Trudi Le Caine

Who was Trudi Le Caine?

Trudi Le Caine, CM was an arts patron involved with local and national arts initiatives in Ottawa, Canada.

Born in Passau, Bavaria, she spent her youth in Teplitz-Schönau/Teplice-Šanov, Czechoslovakia before joining her stepfather, Arnold Walter, in Berlin, where he was a music editor and critic for the leftist journals Die Weltbühne and Vorwärts. After fleeing Germany following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, she lived first in Spain and France before emigrating to Canada to join her parents. She settled in Ottawa in 1942, where her involvement with Le Groupe de la Place Royale, Opera Lyra Ottawa and the Council for the Arts in Ottawa led to recognition and awards such as the Order of Canada, the Lescarbot Award and the Victor Tolgesy Arts Award.

Though she had no children of her own, she made children's music education one of her causes, helping establish the Ottawa Children's Concerts in 1946 and later becoming a proponent of the Orff Approach in music education in the Ottawa area. She also convinced the National Capital Commission to open the Rideau Canal during the winter for skating, which has now become famous as the world's longest skating rink.