Cyril Mossop

Mossop, Cyril

Cyril (Stephenson) Mossop. Organist, choirmaster, teacher, conductor, b Calgary 14 Jun 1910, d Victoria 16 Nov 1994. He studied piano first with his mother and later with Mary Titchmarsh, receiving an LTCL and an ATCM. He studied organ 1933-6 with Harold Heeremans.

Mossop has been an organist-choirmaster and taught piano, organ, voice, and theory privately 1928-44 in Summerland and Kelowna, BC, and 1944-50 and again after 1972 in the Calgary area. He was director 1944-51 of the Mount Royal College Conservatory of Music and was supervisor of music 1951-72 in Calgary schools. He adjudicated at more than 30 festivals in western Canada 1945-74 and at the CNE music competition in Toronto and was an examiner 1944-50 and 1974-81 for the WBM. He moved to Victoria, BC, in 1981.

Mossop composed choral pieces, mostly for school use (McGraw-Hill, Ryerson, Canadian Music Sales), and three organ works. He often conducted, in Calgary and Kelowna, large-scale choral-orchestral works and gave many workshops at conventions. He is the father of the violinist Elaine Mossop Sargous, who was a member 1969-82 of the Chamber Players of Toronto and a string specialist with the Scarborough Board of Education. In 1991 she was living and teaching violin in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where her husband, Harry Sargous (principal oboe 1971-82 with the TS) was head of oboe studies at the University of Michigan.

See also Glenn Mossop (his son).