Musician.
Born at Fraserwood on 14 July 1934, daughter of Helen Paziuk (1910-1976) and Nickolas Paziuk (?-1956), her family soon moved to Winnipeg when her father took a job as a cook at the Royal Alexandra Hotel. In her childhood, her aunt Ann Pomer, a violinist and teacher, encouraged her to take violin lessons. After graduating from Daniel McIntyre Collegiate, she worked in Croft’s and Treadwell’s music stores.
In October 1954, she began playing full-time with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. She later switched to the viola and played this instrument for the remainder of her 52-year musical career. She also performed with the CBC Winnipeg Orchestra, was a founding member of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra (1974), and played in the pit at Rainbow Stage every summer until the mid-1990s. She operated her own chamber group, the Lyric String Quartet, for weddings and cocktail parties. She retired in 2006.
She was married twice, first on 27 August 1960 to Robert Donald Ryback with whom she had two daughters before they divorced in 1972. She married violinist Raymond “Ray” Chrunyk in 1984.
She died at Winnipeg on 30 January 2024.
“Social and personal,” Winnipeg Free Press, 25 August 1960, page 20.
“Divorces decreed absolute,” Winnipeg Free Press, 11 July 1972, page 61.
Obituary [Helen Paziuk], Winnipeg Free Press, 29 July 1976, page 34.
“Strings attached” by Morley Walker, Winnipeg Free Press, 21 March 2004, pages 35-36.
Obituary, Korban Funeral Chapel.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 2 January 2025
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