William Reimer

William Reimer. Bass-baritone, b Chilliwack, near Vancouver, 8 Apr 1931. He grew up in Yarrow, BC, and studied voice at the Mennonite Brethren Bible College in Winnipeg. At the 1960 Vancouver International Festival he sang Noye in Britten's Noye's Fludde. He enrolled at the Music Academy in Detmold, Germany, in 1961 and graduated in 1964. In 1966 he began teaching at the State School of Music in Hanover.

Reimer's voice is particularly suited to Lieder and oratorio. He has performed with the Vancouver and Winnipeg CBC orchestras and with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. In 1985 he was the baritone soloist in the Mennonite Festival Chorus performance of Brahms' German Requiem conducted by Robert Shaw with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. He is soloist in the Philips European recordings of Bach's Missae breves (1970, 6500-270/Phi 6702-021) and Cantatas BWV 74 and 147 (1972, Phi 6500-386) and Telemann's Frühlingskantate (1970, Phi 6500-079), Trauerkantate (1970, Phi 6500-078), and Mutzenbecherkantate (1970, Phi 6500-074). He also sings on an album of Christmas music, In Dulci Jubilo (1969, Fontana 894-116), and on an album of works by Wolfgang Fortner (1973, PolyGram VP-425). In 1990-1 he toured Hungary as baritone soloist in Dvořák's Stabat Mater and Germany in Penderecki's Dies Irae.