Eric Tredwell

Tredwell, Eric

Eric (Alfred Stanley) Tredwell. Baritone, b Bristol, England, 2 Aug 1906, d Vancouver 14 Oct 1981; BA (Toronto) 1945. Raised in Canada, he studied voice in Victoria, BC, with Gideon Hicks and 1929-30 in Munich with Julius Schweitzer. Returning to Canada he made his radio debut in 1931 on CNRT, Toronto, and studied 1931-40 at the TCM with Dalton Baker, Hubert Eisdell, Ernesto Vinci, and Albert Whitehead. A leading soloist in choral and orchestral concerts in Toronto from the 1930s to the early 1950s, Tredwell was heard on the CRBC and CBC, and in 1933 he sang for the first time with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (with which he recorded the St Matthew Passion in 1952). He was soloist 1938-51 at Bloor St United Church. In 1940 he made his debut with the TSO, and in the mid-1940s he appeared with the Ottawa Choral Union in Messiah and Verdi's Requiem. In the 1940s also he was a member of the CBC Madrigal Singers and sang leading roles in Gilbert & Sullivan operas with the CBC Light Opera and others with the CBC Opera Company. In 1945 he toured the Royal Navy stations in the Pacific with pianist Ross Pratt. For many years also a public school teacher, Tredwell retired from performance in 1957, after two years with the Festival Singers, to become vice-principal of a Toronto school. He retired from teaching in 1978.