The U of T is reaching the end of term and if music students are not rehearsing in practice rooms (or if they are lucky and are finished!), they are likely to be found in the music library.

The first librarian was Jean Lavender (1918-2005), who held the position from 1947-1973. After receiving her Bachelor of Library Science degree from U of T in 1940 and working at the Royal Conservatory of Music Library, Ms Lavender oversaw major growth following the appointment of Harvey Olnick in 1954 which established the first musicology program at a Canadian university. She also oversaw the expansion of the library on the 3rd floor of the Edward Johnson Building after it opened in 1963.

Kathleen McMorrow headed the Music Library from 1974 to 2013, with particular responsibilities for building the recordings collections and special collections. During her tenure, the Library holdings increased from about 100,000 to nearly 500,000, and were moved into a purpose-built wing of the Edward Johnson Building.

Kathleen oversaw the library’s transition from card catalogues to computers. UofT Music library was the first major library to do this. Here’s an article she wrote in the mid-70s about it.

Suzanne Meyers Sawa was Interim Head Librarian for several years until Jan Guise joined the Faculty where she previously had been Head Librarian for the music library at the University of Manitoba, 2007-2017.

Today our Music Library has over 300,000 books, scores, periodicals and microforms. The Sniderman Recordings Collection has 180,000 sound recordings, from cylinders to blu-ray.

The Olnick Rare Book Room has 2,500 volumes exemplifying the history of music and of music editing, performance and printing — from liturgical manuscripts and early printed treatises, to first editions of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Gershwin, and early Canadian sheet music and tune books. A significant number of 18th- and 19th-century opera full scores, with particular strength in the French repertoire, complements the large libretto holdings of the Central Library.

Our Archival Collections documents the creative activity of composers and performers associated with the University and the city. The collections include manuscripts, correspondence, programs, photographs and recordings of artists such as John Beckwith, Talivaldis Kenins, Udo Kasemets, the Hart House String Quartet and Kathleen Parlow.

With thanks to Canadian Encyclopedia for details on early history of music libraries in Canada.

The first woman in the British Empire to earn a doctoral degree in music did so from the University of Toronto in 1903.

Meet Eva J. Taylor.

According to the Conservatory Bi-Monthly 3, no. 6(November 1904), p180:

“This month the Bi-Monthly takes special pleasure in presenting a picture of Miss Eva J. Taylor, Mus. Doc, an account of whose exceptional achievements will be read with interest.

Miss Taylor began her Conservatory career in 1894,studying the piano with Dr. Fisher and theory with Dr. Anger. She graduated in both departments in 1897, took the degree of Mus. Bac. at Trinity University in 1898, and that of Mus.Doc. in 1903.

The Provost stated at Convocation that she was the only woman in the Empire who had won this highest musical degree, though two others had received the latter as an honor, Queen Alexandra, whose portrait in her Musical Doctor robes is said to be her most popular one, and Dr. Annie Patterson, an organist in Dublin.

Miss Taylor was organist of St. James’ Church, Guelph, for five years, and is now director of St. George’s Church Choir, a surpliced organization of forty-five members. She finds teaching very interesting and has a large class of pupils. Doubtless she will gain further distinction in the realm of composition.”

This degree, of course, predates the official establishment of the Faculty of Music, but this is important in acknowledging the role of music at U of T at Trinity University and Victoria University.

Additional information online about Dr. Taylor is scarce. We do know she became known as Dr. Nurse a decade after receiving her degree.

From The Greater Vancouver Chinook, June 28, 1913, p10:“The wedding took place in St. Michael’s Church last Wednesday of Miss Eva J. Taylor, Mus. Doc., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S. J.Taylor, to Rev. Oscar nurse, M.A., rector of St. Luke’s Church, South Vancouver. Rev. G. H. Wilson officiated, and there were a large number of friends present. After the ceremony, Mr. and Mrs. Nurse left on a honeymoon to Victoria and Alaska, and on their return they will reside in South Vancouver.”

There may be more information available about her and her career, but additional research is needed. At some point she and her husband moved to the United States as we found a note in a newsletter that Dr. Eva Nurse was an accompanist for a singer at a church service at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, California in 1946.

We are sad to share the news that Dean Emeritus and musicology professor Carl Morey passed away on Monday, December 3, 2018 at the age of 84.

Born July 14, 1934 in Toronto, Morey received his early education from composer Godfrey Ridout, conductor Boyd Neel, and coach and conductor Nicholas Goldschmidt. After receiving his Bachelor of Music degree from the Faculty of Music in 1957, he went on to receive his MMus and PhD in musicology from Indiana University and began his academic career at Wayne State University as a Professor of Humanistic Studies. He went on to the University of Windsor in 1964 and was founding Head of the Department of Music there in 1967.

Professor Carl Morey, early 1970s, photograph by Walter Curtin.

Professor Morey returned home to the Faculty of Music in 1970 and became full professor in 1977. He took on the role of Dean from 1984-1990 and following that he held the Jean A. Chalmers Chair in Canadian Music and was the Director of the Institute for Canadian Music until his retirement in 2000.

Notice in the Globe & Mail for new Dean Carl Morey, 3 July 1984.

Among his many publications, Prof Morey edited eight volumes of the works of pianist Glenn Gould and co-wrote Opera Viva (Dundurn Press, 2000) with Prof Ezra Schabas on the first fifty years of the Canadian Opera Company.

Opera Viva book cover

What person ties all these extraordinary musicians together:

William Aide, John Beckwith, Helmut Blume, Gwendolyn Duchemin, Ray Dudley, Dorothy Sandler Glick, Glenn Gould, Myrtle Rose Guerrero, Stuart Hamilton, Paul Helmer, Horace Lapp, Edward Laufer, Gordana Lazarevich, Pierrette LePage, Edward Magee, Ursula Malkin, Bruce Mather, John McIntyre, Gordon McLean, Oskar Morawetz, Arthur Ozolins, George Ross, R. Murray Schafer, Oleg Telizyn, Malcolm Troup, Neil Van Allen, and Ruth Watson Henderson? *

That would be pianist Alberto Guerrero.

Arriving in Toronto from Chile in 1918 to work at the private music school Hambourg Conservatory, Guerrero went on to teach at the Toronto Conservatory of Music (later known of course as the Royal Conservatory of Music) in 1922. He joined the Faculty of Music in the late 1940s following the post-war expansion of the student body, where he taught until his death in November 1959. His manuscripts, papers, and other items are maintained in the Faculty of Music Library.

For a closer look at his life, please check out Professor John Beckwith’s 2006 book In Search of Alberto Guerrero.

In Search of Alberto Guerrero book cover

Piano remains a strong subject of study at the Faculty of Music. Today at noon, Professor Enrico Elisi performs Mozart, Rihm, Chihara (world premiere) and Beethoven in Walter Hall.

Next week Piano Fest kicks off on Thursday December 6 at 7 pm with additional performances on Saturday December 8 at 2:30 pm and Sunday December 9 at 2:30 pm. All Piano Fest concerts are free and in Walter Hall.

*With thanks to The Canadian Encyclopedia for this list!

Tonight is opening night for the Opera Division for Kurt Weill’s Street Scene!

With lyrics by Langston Hughes and based on the Pulizer Prize-winning play by Elmer Rice, Kurt Weill’s Street Scene is a groundbreaking synthesis of European traditional opera and American musical theatre. The Opera Division has performed Weill in the past. The above photo is from Fred Perruzza’s set design. Fred started working at the Faculty in MacMillan Theatre in September 1978 and has been integral to set design for opera at the Faculty ever since, even after his retirement in June 2015.

Here’s a look backstage with Fred discussing all things production in 2010:

The opera students, chorus, and orchestra have been hard at work with Professors Michael Patrick Albano (director) and Sandra Horst (conductor):

Michael Albano and Sandra Horst in rehearsal 24 Jan 2017

The Opera School, now known as the Opera Division, has had many opening nights, spanning from 1946. For more information on its beginnings, read up on a history of Opera and the University of Toronto 1946-1971 by Kenneth W. Peglar [pdf; 10 mb].

We all know the importance of music and its use to train and enhance our emotions, for example. But why does music do that? How does music do that?

This aspect of music research may not have been on the minds of musical leaders when the Faculty of Music was established 100 years ago, but it is now. We believe music and health interdisciplinary research will have great significance for the future of music in the next 100 years.

Originally led by Professor Lee Bartel, the Music and Health Research Collaboratory was established in 2012. It is now led by Professor Michael Thaut who in 2017 was a named a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Music, Neuroscience and Health.

What research is happening now?

Professor Thaut is leading research on Alzheimer’s and music. Read about it in this November 7 CBC article, “Familiar music could give Alzheimer’s patients a cognitive boost, study suggests”.

Faculty members like Professor Daphne Tan (photo above) research historical and present-day intersections of music theory, philosophy, and psychology. Join us on Tuesday, November 20 at 3:15 pm in EJB room 215 for her lecture as part of the MaHRC Colloquium Series,  “Expressing and Perceiving Emotion: Perspectives from Music Cognition”.

Today is fall convocation day for Faculty of Music students. Congratulations new grads! Today, you will hear John Tuttle perform.

John Tuttle was named University Organist in 1979 (a role he still maintains) where he plays organ in Convocation Hall before and after all convocation ceremonies. That fall he also began teaching at the Faculty of Music.

Convocation Hall interior with organ

In 1981 he founded the Exultate Chamber Singers, a twenty-voice ensemble that has gained a national reputation for superb choral singing. Dr. Tuttle retired from conducting the Exultate Chamber Singers in May 2011. From 1981 to 2006 he conducted the Hart House Chorus. From 1985 to 2000 he was Music Director of the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, which commissioned numerous operas for children, and toured throughout Canada and the USA. He has been and continues to be integral to musical life on campus.

The Faculty of Music has additional connections to Con Hall: it was used as a performance space for large ensembles prior to the Edward Johnson Building and MacMillan Theatre being built.

Here are Faculty of Music students posing in Convocation Hall prior to a performance in 1959:

Music Students in Convocation Hall 1959

While teaching and working as a stage director in Germany, Herman Geiger-Torel had a contract cancelled in 1934 because he was Jewish. Geiger-Torel went on to direct opera in France and many productions in Latin America, including in Brazil and Uruguay where he lived. In 1947 in Toronto, Nicholas Goldschmidt asked him to join as a guest at the newly formed Opera School at the University of Toronto and Royal Conservatory of Music.

Geiger-Torel was stage director of the very first full-length production of the Opera School in April 1947, Smetana’s The Bartered Bride. He joined the Opera School officially in October 1948 as stage director.

A professional extension of the Opera School began in 1950 called the Opera Festival Association of Toronto. Moving from Stage Director to Artistic Director in 1956 then to General Director in 1959, Herman Geiger-Torel led the Opera Festival Association of Toronto in 1960 to its name as we know it today: the Canadian Opera Company.

Geiger-Torel held the position of General Director until his retirement in 1976. He died later that year, on his way to give a lecture on Die Walküre to the Wagner Society. [via obituary in the New York Times]

The opera rehearsal room in the Edward Johnson Building is named in his honour.

On Monday, November 12 at 7:30 pm in Walter Hall, we are hosting the free Herman Geiger-Torel lecture. Adjunct Professor Stephen Clarke will give the lecture “Opera and Song 100 Years Ago”.

Herman Geiger-Torel 1968 by Jeff Goode, in rehearsal via Toronto Public Library archives

Top photo from 1963 by Norman James, courtesy of Toronto Public Library archives

Dr. Doreen Rao joined the Faculty of Music in 1988, after having been assistant conductor with the Chicago Symphony Chorus. She had made her conducting debut in at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 1980 and went on to make her Carnegie Hall Debut in May 1990 with the Manhattan Philharmonic. She authored numerous choral textbooks and has held clinics around the world. While at U of T Dr. Rao founded the International Bach Festival with fellow conductor Helmuth Rilling. Dr. Rao was the inaugural Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting at the Faculty of Music and retired at the end of the 2009-2010 academic year.

In the featured photo, taken during the 1990-91 academic year, is Dr. Rao with the Concert Choir. In the back row third from the right is Grammy winner soprano Dr. Barbara Hannigan. Barbara has subsequently developed a conducting career and according to the concert program 90-91 Concert Choir – Dec 1 [pdf, 6mb] what may well have been her conducting debut at the Faculty was at the December 1990 performance.

This Saturday Dr. Rao will be giving a lecture and demonstration at 4:45 pm in room 330 at Becoming Eleanor Stubley: Beyond the Given. Please join us all day beginning at 8:30 am in Walter Hall.

Known to her students simply as “Madame”, Irene Jessner was the first appointed voice faculty member at the University of Toronto.

Born in Vienna, Madame Jessner received her training with Professor Victor Fuchs at the New Conservatory of Music in that city. Invited by Edward Johnson to join the Metropolitan Opera in New York, she made her US debut in 1936 in Hansel and Gretel. After her debut as Elsa in Lohengrin, Madame Jessner’s reputation grew steadily and she enjoyed outstanding success as an opera singer in Europe, South America and the United States. [above photo: (l-r) Lauritz Melchior, Edward Johnson, Irene Jessner and Astrid Varney at a 1946 performance of Lohengrin at the Met, celebrating Melchior’s 20^th Anniversary there.]

She remained with the company until 1952, singing such roles as Desdemona in Otello and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. Again, on an invitation from Johnson, she joined the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, in 1952. She also performed with such orchestras as the Detroit Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Chicago Symphony.

Irene Jessner newspaper ad 1946 from Vintage Ad services

Since she joined the Faculty of Music, her Canadian pupils included Teresa Stratas, Jeannette Zarou, Riki Turofsky, Mary Lou Fallis, Nancy Hermiston, Jean MacPhail, Lilian Sukis, and Heather Thomson. She taught at the Faculty until spring 1986. On November 3, 1986, a gala concert was held in her honour at Walter Hall. She passed away in January 1994 at the age of 92.

Today, much has changed in voice studies at the Faculty of Music. Wendy Nielsen is head of voice studies, and we have a large number of excellent and exciting concerts in our 2018-2019 season, including our Vocalis series concerts. Our Vocalis series concerts began in the 2015-2016 season of the Faculty of Music, and feature Master’s and Doctoral level Voice students.

Our first Vocalis concert of the year takes place tonight.  Extended Techniques: Using the Whole Animal is a concert curated by two of the voice area’s vocal coaches and collaborative pianists, Suzy Smith and Jo Greenaway. The concert will take place in the Music Room of Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle, at 7:30 pm and is free and open to the public. The Vocalis series is made possible in part by a generous gift from Dianne W. Henderson.

with writing and research by Alexandra Brennan