Elliott Haslam

Haslam, Elliott

(William) Elliott Haslam. Voice teacher, choir conductor, b England, 1851?, d Toronto 23 Nov 1915. A son of the concert singer John Haslam, Elliott Haslam was educated in Italy and studied music at London's RAM. He taught music at Brighton High School and Manchester's Britannia College before emigrating to Canada, where he founded the Toronto Vocal Society in 1885 and served 1886-93 as choirmaster at St James' Cathedral. Haslam also did some writing and editing for the Musical Journal and its successor the Canadian Musical Herald. In 1890 he resigned from the Toronto Vocal Society and formed the Haslam Vocal Society. The following year he became music director at Upper Canada College. In 1892 he left his three posts for health reasons and spent some time in Michigan recuperating, but remained on contract with the cathedral until 1893. During this first Toronto sojourn he also led the Harmony Club and taught at the Toronto College of Music, where Bessie Bonsall and Florence Brimson were among his pupils. In 1894 Haslam went to New York to teach at the National Conservatory of Music, then under the direction of Antonin Dvořák. When it closed in 1895, he resumed teaching in Toronto but left again in 1901 and taught in Paris until World War I. His best-known pupil there was Florence Easton. Early in 1915 he returned to Toronto, where he taught until his death (by his own hand) several months later.