In 2002, at the 3rd annual Opera Canada “Rubies” Gala, guest presenter Marilyn Horne presented Mary Morrison with the Opera Educator award for her outstanding achievements in the world of vocal pedagogy.

In fact, Morrison has taught at Universities across Canada for over 40 years. She was appointed at U of T in 1979, and has since supervised the vocal studies of many young singers who are among today’s stars of opera and the concert stage, including Barbara Hannigan, Measha Brüggergosman, Gregory Dahl, Tracy Dahl, Gordon Gietz, Shannon Mercer, Wendy Nielsen, Adrienne Pieczonka and John Tessier.

Mary Morrison was born in Winnipeg in 1926. In 1944, she made her local radio debut, singing in the CBC’s ‘Sweethearts’ and ‘Prairie Schooner’ at the Manitoba Music Competition Festival. Morrison came to Toronto in 1945 to study voice, pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Royal Conservatory of Music Toronto (RCMT). Morrison was a part of what would become the University of Toronto’s opera school at the very beginning.

Morrison also debuted as Mimi in La Bohème with the Opera Festival (the early Canadian Opera Company) in 1950. Morrison went on to perform with the CBC Opera, in roles such as Micaëla in Carmen, Liù in Turandot, Lucie in Arthur Benjamin’s A Tale of Two Cities, the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro (radio and TV), and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte. With the COC, she was Marguerite in Faust, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Marie in The Bartered Bride, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Felice in Wolf-Ferrari’s School for Fathers, and the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro. Below she is pictured in their production of La Bohème, as Mimi.

Morrison also made solo symphony appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, and the symphony orchestras of Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg.

Morrison’s advocacy of Canadian new music, and 20th-century music led to her being named an ambassador of the Canadian Music Centre in 2009, and being awarded the Canadian Music Citation for Outstanding Achievement in the Performance of Canadian Music in 1968.

She was a member (with flautist, Robert Aitken and pianist, Marion Ross) of the Lyric Arts Trio, which premiered numerous Canadian works, and Canadian premieres of US and European works.

Morrison worked with some of the world’s most renowned and prolific international composers of the 20th Century, including Luciano Berio, John Cage, George Crumb, Maxwell Davies, György Ligeti, Krzysztof Penderecki, Igor Stravinsky, Toru Takemitsu and Iannis Xenakis.

Many new Canadian works were written specifically for her, by composers such as John Beckwith, Murray Schafer, Harry Somers, John Weinzweig and her late husband, Harry Freedman.

Notably as well, Morrison participated in the premiere of Louis Riel, an opera by the Canadian composer Harry Somers. Louis Riel was written for the 1967 Canadian centennial, and was produced by the Canadian Opera Company, with Victor Feldbrill conducting. Bernard Turgeon performed as Riel, and Morrison as his sister Sara. The opera was later adapted by Franz Kraemer for CBC TV, in 1969, for which Morrison reprised her role of Sara.

Morrison was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1983, and was awarded a medal of service from the City of Toronto in 1985. In 2017, Morrison received an honorary degree with the University of Toronto, along with former student Barbara Hannigan. Summing up her philosophy of teaching she said “The key for me is to discover what will help students in their individual choices and the development of their full potential.”

by Alexandra Brennan

The Faculty of Music is wrapping up its academic year and all the large and small ensembles are having their final performances.

Here is a look at various ensemble photos we have in our archives.

Born before Canadian Confederation, Augustus Vogt grew up in Elmira, Ontario where his father was a hotel-keeper and built organs.

Vogt became a church organist at age 12 (performing on an organ built by his father) and continued his education in Hamilton, Ontario. He then went to the New England Conservatory in 1881 and Leipzig Conservatory in Germany in 1885.

In 1894 he established the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the country’s longest running mixed voice amateur choir. Their first performance was at Massey Hall on January 15, 1895. He led the choir on numerous tours, establishing partnerships with many US orchestras.

Vogt continued to work as a conductor, organist, and educator while adding administrator to his many duties when he became principal of the Toronto Conservatory of Music in 1913 (later known as the Royal Conservatory of Music).

He helped establish the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto becoming its first Dean in 1918, a position he held until his death in September 1926.

The Mendelssohn Choir honored him with a stained glass memorial window in St. Paul’s Andglican Church in Toronto.

Choral Music remains a vital part of the Faculty of Music. The final choral concert of the year is Sunday, March 31st 2:30 pm in MacMillan Theatre led by conductors Dr. Elaine Choi and Dr. Mark Ramsey.

More information on Dr. Augustus Vogt:

The Canadian Encyclopedia

The Musical Times Vol. 53, No. 838 (Dec. 1, 1912), pp. 773-776 (5 pages)

Phil Nimmons started with a big band and teaching improvisation in 1973 at the Faculty of Music. After adding another big band and some more jazz courses, it was clear a formal program was needed. But who would lead?

Enter Paul Read.

Graduating from the Faculty of Music in 1970 (he later added a Master’s degree in 1991), Read was a member of the Humber College Music Faculty in Toronto from 1979 to 1991, where he taught and served as Program Coordinator (1982-1987) and Director of Music (1987-1991).

In 1991, he founded degree programs in jazz studies at the Faculty of Music, where he was Professor of Music and Director of Jazz Studies. Prof Read was Canada’s Representative on the Board of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) from 2002-2008, and was the founding Director of the National Music Camp (NMC) Jazz Program (1987 to 2006). Prof Read retired in 2009 after a brief stint as Director of Graduate Jazz Studies.

In 2015 Prof Read received the Muriel Sherrin award for international achievement in music from the Toronto Arts Foundation. From the TAF site: “The Toronto Arts Foundation Muriel Sherrin Award is a $10,000 cash prize that celebrates an artist or creator who has made a contribution to the cultural life of Toronto through outstanding achievement in music or dance. The recipient will also have participated in international initiatives, including touring, studying abroad and participating in artist exchanges.”

With the foundation laid by Prof Read, Jazz Studies continues to thrive and evolve at the Faculty. There are now about 100 undergraduate students and 21 graduate students in the program.

Students perform weekly on Mondays at the Rex, at the Upper Jazz Studio at 90 Wellesley, around the city, as well as in Walter Hall.

Tonight, the U of T Jazz Orchestra and 11 O’Clock Orchestra play with three time Grammy-nominee trumpeter Tim Hagans (the John and Claudine Distinguished Visitor in Jazz), performing Andrew Rathbun’s The Atwood Suites, which sets the poetry of Canadian icon Margaret Atwood in two three-part suites for vocalist and jazz orchestra. Undergrad Jenna Pinard and Doctorate of Musical Arts in Performance (DMA) student Meghan Gilhespy will be singing.

The DMA for jazz is new for the Faculty and in Canada. When Meghan completes her program, she will be the first woman to receive a doctoral degree in jazz performance in Canada.

Constance Fisher, known to all who worked with her as Connie, began her musical studies at the RCMT with Alberto Guerrero (piano), and Weldon Kilburn and Irene Jessner (voice), as well as with Herman Geiger-Torel at the opera school there. She made her debut in 1957 with the Opera Festival of Toronto (later COC) as the Mother in Hansel and Gretel. A member of the COC until 1966, she sang Musetta in La Bohème (1963) and, in touring productions, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte (1963) and Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus (1964, 1965), among other roles.

Under the guidance of Herman Geiger-Torel and Boris Goldovsky, Ms. Fisher entered the field of stage direction as Assistant Director for both of these men and later as Stage Director and Instructor at the Banff School of Fine Arts.

In the 1967-68 season she made her directorial debut with the COC with a production of La Bohème and subsequently directed Barber of Seville, Tosca, and new productions of Il Tabarro and L’Heure Espagnol for the COC.

At the Banff School of Fine Arts she produced Orpheus in the Underworld, Madama Butterfly, Così fan tutte and Hansel and Gretel. Across Canada she directed for the Edmonton Opera Association (Die Fledermaus and Mikado), the Southern Alberta Opera Association (Die Fledermaus and the Barber of Seville), and the Manitoba Opera Association (Die Fledermaus).

Connie Fisher joined the Faculty of Music’s Opera Division staff in 1971 as a stage director and instructor, and then was designated divisional coordinator of the opera division in 1978. She was succeeded in 1983 by Michael Albano, who had begun as stage director in 1977. Albano and Fisher became associate coordinators of the division in 1987.

Her productions at the Faculty of Music include Elixir of Love, The Crucible (Canadian premiere), Don Giovanni, Orpheus in the Underworld, La Perichole, Katya Kabanova (Canadian premiere), Dialogues of the Carmelites, L’Oca delCairo, Gianni Schicchi, Sir John in Love (North American premiere), Albert Herring, and Cambiale di Matrimonio (Canadian premiere).

Quite a few of her productions were conducted by her husband W. James Craig who, in 1971, became head coach and conductor for the Opera Division. He had been a coach and conductor previously, 1958-64. In 1976, Craig became musical director for the Opera Division, and remained in the position in 1990.

Tonight is opening night of the Opera Division’s production of Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, conducted by alumnus Russell Braun and directed by Michael Albano.

While his career as a baritone performing on stages around the world continues, our Resident Operatic Performance Specialist Russell Braun makes his second appearance as a conductor with U of T.

Article by Alexandra Brennan.

Composer John Weinzweig had an enormous impact on contemporary classical Canadian music.

Known as the “Dean of Canadian Composers”, Weinzweig received his MusBac from the Faculty of Music in 1937 (where he founded the original U of T Symphony Orchestra in 1935), went to study composition at Eastman, and returned to Canada where he worked at the CBC from 1941-1951 and began experimenting with serialism in his compositions.

He was founder and first president of the Canadian League of Composers in 1951.

He joined the Faculty of Music in 1952 as associate professor and was co-planner of the Canadian Music Centre in 1959. His students included Murray Adaskin, Robert Aitken, Kristi Allik, John Beckwith, Norma Beecroft, Brian Cherney, Samuel Dolin, Harry Freeman, Srul Irving Glick, David Jaeger, Phil Nimmons, Harry Somers, R. Murray Schafer, Doug Riley, and Kenny Wheeler.

He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1974. He taught at the Faculty until 1977 but continued to remain very active as a composer following his retirement from teaching.

The Canadian Encyclopedia describes his compositions: “In all Weinzweig’s works, however varied the problems engaged or the solutions offered, qualities remain that have characterized Weinzweig’s music since 1939: clarity of texture; economy of material; rhythmic energy; tight motivic organization, usually but not slavishly controlled through serialism; short melodic outbursts contrasted with long flowing lines; and harmonies that, though often harsh, never fully lose their tonal orientation. The tonal references are more likely to be modal suggestions, or progressions blurred by added pitches, than recollections from Western common practice. Weinzweig once said, speaking of his (mainly unhappy) undergraduate years: ‘No one ever explained tonality to me.’ The core of his compositional output is the series of 12 divertimentos, four of them written after 1982.”

Weinzweig had a knack for celebrating his music around his birthdays. He would have celebrated his 106th birthday next Monday.

The Faculty celebrated in 1988:

Concerts were staged in honour of his 70th Birthday at Roy Thomson Hall (concert program [pdf; 19.4 mb]) and 80th Birthday in Walter Hall (concert program [pdf; 10.8 mb]).

A series of concerts were held for his centenary in 2013.

Alumnus Richard Henninger wrote of John Weinzweig in 1973 on the occasion of his 60th birthday: “Now, at a time when mainstream twentieth century techniques are a fact of life in Canadian composition, we can look back and realize that, more than any other musician, John Weinzweig was responsible for initiating their usage. With his own music, in the early forties, Weinzweig broke the ground for the rest of us by putting sounds inspired by Berg and Stravinsky before radio and concert audiences at a time when such sounds were sure to meet resistance. By introducing contemporary techniques to a few sympathetic colleagues and students, he generated a small group of like-minded composers which became the foundation of the variety and quality found in Canadian music today.”

John Weinzweig was born in Toronto on March 11, 1913 and died in Toronto on August 24, 2006.

The Faculty of Music has been at the forefront of early music performance and research for many years.

From musicologists Professor Emeritus Mary Ann Parker, Professor Emeritus Timothy McGee, and now Professor Remi Chiu, to countertenor Professor Daniel Taylor and violinist Professor Jeanne Lamon (Music Director of Tafelmusik from 1981 to 2014), the Faculty has leaders in all aspects of the academic spectrum.

The Toronto Consort traces its roots back to U of T Music, having been co-founded by Prof Tim McGee in 1972.

Professor Daniel Taylor joined the Faculty of Music in 2012 and quickly built the early music voice program as well as starting Schola Cantorum. Building the program for students through mentorship and collaboration with professional groups like the Tallis Scholars, Professor Taylor has led our students to one JUNO nomination in 2014 for The Heart’s Refuge with the Theatre of Early Music and the student ensemble Schola Cantorum and a second recording The Vale Of Tears that was released on Analekta in September 2015.

Last year Schola Cantorum had a performance that included guest singer Governor General of Canada Julie Payette:

Upcoming: the weekend of March 9 and 10 will feature two Early Music Performances. Israel in Egypt will be performed on March 9 with conductors Jeanne Lamon and Daniel Taylor with guest tenor Charles Daniels. March 10 features guest conductor David Fallis with tenor Charles Daniels in a program titled Monteverdi and the Glory of Venice.

How about that backdrop for a recital hall?

Read more here.

After a solo career that began as early as age 10 when she had her debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Piano Professor Patricia Parr joined the Faculty of Music in 1974 after a previous appointment at Duquesne University. She retired from the Faculty in 1993.

Professor Parr established the Amici Chamber Ensemble with cellist David Hetherington and clarinetist Joaquin Valdepeñas in 1986 and continued to play with them until spring 2009. Amici recorded numerous albums, toured around the world, and had (and continues to have) an annual concert series in Toronto.

Parr was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2009. In 2016 she published her autobiography Above Parr with Prism Publishers.

Prof Parr was vital at the Faculty not only for her teaching and mentorship, but also for establishing the Faculty Artist Series of concerts. This concert series features faculty members in concert each year, and in the tradition of Amici Chamber Ensemble, also includes many friends of the Faculty. Proceeds from these concerts support an annual scholarship at the Faculty of Music.

As part of this year’s Faculty Artist Series, the Calidore String Quartet are performing in Walter Hall on Wednesday, February 27 at 7:30 pm.

The work of Professor Emeritus Doreen Hall has had a profound effect on music education in North America. Professor of music education from 1967-1985, she was the first teacher of Orff Method in North America.

In 1954 Doreen Hall became the first foreign student to study with Carl Orff in Salzburg. Following this, Prof Hall did the first English translation of Orff’s Musik für Kinder in 1956 and taught its methods to students in Canada and the United States.

Prof Hall coordinated the first ever public event held in the new Edward Johnson Building in July 1962.

Featuring composer and educator Carl Orff, the first International Conference on Elementary Music Education introduced Orff Schulwerk to over 160 participants.

Upon her retirement in 1985, Carl Orff Canada and friends and family of Doreen Hall established the Doreen Hall Scholarship, an award given annually to an outstanding undergraduate student preparing for a career in music education, particularly with children.

Doreen Hall was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2008.

Additional information:

The Evolution of Orff-Schulwerk in North America (1955-1969) by Patricia W. Hughes, The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Jul., 1993), pp. 73-91 (19 pages)

The Canadian Encyclopedia