Perhaps "charismatic" is the descriptor most often applied to the immensely talented Canadian composer Harry Somers, born in Toronto in 1925.  He was a late-bloomer, but such a quick study that he caught and passed most of his contemporaries that began their music studies much earlier.  According to the composer himself, he worked on three different levels, producing three streams of works: "community music" - for amateur and school performance; "functional music" for television, films and theatre; and art music "without limitations", that provided Somers an outlet for his seemingly boundless creativity.  His works ranged from symphonies and piano concertos to operas (esp. Louis Riel), string quartets and choral works. Harry Somers was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1971.