Stephen Muise
Men of the Deeps Conductor/Business Manager/ Technical Director
Stephen Muise has served as Musical Director of the Men of the Deeps since January 2017, succeeding longtime conductor John C. “Jack” O’Donnell. A music educator and professional musician for more than twenty-five years, Stephen holds a Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Education and Master of Education in Administration (BMus, BEd, M.Ed.).
The Men of the Deeps have been part of Stephen’s life since childhood. His father, Yogi Muise, was a longtime member and Business Manager of the choir, and Stephen grew up attending rehearsals, gatherings and performances, getting to know both the music and the men behind it.
His own involvement with the choir began long before he became its conductor. Stephen spent years providing technical expertise to the group and, beginning around 2007, served as Jack’s assistant conductor. Over the years, he gradually assumed more conducting and arranging responsibilities while working closely with Jack, whom he considered both a mentor and a friend. That long period of working together provided a natural transition when Stephen took over as Musical Director in 2017.
Stephen’s work as an educator, musician and community builder has earned recognition both at home and nationally. In 2022, he received the Canadian Band Association Community Builders Award for his work connecting students with professional musicians. In 2023, Cape Breton University conferred an honorary Doctor of Letters on him, and in 2024, he received the East Coast Music Association’s Stompin’ Tom Award for Cape Breton, recognizing his long-term contribution to the East Coast music industry.
Today, Stephen continues to serve as Musical Director and Business Manager of the Men of the Deeps, carrying forward a musical tradition he has known for most of his life.
John C. “Jack” O’Donnell
Longtime Musical Director
For nearly fifty years, John C. “Jack” O’Donnell was at the musical heart of the Men of the Deeps.
A professor of music at St. Francis Xavier University, Jack was a musician, conductor, arranger and researcher with a deep interest in the songs and traditions of working people. He became involved with the Men in their earliest years and went on to shape the choir’s sound and musical identity for generations.
Jack’s commitment to the Men extended far beyond the concert stage. For decades, he made the regular trip from Antigonish to Cape Breton for rehearsals, working with generations of miners and creating arrangements that became part of the distinctive sound of the choir.
His work also made an important contribution to the preservation of mining music in Canada. In 1992, he published And Now the Fields Are Green: A Collection of Coal Mining Songs in Canada, bringing together more than one hundred songs reflecting the lives, work, humour, hardships and history of mining communities.
Jack’s contribution to Canadian music and culture was recognized in 1983 when he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. He was later awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University College of Cape Breton in 1993.
In his later years with the choir, Jack worked closely with assistant conductor Stephen Muise, gradually sharing conducting and arranging responsibilities with the man who would eventually succeed him. Their relationship extended beyond music, with Stephen regarding Jack as both a mentor and a friend.
Jack retired in January 2017 and passed away on October 25, 2018, at the age of 83.
His influence can still be heard every time the Men of the Deeps sing.
Jack O’Donnell did far more than conduct the choir. He helped give the Men their voice.