Herbert J. Sadler

Sadler, Herbert J.

Herbert J. Sadler. Organist, choir conductor, teacher, b Bristol 6 Sep 1894, d Winnipeg 21 Apr 1955. Sadler and his parents arrived in Canada in 1911 and settled in Winnipeg. He had been trained as an organist and he served four years in that capacity at St Peter's Anglican Church. His appointment in 1919 as organist-choirmaster at Westminster United Church (a position he was to hold until his death) made him aware of the necessity to complete his organ training. Studies in the early and mid-1920s with Hugh Ross and in the late 1920s with Douglas Clarke and Hugh Bancroft led to his ACCO and FTCL diplomas.

With Filmer Hubble, Sadler shared the directorship of the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir during World War II, and with an augmented Metropolitan Church Choir he prepared a number of public performances, including one of Sullivan's cantata The Golden Legend. He composed a number of pieces for use by his church choir and set the first section of Longfellow's Hiawatha for a performance by the larger choir along with the two sections set by Coleridge-Taylor. He gave numerous organ recitals, and the Casavant instrument at Westminster Church, for which he drew up the specifications, was regarded for many years as Winnipeg's finest concert organ.

It was, however, as a teacher that Sadler made his most lasting mark. Among the many practising Winnipeg church musicians who studied with him were Barry Anderson, Eila Buchanan Alford, Allan Borbridge, Minnie Boyd, Beth Cooil, Evelyn Gregory, Frans Niermeier, Edith Patterson, Maurine Pottruff, Mary Scarlett Wood, B. Franklin Shinn, and Helen M. Young.