Frederick Newnham

Newnham, Frederick

Frederick (Laurence) Newnham. Baritone, teacher, organist, b Ryde, Isle of Wight, England, 3 Apr 1901, d Tacoma, Wash, 11 Aug 1986; ARCM 1928, LRAM 1929, ARAM 1934, FRAM 1962. He studied voice and organ in England and was head of the voice department and associate professor of organ 1927-33 at Acadia University, head of the voice departments at the Halifax Conservatory 1933-4 and the Maritime Academy of Music 1934-5, and music director 1935-8 at the Western Ontario Cons and the University of Western Ontario. During a stay in Europe prior to World War II he was principal lyric baritone of the Carl Rosa Opera Company. He worked 1946-50 in Winnipeg as an organist-choirmaster and singing teacher prior to serving 1950-73 as the head of the voice and organ departments at Pacific Lutheran U, Tacoma, Wash. He lived 1973-7 in Calgary, and then returned to Tacoma.

Newnham performed extensively in Canada and abroad and was heard on the CBC, BBC, CBS, and NBC radio networks. He appeared in 1936 as the Narrator in the Canadian premiere of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast with the TSO and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. He conducted several Canadian choirs, and held other organist-choirmaster posts at churches in Great Britain, Calgary, and Tacoma. He was president in 1946 of the Central Alberta Music Festival and in 1948 of the Alberta Music Festival. During the 1960s and 1970s he was chairman of the adjudicating committee for the northwestern regional auditions of the Metropolitan Opera. He taught throughout his career; his pupils included Jean Patterson Edwards, Norman Farrow, Jon Vickers, and Kenneth Winters.