John C. O’Donnell is Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of Music at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, having retired from active teaching in September 2000. Professor O’Donnell holds degrees in music from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, and the University of London (England) Kings College.
For most of the past fifty years Jack O’Donnell has also served as conductor and musical director of Cape Breton’s coal miners choir, The Men of the Deeps, a position which required him to travel almost weekly from Antigonish to Glace Bay in order to coach and rehearse the singing miners. Under his leadership the choir has performed throughout most of Canada and the United States, and in 1976 The Men of the Deeps became the first Canadian performing group to tour the People’s Republic of China following the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
In 1983 Professor O’Donnell’s efforts were honoured by the government of Canada when he was awarded the Order of Canada, this nation’s highest civilian award. And in 1993 his efforts were recognized by Cape Breton University with the degree Doctor of Letters, honoris causa – an honour that was bestowed upon the entire membership of The Men of the Deeps in the year 2000. Jack’s long association with Cape Breton’s coal miners choir was again recognized in 2013 when, in conjunction with the 300 year anniversary celebrations of Fortress Louisbourg, Cape Breton University’s Beaton Institute presented him with the inaugural Katharine McLennan Award honouring his contributions to the heritage of Cape Breton’s coal mining communities.
In 2015 he received special recognition from his peers when the East Coast Music Association presented him with the Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award at it annual awards ceremony in Sydney.
Professor O’Donnell has published widely on the subject of coal mining songs in Canada, contributing regularly to several national and international journals. He has also published two books documenting the songs of The Men of the Deeps and has collaborated with singer/songwriter Allister MacGillivray on two of MacGillivray’s major collections: The Cape Breton Song Collection and The Nova Scotia Song Collection (Sydney, Sea Cape Music Limited, 1985 and 1989). In 1992 he completed a major anthology of songs related to the coal mining industry, And Now the Fields are Green: A Collection of Coal Mining Songs in Canada (Sydney, NS, University College of Cape Breton Press).