Robert Rosevear

Robert (Allan) Rosevear. Teacher, conductor, french hornist, adjudicator, b East Orange, NJ, 9 Jul 1915; BA (Cornell) 1937, B MUS (ESM, Rochester) 1939, M MUS (ESM, Rochester) 1943, honorary D MUS (Western Ont) 1979. He joined the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, in 1946. There he developed an undergraduate program to train school music teachers and served 1968-72 as the first chairman of the music education dept. He taught 1947-58 at the Ontario Dept of Education summer school and at various music camps. He has lectured and written on music education, conducted instrumental materials clinics, adjudicated festivals and was president 1949-50 of the Ontario Music Educators' Association. Rosevear was a Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto (RCMT) senior examiner for wind and percussion and influenced the study and performance of these instruments through upgrading the RCMT syllabus. He was the founding conductor 1946-50 of the RCMT Symphonic Band and 1962-74 of the University of Toronto Concert Band and the conductor 1953-9 of the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra. On his retirement in 1978 he was made a professor emeritus. Settling in Florida the same year, Rosevear continued to be active as community orchestra conductor, french hornist and musical advisor. In 1985 he became chairman of the American Bandmasters Association Foundation, an organization active in the encouragement of concert band composition..

The development of instrumental programs under professionally trained music teachers in the schools of Ontario (and indeed in other provinces) owes much to Rosevear's pioneering work. So do music education courses at many Canadian universities. His influence also created higher standards in symphonic band concert programming. The Canadian Music Educators' Association performance award for concert band is named for Rosevear. In his band and orchestra concerts Rosevear premiered works by John Beckwith, Gary Kulesha, Godfrey Ridout, Gerhard Wuensch and others.