A native of Pouce Coupé, British Columbia, Errol Gay holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of British Columbia, a Master of Arts in Musicology from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Stanford University (California) in conducting. He has been Music Director of orchestras in New York, Texas and North Carolina and has been a studio and orchestra trombonist and pianist in Vancouver and Toronto, as well as holding professorial positions at several American universities.

From 1970 to 1976, Errol was a conductor and chorus master with the Canadian Opera Company. Since 1983, he has been repeatedly engaged as guest conductor by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and other leading Canadian Orchestras, including Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Windsor, Kitchener-Waterloo and the National Arts Centre (Ottawa). For several seasons, he was Assistant Musical Director of the Charlottetown Festival and Co-Conductor of the High Park Choirs of Toronto, as well as Music Advisor/Conductor of the Hart House Orchestra, University of Toronto. Maestro Gay was appointed Music Director of Orchestra Toronto in 2002. Recently, he retired after 24 years as a Librarian with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Errol has been privileged to conduct for such outstanding and diverse artists as Doc Severinsen, Dizzy Gillespie, the Kings’ Singers, the Modern Jazz Quartet, the Chieftains, Canadian Brass, Jean-Luc Ponty, Ferrante & Teicher, the National Tap Dance Company, Magic Circle Mime Company, Jacques Israelievitch, Mary Lou Fallis, Ann Mortifee, Martin Beaver, Erika Raum, Al Simmons, Fred Penner, Monica Mancini, and Anne Murray. He has performed as pianist with Richard Stoltzman, and with the Empire Brass; and was engaged by Sir Andrew Davis to be “cover” conductor on two European tours of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

In December 2005 Errol's opera, A Dickens of a Christmas (based on Dickens' A Christmas Carol, conceived by Ann Cooper Gay with libretto by Michael Patrick Albano, and commissioned by Doug Ludwig & Karen Rice and family) was premiered by the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus and guest soloists at the Harbourfront Theatre in December 2005. An expanded score was greeted with great acclaim in December 2006, and the work will be given its European premiere at the “Summer Music on the Shannon” Festival in Limerick, Ireland in August 2007.