Joan Maxwell

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Joan Maxwell (born November 17, 1930 in Winnipeg , † December 17, 2000 in Toronto ) was a Canadian singer ( mezzo-soprano ) and music teacher .

Maxwell studied from 1948 at the British Columbia Institute of Music and Drama in Vancouver and 1950 at the Music Faculty of the University of Toronto . Her teachers included Glyndwr Jones and Phyllis Schuldt in Vancouver and Emmy Heim , Greta Kraus and Ernesto Vinci in Toronto . In 1954 she won a prize in the talent competition Opportunity Knocks and the grand prize in the singing competition Nos Futures Étoiles . As a result, she took part in two tours of the Jeunesses musicales of Canada (1954 and 1959). 1955–56 she was runner-up in the Singing Stars of Tomorrow competition . She has appeared as a soloist with the Opera Festival Company , the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Winnipeg Pilharmonic Choir, as well as various radio and television productions of the CBC .

As a scholarship holder of the Canada Council and the British Council, Maxwell perfected her training in England with Otakar Kraus between 1961 and 1967 . In the 1960s she performed in leading roles as an opera singer as well as oratorio and lieder singer under conductors such as Ernest MacMillan , Seiji Ozawa , Walter Susskind , Otto-Werner Mueller , Mario Bernardi and Victor Feldbrill .

After a serious back injury in 1969, Maxwell had to severely limit her activities. From 1973 to 1978 she gave singing lessons at Seneca College , then privately. In 1984 she moved to Ottawa and taught from 1985 at Canterbury High School for the Persormiong Arts and from 1988 at the University of Ottawa , also privately at Carleton University .

She organized the Studio Opera Guild , which gave the city's young singers the opportunity to perform, and became a member of the National Capital Opera Society . Several composers have dedicated works to her, such as Murray Adaskin Of Man and the Universe and Bernard Naylor The Nymph Complaining of the Death of Her Faun . She can be heard on recordings in Calixa Lavallée's opera The Widow and songs by Samuel Barber , Michel Perrault , Richard Strauss and Johannes Brahms (with Chester Duncan at the piano).

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personal data
SURNAME Maxwell, Joan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian singer and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH 17th November 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Winnipeg
DATE OF DEATH December 17, 2000
Place of death Toronto