Article

Jean Macleod

Published Online June 17, 2007

Last Edited December 13, 2013

Jean Macleod. Contralto, harpist, b Pio Pio, New Zealand, of Scottish parents, 18 May 1918; naturalized Canadian 1969. Her mother, Jessie Mary MacLennan, was in her day a leading interpreter of Scottish folk songs.

Macleod, Jean

Jean Macleod. Contralto, harpist, b Pio Pio, New Zealand, of Scottish parents, 18 May 1918; naturalized Canadian 1969. Her mother, Jessie Mary MacLennan, was in her day a leading interpreter of Scottish folk songs. Raised after 1923 in Canada, Jean Macleod studied voice with Dorothy Allan Park and harp with Carla Emerson at the TCM (RCMT), and voice with Roy Henderson in London. Specializing in Scottish, Hebridean, and Celtic folk songs - her repertoire included some 500 - she made her debut 17 Apr 1948 at the (Royal Ontario) Museum Theatre in Toronto. Accompanying herself on the clarsach (a 31-string harp), she appeared throughout Canada, in the USA (eg, Town Hall, New York, 5 Mar 1950), and in Great Britain. She performed for St Andrew's Society meetings in many North American centres and appeared on CBC radio's 'Trans-Canada Matinee' and other radio and TV variety shows. She was heard also in 1948 and 1964 on the Scottish network of the BBC. With accompaniment by her husband, Lorne Betts, she made the LPs Scottish Songs (1960, Rodeo RLP-79), Songs of the Hebrides (1962, Celtic CX-10), and Beloved Hymns (1963, Banff RBS-1179).