J.D.A. Tripp

Tripp, J.D.A.

J.D.A. (John David Alvin or Alexander) Tripp. Pianist, teacher, b Dunbarton, east of Toronto, 10 Jan 1867, d Vancouver 26 Nov 1945; ATCM 1889. The first graduate of the TCM, where his teachers included Francesco D'Auria and Edward Fisher, Tripp also studied 1891-2 in Berlin with Moritz Moszkowski and 1896-8 in Vienna with Theodor Leschetizky. Moszkowski was impressed with his pupil's work. He wrote: 'Mr. Tripp's playing is marked by a full, rich, penetrating tone, pearly passage playing, and surety in all technical difficulties' (letter in Canadian Music Trades Journal, Nov 1900). Tripp performed in Europe and the USA and gave several cross-Canada tours. On 11 Apr 1907 he was the soloist in Liszt's Hungarian Fantasy at Massey Hall in the first concert given by the TCM Orchestra. Founder and conductor 1893-1908 of the Toronto Male Chorus, he also taught ca 1890-1910 at the TCM and was the conservatory's first examiner to visit the Pacific coast. In 1910 he moved to Vancouver, where he conducted the Tripp Choir 1910-12 and became the city's leading piano teacher. His pupils included John Avison, Harold Brown, Hayunga Carman, H.C. Hamilton, Kenneth Ross, and Ira Swartz. Tripp continued to perform and was heard on CBR radio broadcasts with the Seattle SO. In 1942 he presented a recital (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Scarlatti, Chopin, Moszkowski, and Rubinstein) at the Hotel Vancouver to mark his 75th birthday. A group of Tripp's piano pieces, composed during his Toronto years, were published by Whaley Royce, and a song, 'The Salt Sea Foam,' was published in 1894 by Anglo-Canadian. He wrote 'Music in British Columbia' for the Year Book of Canadian Art (London, Toronto, 1913).