Graham George
Graham Elias George (11 April 1912 – 9 December 1993) was a Canadian
His archives are part of the collection at the Library and Archives Canada.[1]
Early life and education
Born in Norwich, he moved to Canada in 1928 at the age of 16. He studied the organ and music composition with Alfred Whitehead. He earned the Associateship (1934) and Fellowship (1936) of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, the Associateship (1935) of the Royal College of Organists. The examinations for external Bachelor of Music (1936) and Doctor of Music (1939) degrees he earned from University of Toronto were very similar in scope and difficulty with the theoretical parts of the RCO/RCCO examinations; the degrees additionally required the successful submission of composition exercises. George, like Weinzweig before him, was open to contemporary techniques. From 1952 to 1953, George studied composition with Paul Hindemith at the Yale School of Music. During 1956 he also studied conducting with Willem van Otterloo in the Netherlands.[1]
Career
George worked as a church organist-choirmaster and private music teacher in Montreal (1932–1937) and Sherbrooke, Quebec (1937 to 1941). From 1946 to 1977, he taught at Queen's University. A university research grant and a Canada Council exchange grant facilitated his writing of Tonality and Musical Structure between 1970 and 1973; he subsequently wrote Tonality in Tristan and Parsifal and scholarly articles for musical periodicals.[1]
In 1953, George established the
Upon his retirement, Queen's University named him professor emeritus, and named both its music library (1983) and an annual scholarship (to a meritorious composition student) in his honour. He died in Kingston, Ontario in 1993 at the age of 81, after the onset of Alzheimer's disease. His wife of many years, soprano Tjot George, predeceased him by two years.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Clifford Ford. "Graham George". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 10 February 2010.