1984
Search results
Maureen Forrester died on June 16, 2010, aged 79, in Toronto, after a long battle with dementia. She was predeceased by Eugene Kash, her former husband, whom she had divorced in 1974, and who died in 2004.
- Early Years and Education
- Early Professional Career 1951–54
- Professional Career 1955–65
- Professional Career 1966–82
- Later Career 1983–2002
- Vocal Quality
- Key Collaborators and Repertoire
- Premieres of Canadian Compositions
- Opera
- Arts Administration
Raised in a working-class neighbourhood in Montreal, Forrester was the youngest of four children of a family of Scottish and Irish background. She studied piano as a child and, encouraged by her mother, joined several Montreal church choirs, eventually becoming a soloist. Two organists, Warner Norman at St. James United and Doris Killam at Stanley ...
Forrester made her professional debut on 8 December 1951 with the Montreal Elgar Choir in Elgar’s The Music Makers at the Salvation Army Citadel. Her solo recital debut (primarily of German lieder — classical songs sung in German) came on 29 March 1953 at the Montreal YWCA, accompanied by John Newmarkon piano. (Forrester and Newmark’s collaboration...
Forrester made her European debut at the Salle Gaveau in Paris on 14 February 1955 with Newmark as her accompanist. The European tour that followed, planned by the JMC to last two and a half months, was so successful that Forrester and Newmark continued to perform in recital and oratorio until spring 1955. They also performed on the BBC and the Wes...
In the mid-1960s, Forrester began to do some voice teaching in addition to performing. She gave her first master classes at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Musicin the summers of 1965 and 1966. Also in 1966, she became chair of the voice department at the Philadelphia Music Academy. In 1965, Forrester and Lois Marshall joined the US-based Bach Aria...
As Forrester’s voice took on a reedier quality in the late 1980s, she began to include less contemporary music in her repertoire. She also occasionally performed popular music, including the songs of Jerome Kern and Stephen Sondheim at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel. She discussed her life and career in the 1986 autobiography, Out of Character: A Memoi...
From the outset of her career, Forrester’s singing was marked by emotional sensitivity and a reliable and sophisticated musicianship. These qualities, abetted by stamina, poise and impeccable pitch, made her popular with conductors and managers at home and abroad. Early in her career, she was favourably compared with British contralto Kathleen Ferr...
At the height of her career, Forrester gave as many as 120 performances a year on five continents. At one time, she averaged more than 30 concerts a year in Canada alone. She performed with virtually every major orchestra and choir in the world under such renowned conductors as Barbirolli, Beecham, Bernstein, Casals, von Karajan, Klemperer, Krips, ...
Often described as one of the world’s leading contraltos, Forrester remained loyal to her Canadian origins and to Canadian music. She premiered many notable works by Canadian composers, including: Gabriel Charpentier’s Trois poèmes de Saint Jean de la Croix (1954); Jean Papineau-Couture’s Mort (1956); Robert Fleming’s The Confession Stone (Stratfor...
Although Forrester became well regarded as an opera singer, she actually sang very little opera until the 1970s. In addition to the roles already mentioned, her opera appearances included: Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde in Buenos Aires (1963), as well as for the Opéra de Québec (1975) and the Canadian Opera Company (COC, 1979); the Witch in Norman ...
In addition to her busy performance and teaching schedule, Forrester began to branch out into arts administration in the 1970s. She served as national president of the Jeunesses Musicales of Canada (JMC) from 1972 to 1975 and was a founding director of the COMUS Music Theatre Foundation in 1975. She was a member of the board of the National Arts Ce...
Maureen Forrester, the Canadian contralto who was revered for her opulent voice and musical elegance and especially acclaimed for her performances of Mahler, died on Wednesday night in Toronto....
A 1957 CBC telecast with Canada's Grande Dame of Song performing Brahms' composition for contralto, male chorus and orchestra. The Orchestre de Radio-Canada ...
- 13 min
- 12.1K
- kadoguy
Learn about the life and career of Maureen Forrester, one of the most acclaimed Canadian singers of the 20th century. She performed in recitals, oratorio, opera, and chamber music around the world, and taught at the University of Toronto.
Maureen Forrester - Canadian Music Hall Of Fame. Before Celine or Shania, Canada had its own diva in the form of opera star Maureen Forrester. Born of Scottish-Irish descent in a working-class French-speaking Montreal neighbourhood in 1930, Forrester sang in choirs as a child and studied the piano. She dropped out of school at age 13 to help ...
People also ask
Is Maureen Forrester still alive?
Who was Maureen Forrester?
How did Maureen Forrester die?
What music does Maureen Forrester sing?
Forrester, who died in Toronto on June 16, a few weeks before her 80th birthday, was big in many ways: big in physical stature, in voice, in reputation, and big-hearted towards colleagues and others.
