Alvin Reimer

Reimer, Alvin

Alvin (Harry) Reimer. Bass, teacher, b Winkler, Man, 5 Jun 1940; Bachelor of Religious Education and Diploma, Sacred Music (Mennonite Brethren Bible College) 1965, BA (Waterloo Lutheran) 1968, Künstlerische Reifeprüfung (Academy of Music, Detmold) 1978. After studying 1968-71 at Detmold on a German government exchange scholarship, he taught voice as a part-time instructor at Waterloo Lutheran University, the University of Guelph, and the University of Western Ontario. He was visiting professor at the Faculty of Music, University of Western Ontario in 1974, began teaching there full-time in 1975, and was co-ordinator 1976-80 of the voice dept. He has performed in Orff's Die Kluge (Detmold and Bielefeld opera), Charles Wilson'sThe Summoning of Everyman (Stratford Festival, 1976), and roles in concert opera 1973-7 with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra. He is a specialist in the German art song repertoire, which he has performed in Canada, the USA and France. He appears regularly as an oratorio soloist with orchestras and choral societies in Ontario and in Nova Scotia, including annual performances in the Bach cycles at St Paul's Church, Halifax, directed by Walter H. Kemp. Of particular significance is his interest in fostering Canadian solo literature. He has premiered Two Songs to Poems by Gwendolyn MacEwan (1986) by Jack Behrens; Laus Sapientiae, Four Episodes of St. John the Evangelist (1988) and 'Sarastro's Aria' (1989) by Gerhard Wuensch; and Songs on Poems of W.H. Auden (1989) by David Myska. Other composers who have written works for Reimer include Jean Anderson, Arsenio Girón, and Alan Heard. Reimer has also performed works by Chester Duncan and Peter Paul Koprowski.

In 1990 Reimer was the director and conductor of the German Canadian choir Lyra, and was active across Canada as festival adjudicator and clinician.