Muskoka has lost a musical giant, but his legacy will live for decades to come.

On Nov. 19, classical musician Paul Brodie passed away at the age of 73 following heart surgery at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.

Brodie lived just outside the town of Bala for many years before moving to Toronto in 2006.

Brodie was raised in Regina, and attended the University of Michigan where he studied the saxophone. He went on to become the first person to teach saxophone at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

In 1959 he was introduced to a modern dancer named Rima Goodman, the woman who would later become his wife and the mother of his daughter Claire. The couple also ran a music and dance studio in Toronto, which operated for nearly 20 years.

In 1969, he helped found the World Saxophone Congress in Chicago as a venue for players, critics and composers to congregate every four years.

According to close friend Jack Hutton, Brodie’s career really took off in 1978 when Hollywood came calling.

“Warren Beatty called him out of the blue. He plays the saxophone himself, and one of the people he admired most on this planet was Paul Brodie,” said Hutton.

The film was called Heaven Can Wait, and Beatty wanted Brodie’s music to feature in one of the movie’s pivotal scenes. Ever the self-promoter, Hutton said Brodie wasted little time in contacting newspapers, magazines and radio stations across the country.

“I think the general impression was that Paul was playing the entire score of the movie, but that was being done by a studio musician,” said Hutton. “In his biography, Paul said with a poker face that he has no idea how that impression got around.”

With a little planning and a lot of luck, Brodie miraculously procured two tickets to the Academy Awards ceremony, where Heaven Can Wait had earned a nomination.

“When Heaven Can Wait won, Paul set a sprinting record getting from the back of the hall down to Warren Beatty,” said Hutton. “Just as the cameras all came on Warren Beatty there was this bearded guy from Canada shaking his hand. Paul told me later that Warren Beatty was the most astonished guy of all to see him.”

A flood of media attention followed the appearance, and soon Brodie was in high demand around the globe. Brodie toured Singapore, China, Argentina, England, Russia, Germany and over a dozen other countries. In total, he has played over 2,500 performances and released 56 CDs. He also wrote several instructional guides on saxophone and an autobiography appropriately titled The Ambassador of the Saxophone.

In the 1970s, Brodie and his family moved to Muskoka.

“They rented one summer and they fell in love with it,” said Hutton. “They had a chance to buy a place on the Moon River so they took it. He loved it so much that everywhere he went around the world, he would end with Moon River.”

Hutton, a piano player himself, knew Brodie as both a friend and a musician.

“A great part of his playing was his tone,” he said. “He spent hour after hour as a young musician perfecting it. When you hear that tone you know it’s Paul Brodie.”

Hutton said Brodie was a man willing to take a calculated risk, and one who seized every opportunity.

“Paul was one of these people that are larger than life,” he said. “For the rest of my life, every time I play Moon River I’m going to think of Paul.”

Gary Froude is the managing director of the Muskoka Lakes Music Festival, where Brodie was frequently a marquee attraction.

“He was gentle, knowledgeable and patient. He was a special guy and he taught me some life lessons in patience and statesmanship,” said Froude. “He was also the best classical saxophone player I’ve ever heard.”

Froude, who has known Brodie for over a decade, said he travelled to Toronto shortly after hearing the news of his passing.

“His family’s doing well. They’ve had a few days with people from all over the globe coming to visit and chat with them . . . parents coming in with kids that he had taught,” he said.

Froude said he expects to hold some kind of tribute during this year’s music festival to honour the man who gave so much to the world of music.

“He’s certainly left a hole in Muskoka,” said Froude.