Bruce Carey

Carey, Bruce

Bruce (Anderson) Carey. Choir conductor, baritone, teacher, b Millgrove 16 Nov 1876, d Hamilton 8 May 1960; honorary D MUS (Moravian College, Pa) 1936. He studied piano with J.E.P. Aldous and voice with Mrs Bruce Wickstrom in Hamilton and voice with W. Elliott Haslam in Toronto. In 1900 he went to London where he studied voice with Albert Visetti and choral and orchestral conducting with William Cummings at the GSM. He later continued his studies of opera (summers, 1908 and 1913) with Isidore Braggiotti and Carlo Carrobbi (or Corelli) in Florence and of lieder with Heinrich Neidhardt in Munich. After his return from London in 1901 he was choirmaster at a succession of Hamilton churches (Erskine Presbyterian, St Thomas' Anglican, Knox Presbyterian, St Paul's Presbyterian) and in 1905, in the hall above the George W. Carey Piano House, he established the Elgar Choir (later Bach-Elgar Choir), which he directed until 1922. Carey was one of the triumvirate of administrative officers 1907-17 of the Hamilton Conservatory (RHCM) and supervisor of music 1918-22 for Hamilton schools. He taught during the summers 1918-22 at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and served 1922-43 as director of vocal music at Girard College for Boys, Philadelphia. In 1926 in Philadelphia he led the Festival Chorus of 6300 voices in several performances during the six-month celebration of 150 years of US independence. He was director 1926-34 of the Mendelssohn Club, working in association with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. A US delegate at the Anglo-American Music Educators conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1931, he directed the conference's mixed-voice choir. Carey was director 1933-38 of the renowned Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was the national organizer of music for the United Service Organization in 1943. After his retirement (1945) he lived in Florida.

See also Whitfield (George) Carey, Edith Carey, Clara Carey, Vernon Carey, Bertha Carey, Talbert Carey, Flora Carey, and Estelle Carey (all members of this musical family).