Gerald Bales

Albert Gerald Bales CM (born May 12, 1919 in Toronto , Ontario , † July 4, 2002 in London , Ontario) was a Canadian organist, pianist, composer, choir director and music teacher.

As a child, Bales had music lessons from his mother and gave a piano concert at the age of seven and an organ concert at the age of thirteen. From 1936 to 1940 he studied piano and organ with Albert Procter , music theory with Leo Smith and Healey Willan and conducting with Herbert A. Fricker at the Toronto Conservatory of Music . At his debut concert in 1937 in the Eaton Audirorium , he also played his own works.

He then had positions as organist and choirmaster at St. Anne's Anglican Church (1937-41) and Rosedale United Church (1941-43) and - after serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II - at Brant Avenue United Church in Brantford / Ontario, at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Toronto (1946–1956) and the Anglican Cathedral Church of the Redeemer in Calgary.

With the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra he performed his Fantasy for piano and orchestra in 1947 . In the 1950s he conducted in broadcasting the CBC that he founded in 1953 St. Andrew's Singers and oratorios by Handel and played many of his organ works. As a delegate of the Royal Canadian College of Organists at the first International Congress of Organists , he gave a concert at Westminster Cathedral in London in 1957 .

As organist and choirmaster at the Cathedral Church of St Mark in Minneapolis (1959-71), Bales founded a series of concerts in which he premiered works by Canadian composers such as Godfrey Ridouts Ascension , Keith Bissell's Advent Cantata , Eugene Hills Concertino for organ and orchestra and his played his own Song of Creation . After a robbery on the church in which he was injured, he had to cut back on his concert activities. Until he moved to London in 1984, he taught organ, choral conducting and orchestration at the University of Ottawa and worked as organist and choir director at Trinity Anglican Church .

Bales composed more than 150 works. Several of these have been performed at the CBC under conductors such as Ernest MacMillan , Victor Feldbrill and Elmer Iseler , and others have been performed at the Egan and the Leslie Choral Series . In his early works he was influenced by his teacher Willan, later he approached atonal music. In 1996 he was honored as a member of the Order of Canada .

source

• Gerald Bales ( English, French ) In: Encyclopedia of Music in Canada . published by The Canadian Encyclopedia .