Robert Sunter

Sunter, Robert
Robert (Henry Anthony) Sunter. Administrator, critic, b Liverpool, 20 Nov 1931, naturalized Canadian 1975. As a child he studied piano and sang in the choir of St Francis Xavier's College. After coming to Canada in the early l950s he worked for several Ontario newspapers, including the Peterborough Examiner under Robertson Davies, gaining experience as a reporter, editor, and manager. With the Vancouver Times 1963-4 he was editorial-page and news editor. Sunter jointed the Vancouver Sun in 1964, and in 1966 he became music editor and critic. He moved to Toronto in 1968 to become the music officer of the OAC and served in that position until 1976. These were years of expansion and progress at the arts council, and Sunter's resourcefulness, fairness, and diplomatic skill played no small part in that progress. At first (until 1972) his duties included serving as executive director, then advisory director, of OFSO, and he remained closely associated with that organization during his full term with the OAC. In those years, too, he was one of the architects of ACO and served as adviser and ex-officio board member of the Ontario Choral Federation and Prologue to the Performing Arts. Sunter was head of radio music 1976-82 for the English Services Division of the CBC. He was chairman of the Radio Development Project 1982-4 and was co-author of its report, a blueprint for the CBC in the following decade. In 1984 he became associate head of CBC television arts, music, and science and participated in many productions including Whalesong, co-produced with Rhombus Media, the Canadian Brass videos, All That Bach, The Life of Vivaldi, a profile of Jon Vickers and many opera and dance productions. He moved to Vancouver in 1987 as director of CBC radio for British Columbia and then became program director of CBC Stereo in 1991.

Author Kenneth Winters