Diachun, Bill, 1940-2014

Canadian pianist and songwriter Bill Diachun was born in Montreal, Quebec, the second child of Ukrainian immigrants. He attended McGill University’s MacDonald College in the West Island, and was a quarterback on the football team; he also played Rugby with the NDG Maple Leafs. As a student, he also accompanied singers at collegiate variety shows. In 1964 he and fellow Ukrainian Montrealer Jerry Hrynewych co-wrote the song “Swing High, Freedom Chariot.” Shortly after his daughter was born the family moved to Annapolis, Nova Scotia, where Diachun taught school in nearby Digby, but later moved back to Montreal. He taught high-school English in the Montreal area, but on the side followed his musical inclinations, composing and singing such songs as “Gypsy Lover” (1971), “Walk the Straight and Narrow”(1971), and “Mon Dieu, écoute ma prière.” His daughter, Melody, became a jazz singer and composer, and in 2009 was a Canadian National Jazz Awards' nominee for Female Vocalist of the Year in 2009.