Lois Marshall

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Lois Catherine Marshall (born January 29, 1925 in Toronto ; † February 19, 1997 ibid) was a Canadian singer (soprano / mezzo-soprano) and vocal teacher.

Life

education

Marshall had her first singing lessons at the age of twelve with Weldon Kilburn , whom she married in 1968 and who worked with her until 1971 and performed as a piano accompanist. From 1947 to 1950 she also studied song singing with Emmy Heim . From 1947 she appeared several times in performances of the St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Ernest MacMillan . With the same cast, she also took part in performances of Bach's B Minor Mass , Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem and Handel's Messiah .

Career

Arturo Toscanini engaged her in 1953 for a performance of Beethoven's Missa solemnis ; in the same year she sang the world premiere of Godfrey Ridout's Cantiones mysticae No. 1 in Carnegie Hall under Leopold Stokowski . She made her debut in London in 1956 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Thomas Beecham . In 1957 she gave concerts with Weldon Kilburn at the Edinburgh Festival and at the Royal Festival Hall in London. In 1958, she went on a tour with him through the Soviet Union.

Marshall has appeared at numerous festivals in Canada, including the Vancouver International Festival (1958 and 1959), the Guelph Spring Festival (1971, 1972, 1974 and 1980), the Stratford Festival and the Heinz Ungers York Concert Society (1957, 1963, 1964 and 1965). At the Stratford Festival in 1962 she sang Paul Hindemith's Das Marienleben accompanied by Glenn Gould . In the 1960s she gave orchestral concerts with tenor Richard Verreau in Toronto, Montreal and Quebec and tenor Peter van Ginkel in Winnipeg . At the Stratford Festival in 1970 she sang operatic arias and duets with Louis Quilico . In the early 1970s she performed several times with Maureen Forrester .

In the mid-1970s she switched to the mezzo-soprano and now sang works such as Franz Schubert's Winterreise (1976) and Die Schöne Müllerin (1979, with Greta Kraus ), Robert Schumann 's Frauenliebe und -leben and Dichterliebe and Johannes Brahms ' Vier Ernst Gesänge (1977, with Anton Kuerti ). 1981–1982 she undertook her farewell tour with Stuart Hamilton . Even after that she performed occasionally, for example with Greta Kraus on the 100th anniversary of the Royal Conservatory of Music in 1987, at a performance of Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire in 1989 and several performances of the Messiah .

In 1985 she was musical director of the TriBach Festival in Edmonton. From 1986 to 1997 she taught at the University of Toronto , where Monica Whicher was one of her students. In 1990 she took part in the Scotia Festival of Music , where she took on the narrative role in William Walton's Façade . Music by contemporary Canadian composers was also part of her repertoire. She has worked on world premieres of Alexander Brott's Songs of Contemplation (1945), John Beckwith's Four Songs to Poems by ee cummings , Godfrey Ridouts Esther (1952), Paul McIntyres Judith (1958), Harry Freedman's Anerca (1966), and Ridouts Folk Songs of Eastern Canada (1968), Oskar Morawetz ' From the Diary of Anne Frank (1970), Richard Johnston's The Irish Book (1972) and Harry Somers ' Limericks (1980) with.

Awards

Marshall has received numerous awards for her work. She received the National Award in Music from the University of Alberta , a Centennial Medal (1967), the Canadian Music Council Medal (1972), the Medal of Excellence from the Ontario Arts Council (1973) and the Molson Prize (1980). She was honored as a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1968 and the Order of Ontario in 1993, and in 1987 she won the Toronto Arts Award for Music. In 1994 she became the honorary patroness of the Omtario Choral Federation . The CBC honored her with broadcasts in 1980 and the documentary series Hark the Echoing Air (1983). The University of Toronto established a Lois Marshall Chair in Singing Studies. Marshall's estate is owned by the Library and Archives of Canada .

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personal data
SURNAME Marshall, Lois
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marshall, Lois Catherine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian singer and vocal teacher
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Toronto
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 1997
Place of death Toronto