Accused in Court

OTTAWA — The man accused of murdering the president of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO while she was vacationing in Barbados appeared in court last week for a preliminary hearing, the Ottawa Citizen reported. Curtis Joel Foster, 24, is accused of killing Terry Schwarzfeld, 60, during a Feb. 28 robbery on a beach in which her daughter-in-law, Luana Cotsman, was also seriously injured. The women were beaten with a piece of wood. Schwarzfeld died in Ottawa on March 18 after sustaining head injuries. Cotsman has since recovered. Foster pleaded guilty last year to four robberies involving tourists on the same beach, and he faces a charge of raping a German tourist in July 2008.

Conductor Honoured

MONTREAL — Quebec Premier Jean Charest decorated Yoav Talmi, the Israeli artistic director and conductor of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra (QSO), with the insignia of officer of the National Order of Quebec in a Sept. 9 ceremony at the Grand Théâtre de Québec. Since taking the helm of the orchestra in 1998, Talmi has brought it up to an artistic level on par with the best in Canada, and greatly enhanced the public’s interest in classical music and the cultural life of Quebec in general, Charest said. In that time, the QSO has made seven recordings, all critically well received, and earned a number of prizes. Talmi is also principal guest conductor of the Israel Chamber Orchestra in Tel Aviv. Over his long career, he has conducted orchestras in Europe, the United States and elsewhere. Talmi also holds an honorary doctorate from Laval University.