Gilbert Munroe

Munroe, Gilbert

Gilbert Munroe. Pianist, teacher, administrator, b Winnipeg 18 Jan 1933; ARCT 1954, LRSM 1954, BA (Manitoba) 1955, B ED (Manitoba) 1961, B MUS (Manitoba) 1970, M MUS (Alberta) 1971. He studied piano with his mother, Zoë (b Ekaterinoslav [Dniepro Petrovsk], Russia, 18 Apr 1898), and with John Melnyk and theory with Frans Niermeier, won the Aikins Memorial Trophy at the 1949 Manitoba (Winnipeg) Music Competition Festival, and continued piano study 1954-6 in London with Harold Craxton and John Simons. He returned to Canada and, after teaching music in Winnipeg schools for several years and performing occasionally, became music director at Medicine Hat College and founding director of the Medicine Hat Conservatory of Fine Arts in 1971. He also served 1974-5 as vice-president of the Allied Arts Conference in Alberta. After a sabbatical in England 1977-8 he returned to Winnipeg, where he taught privately for a year. He taught at the Victoria Conservatory 1979-81 and again from 1989. In the interim years he returned to Alberta, teaching in schools in Medecine Hat and Edmonton, and at Grant MacEwan Community College.

See also Lorne Munroe (his brother) and Sheila Munroe (his sister).