I am Sterling Beckwith, PhD. Former singer and conductor, retired professor of music at York University.
My active musical involvement has for some time been limited to reading about, reflecting on, and occasionally sampling the incredible richness and variety of our local music scene. The present issue of The WholeNote demonstrates once again how much we owe to this magazine's indefatigable support – as catalogue, catalyst, and cattle-prod – for all this activity. Without it, I doubt such an impressive level of quality and diversity could have been so soon attained. Whether, for how long, and to what extent our various musical lives can survive a total lockdown is anybody's guess, but today I'm feeling optimistic.....
Neither of my two lifetime musical projects has yet been interrupted:
1) Bridging the language and culture gap for young Canadian performers, by providing some of my favorite European vocal works with singable new English texts. Done so far:
Brahms: Liebeslieder-Walzer Op. 52. Monteverdi: Ballo delle ingrate. Rimsky-Korsakov: Mozart & Salieri. Schuetz: Johannes-Passion; Weihnachts-Historie. And most recently (while self-isolating) Shostakovich: Babi Yar (not yet performed).
2) Expanding the everyday teaching and learning of music, currently heavily slanted towards performance training, to include thoughtfully-designed computer-assisted exercises in composing, as well as guided listening to more than the latest pop hits. For the latter, I am actively looking for individual and institutional partners, and taking steps to insure that software development work can continue.
I can still be reached via my York U email address: beckwith@yorku.ca
