ABSTRACT
This chapter, Charles Albert Edwin Harriss objectives for the Cycle of Music Festivals was to develop the musical resources of Canada along the lines of the mother country of the British Empire. Sir Alexander Mackenzie may have been the figurehead for the Cycle, but the man behind this great venture was Charles Albert Edwin Harriss. The son of an English organist, Harriss was educated in the 1870s under Sir Frederick Ouseley at St Michael's College, Tenbury. Although the first Toronto performance was only the twelfth of the thirty-six concerts in the Cycle, it is clear that the constant travelling, and the challenge of working with new performers on almost every occasion, were taking their toll on the tour's core personnel, Mackenzie particularly. The chapter looks at the Toronto concerts demonstrates, the Cycle of Music Festivals was a huge undertaking, even for someone of Harriss's obvious administrative pedigree.
