Reginald Geen

Geen, Reginald

Reginald (Gordon) Geen. Organist-choir master, teacher, examiner, adjudicator, b Belleville, Ont, 18 Mar 1889, d Oshawa, Ont, 19 Jan 1973; LTCM, honorary FRCCO 1958. After training with C.A.R. Wilkinson in Toronto, he studied in Chicago, London, and (reputedly with Vladimir de Pachmann) Paris. While organist-choirmaster 1907-26 at St George's Anglican Church, Owen Sound, Ont, he founded and conducted the Owen Sound Patriotic Chorus and Philharmonic Society. He also in 1914 assisted J.L. Yule in founding the Owen Sound Registered Music Teachers' Association, the first such organization in Ontario. In 1920 Geen began to adjudicate at festivals and examine for the TCM, activities he continued for more than 45 years. He moved in 1926 to Guelph, Ont, where at St George's Anglican Church he founded the 100-voice Guelph Vogt Choir (which appeared at the first Guelph Spring Festival in 1968). He moved to Oshawa in 1931 and was organist-choirmaster until 1971 at Simcoe St United Church. He also conducted 1938-58 the General Motors Choir of Oshawa (later the Motor City Choir). He was president 1946-8 and 1953-4 of the ORMTA and a founder (and president 1961-8) of the Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators' Association; he also served 1951-3 as president of the CCO and was the RCCO representative 1955-70 on the Canadian Music Council.