Keywords Universities/Colleges

In 1976 the music faculty moved to MacDonald House, coming under one roof for the first time, and in 1988 it moved again to the John Aird Centre. In 1990 the faculty's facilities included a 350-seat recital hall, separate studios for percussion, early music, and organ, two studios for electronic music, a music therapy clinic, 36 practice rooms, and two rehearsal halls. The music library houses performance parts, while the major collection of books, recordings, and scores and the listening booths are located in the main university library. The faculty owns a fine collection of instruments, including grand pianos, organs, and early music instruments.

The Faculty offers many opportunities for performance. Groups include the WLU Choir, the Laurier Singers, the Chapel Choir, the WLU Orchestra, Contemporary Players, and a variety of woodwind, percussion, jazz, baroque, chamber, and operatic ensembles. Several concerts are sponsored yearly: the ensembles give three to four concerts; guest artists, faculty, and alumni perform at Thursday Noon Hour Concerts; and there are numerous student and graduate recitals. The opera students have presented Floyd's Susannah, Vaughan Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress, Thomson's The Mother of Us All, Weill's Street Scene, Benjamin's A Tale of Two Cities, and Williamson's Dunstan and the Devil, among other works; many of its productions have been Canadian premieres.

From 1970 to 1981 the Faculty of Music offered its Summer Voice and Opera Workshop on the WLU campus. In 1982 it moved to the Orillia Opera House and until 1984 was known as the Couchiching Summer Music Theatre. In 1985, renamed Intensive Studies in Voice and Vocal Accompanying, it returned to WLU, where it is presented annually. Other workshops are offered in baroque and classical music, and Orff and Kodály methods. Workshop directors have included Raffi Armenian, Carrol Anne Curry, Jean Lamon, Christina Mahler, Philip May, Jacqueline Richard, and Colin Tilney. The faculty has sponsored three major conferences: one on C.P.E. Bach (1988); The Fifth Stream festival-conference (1989);.and the 17th annual conference of the Canadian Association for Music Therapy (1990).

Among graduates of Wilfrid Laurier are Theodore Baerg,.and Leonard Enns, Guy Few, and Victor Martens. Honorary doctorates have been awarded to Garfield Bender (D MUS 1973), Elmer Iseler (LLD 1985), and Jan Narveson, founder-president of the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society (D LITT 1989). Maureen Forrester holds an honorary doctorate (LLD 1975) from WLU, and also served as Chancellor of the university 1986-90.

See also Libraries; Archives.

Author J. Paul Green