Charles Hutton

Hutton, Charles

Charles (Warrington) Hutton. Organist, music dealer, conductor, b St John's, Nfld, 20 Aug 1861, d there 1 Feb 1949. He was educated in Charlottetown and at the French college, St Pierre, and in 1880 became organist-choirmaster at St John the Baptist Roman Catholic Cathedral in St John's. He held this position for 63 years, but at the turn of the century he spent three years in England furthering his musical education with Oscar Beringer (piano) and others. It was during this sojourn that he deputized on short notice for the absentee accompanist of Emma Albani at a recital by the great soprano for the Lords Cricket Club. The recital was a great success and the club, in appreciation, made Hutton an honorary member. In 1883 he opened a music store which later was taken over by his sons and which still was in operation in 1991. He was elected Liberal member of the Newfoundland House of Assembly in 1894. Hutton was a leading figure in Newfoundland musical activities. With his wife, a trained singer, he presented virtually all the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas (including a performance of The Mikado in 1886, just a year after it was written) and many others, whenever sufficient performing talent could be gathered. He published in 1906 a Newfoundland Folio of Over Fifty Old Favorite Songs. Several of his own compositions were included in the folio. He produced a phonograph recording in 1922 through the Brunswick-Balke-Collendar Company, the first ever intended for Newfoundland audiences. Ignatius Rumboldt was a pupil and protégé. In 1924 Pope Pius XI made Hutton a Knight of St Gregory, and in 1938 King George VI appointed him to the Order of the British Empire. A profile of Hutton was broadcast 6 May 1978 on CBC radio's 'Between Ourselves'.