar zombie, steel drums, and many more...

.

Sheard has composed and/or arranged for various artists, including Murray McLauchlan

Murray McLauchlan

Murray McLauchlan, CM is a Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist, and harmonica player.-Biography:Born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, he emigrated to Canada with his family when he was five years old...

, The Pointer Sisters

Pointer Sisters

The Pointer Sisters are an American pop/R&B recording act from Oakland, California that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Spanning over three decades, their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, disco, jazz, bebop, blues, soul, funk, dance, country and rock.The...

, The Nylons

The Nylons

The Nylons are an a cappella group founded in 1978 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Best known for their covers of The Turtles' "Happy Together", Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye", and The Tokens' version of the traditional "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"....

, Shirley Eikhard

Shirley Eikhard

Shirley Rose Eikhard is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Her song, "Something to Talk About", was recorded by musician Bonnie Raitt to significant success in the 1990s. She sang the theme song to the movie The Passion of Ayn Rand, "Love is, Love is Not"...

, Andrea Martin

Andrea Martin

Andrea Louise Martin is an American and Canadian actress and comedienne. She has appeared in films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, on stage in productions such as My Favorite Year, Fiddler on the Roof and Candide, and in the television series, SCTV.-Personal life:Martin, the oldest of three...

, Caitlin Hanford and Quartette

Quartette (band)

Quartette is a Canadian country-folk group featuring Cindy Church, Caitlin Hanford, Gwen Swick and Sylvia Tyson. Each of the four members also records as a solo artist in addition to their work as a group.-Biography:...

.

His work has appeared on various U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 television shows, including A&E Biography

Biography (TV series)

Biography is a documentary television series. It was originally a half-hour filmed series produced for CBS by David Wolper from 1961 to 1964 and hosted by Mike Wallace. The A&E Network later re-ran it and has produced new episodes since 1987...

, Sunset Beach

Sunset Beach (TV series)

Sunset Beach was an American television soap opera, first broadcast in the United States on NBC on January 6, 1997, and last airing on December 31, 1999. The show followed the loves and lives of the people living in a fictional coastal city named Sunset Beach, on the coast of California...

, Sesame Street

Sesame Street

Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

, Sesame Park

Sesame Park

Sesame Park was a Canadian version of Sesame Street. In its first format, it was referred to as Canadian Sesame Street and was a re-edited version of the American series; it adopted a new format and the Sesame Park title in 1996....

, Showtime, Days of our Lives

Days of our Lives

Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...

, General Hospital

General Hospital

General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....

and Late Night with David Letterman

Late Night with David Letterman

Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...

.

As a producer Sheard has worked with The Guess Who

The Guess Who

The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Initially gaining recognition in Canada, they also found international success from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with numerous hit singles, including "American Woman", "These Eyes" and "Share the Land"...

, Dan Hill

Dan Hill

Daniel Grafton "Dan" Hill IV is a Canadian pop singer and songwriter. He had two major hits with his songs, "Sometimes When We Touch" and "Can't We Try," a duet with Vonda Shepard.-Early life and career:...

, The Henrys

The Henrys

The Henrys is a Toronto-based, "nearly instrumental" quartet. Their music features the sound of an antique slide guitar called a Kona , along with various other instruments: conch shell, quarter-tone trumpet, chordette, drums, sonar zombie, steel drums, and many more...

, Buster Poindexter, Gregg Lawless, Caitlin Hanford, The Good Brothers

The Good Brothers

The Good Brothers are a Canadian country, bluegrass and folk music group originating from Richmond Hill, Ontario. The band's core members are Brian Good , his twin brother Bruce Good and younger brother Larry Good ....

 and more.

Solo

While he always reported to enjoy working with great singers and players, he has also recorded some of his own music. Sheard's first solo CD, Jerusalem, consists largely of pieces that he performed at Vinyl Cafe concerts across Canada. Sheard is said to be grateful to Stuart McLean for giving him musical carte blanche on his show which was largely responsible for the creation of Jerusalem and his second CD, Nocturnus.

Sheard's disc Polyhymnia is a collection of hymns and carols, featuring selections gleaned from the 1938 revision of the ‘Hymn Book Of The Anglican Church of Canada’, and includes Sheard's moving rendition of The Coventry Carol. His latest disc, 88, so named for the 88 keys on an average piano musical keyboard

Musical keyboard

A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...

, is composed primarily of pieces composed by Sheard.

External links

• Personal website