Article

Doreen Hume

Published Online July 30, 2007

Last Edited December 7, 2013

(Edith) Doreen Hume (b Hulme). Soprano, b Sault Ste Marie, Ont, 14 Jul 1926. She studied voice with John Blackburn in Sault Ste Marie and 1945-53 with George Lambert at the RCMT, and was soloist 1946-53 at Grace Church on-the-Hill in Toronto.

Hume, Doreen

(Edith) Doreen Hume (b Hulme). Soprano, b Sault Ste Marie, Ont, 14 Jul 1926. She studied voice with John Blackburn in Sault Ste Marie and 1945-53 with George Lambert at the RCMT, and was soloist 1946-53 at Grace Church on-the-Hill in Toronto. After winning an 'Opportunity Knocks' award in 1948 she performed on CBC radio (beginning with a 13-week series of her own) and sang in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas with the CBC Light Opera Company. As a member of the CBC Opera Company she took part in the North American radio premiere of Peter Grimes 12 Oct 1949, and in the 1952 repeat broadcast. As a concert soloist she appeared in 1950 with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in Beethoven's Missa solemnis and in 1949, 1956, 1957, and 1959 with the TSO in pop concerts. She also participated in performances of The Creation in Halifax and Ottawa.

In 1954 Hume moved to England, where she served 1955-70 as principal soprano soloist of the BBC Light Music department, giving over 1800 radio and TV performances under the direction of Robert Farnon, Sidney Torch, Carmen Dragon, and others. She was the soprano soloist in London performances of Fauré's Requiem (16 Nov 1957) and Handel's Messiah (4 Jan 1958), the latter with Maureen Forrester and Jon Vickers, and both conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent. Hume represented England at the Venice Festival of Light Music in 1957, toured in Europe in 1958 with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and represented Canada at a special liberation anniversary concert in May 1965 in Holland. She made approximately 10 LPs and EPs (the first in 1958) of light music and musical comedy for the Philips Fontana, Epic and Rondolette labels. Her show tune recordings are listed in Jack Raymond's Show Music on Record (New York 1982). She also sang the role of Kate in a recording of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Yeoman of the Guard (1958, 2-HMV ALP-1601-2/EMI EX-749594/EMI CDS7 47718-8). In 1970 she returned to Toronto. In 1990 she was appointed to the faculty of Algoma U College and also became a voice teacher at the Algoma Conservatory, both in Sault Ste Marie.