Sherwood Robson

Robson, Sherwood

(Charles William) Sherwood Robson. Educator, choir conductor, b Vancouver 27 May 1913; B ED (British Columbia) 1962. His teachers included John Goss (voice) and Frederic Staton (voice, choir training) in the early 1940s and Burton Kurth (voice, organ, piano) in the 1950s. After teaching music and conducting choirs 1935-61 in Vancouver schools, he served 1963-74 as supervisor of elementary school music in North Vancouver. In 1957 he served as first president of the BCMEA. In 1938 Robson was narrator and soloist in the first British Columbia Dept of Education broadcasts on CBC radio, and later he served on the department's music curriculum and music advisory committees. With Paul Bourret of Edmonton, and others, he adapted for Canada the 8-vol US schoolbook series This Is Music (Toronto 1966-71).

Robson was choirmaster and organist of a number of churches, including Central Presbyterian Church (1938-9) and West Point Grey United Church (1942-52); he retired in 1987 after nine years at Ryerson United Church. He was conductor 1948-50 of the Vancouver Bach Choir and 1948-54 of the Sherwood Robson Chorale, the latter formed at the request of the CBC and heard on radio nationally and regionally. He was active as an adjudicator, guest clinician and speaker in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon until about 1980.