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Born March 7, 1947, Littleborough, Lancashire, England. Jean obtained her Canadian citizenship in 1968. She taught and earned her BA from the University of Toronto in 1977 winning the Leslie Bell Prize. In 1978 she founded the Toronto Children’s Choirs to provide a children’s choir for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In 1982 she won the Sir Ernest MacMillan Scholarship which enabled her to study at the Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A. In 1986 she earned the Roy Thomson Hall Award for outstanding contribution to musical life in Toronto.. She has written two books for children’s choir directors and has edited choral music series. In 1998 she was invested with the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada. In 2002 she received the Queen Elizabeth ll Golden Jubilee Medal followed in 2003 with an honorary life membership in the Ontario Music Educators’ Association. The Jean Ashworth Bartle Music Education Award, was established at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto.

Anne Campbell

Choral Conductor

née Adamson. Born June 16, 1912, Sutherland Saskatchewan. Died April 13, 2011, Cochrane, Alberta.  Music was a part of Anne’s family life growing up. Besides living an a music loving home there was also church choir. At 8 years of age she began formal singing lessons. At 14 she was conducting the church choir. She went on to earn level certificates and Licentiate in Music in piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music. In 1939 she married Don Campbell. The young couple settled in Calgary, Alberta and raised their 2 children. Anne taught voice and piano and of course there was the music at Wesley United Church. By 1953 she was in Lethbridge, Alberta where the family home soon filled with music students. She formed the Lethbridge Junior Girls Choir and by 1963 a second group, the Teen-Clefs. Shortly after the Anne Campbell Singers was formed. There was also the group for girls 6-8 years and as the girls grew older there was the Linnet Singers. There were performances at church, fall operettas, spring sing concerts and the Kiwanis Music festivals throughout the Canadian west. These events paved the way to national and international competitions in the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan where they dressed in the official Alberta tartan. The appeared as part of Expo ’67 during Canada’s Centennial celebration  and the group would record 13 albums. In 1976 Anne received the Governor’s General Medal for her commitment to music. In 1978 she received the Queen’s Jubilee Medal and in 1983 she received an honorary degree from Lethbridge University. Sources: Lisa Wajna, Great Canadian Women: Nineteen Portraits of Extraordinary Women. (Folklore Publishing, 2005) ; R. Dale McIntosh, Anne Campbell (2012) Canadian Encyclopedia Online (accessed June 2015)

née Ruhdorfer. Born July 17, 1910, Vienna, Austria. Died February 7, 1987. Ida and her husband, a chemist, immigrated to Canada and settled on the West coast in 1939. She was active in the local music life of her new home. She began to have a vivid interest in the Music of West Coast Aboriginal culture. She was the first person to formally study this music. She would eventually produce four albums of First Nations’ Songs. She became Director of the Academy of Music. Her work was recognized when in 1978 she was presented as a Member to the Order of Canada. Source: The History of Metropolitan Vancouver – Hall of Fame, Online (accessed June 2009)

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