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Dr. Graham Elias George, Professor Emeritus of Queen's University, composer, teacher, theorist, organist-choirmaster, and author, was born in Norwich, England, April 11, 1912. After moving to Canada in 1928, he studied composition in Montréal with Alfred Whitehead, and in 1952-53, at Yale University with Paul Hindemith. George studied conducting in 1956 with Willem van Otterloo in Holland, and received a Philosophy degree from Queen's University. In 1946, he moved to Kingston, Ontario as resident musician and teacher at Queen's University until 1978. He was acting head of the Music Department of Queen's from its inception in 1968 until 1971.
Also, he was organist-choirmaster and teacher in Montréal (1932-37) and in Sherbrooke, Québec (1937-40) and held church positions in Kingston and Gananoque until 1987. George founded the Kingston Choral Society in 1953 and the new Symphony Orchestra of Kingston (renamed Kingston Symphony in 1963) the next year, and conducted both until 1957. He has been president of the Canadian Folk Music Society (1965-69) and the RCCO (1972-74), and was selected Secretary-General of the International Folk Music Council (now changed to International Council for Traditional Music) in 1968-80.
In 1938, he won his first composition award, the Prix Jean Lallemand for Variations on an Original Theme, and received Canadian Performing Rights Society awards in 1943 and 1947 (Variations for Strings, 1942, and the ballet Jabberwocky, 1947). He has composed extensively for choir, mainly in the 20th century English idiom, and has completed many concert works on commission: three ballets and four operas including Evangeline in 1948.
George received a research award (1970-73) from Queen's University and an exchange grant (1972) from the Canada Council and Ministère des Affaires Culturelles of France. As well as the many articles and critiques he wrote, his books include Tonality and Musical Structure (hard bound and later paper-back), Faber and Faber, England, which takes a new look at the concept of form as an outcome of key relation, and a manual, Twelve-note Tonal Counterpoint (published in 1976 by Frederick Harris). He published a book about tonalities in Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal , in 1988.
Dr. Graham George passed away in 1993.
(Canadian Music Centre)
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