The Gallery Singers

The Gallery Singers

The Gallery Singers. Vancouver choir, initially of 12 voices and latterly of 22, founded in 1968 by Frederick Carter. The singers have given about five concerts each year in Vancouver (some at the Vancouver Art Gallery, although there is no connection between the two organizations) and other British Columbia centres. Winners in 1969, 1970, and 1971 of the City of Lincoln Trophy awarded by the FCMF, the singers divided themselves into two groups for the 1972 Tee-side International Festival in England and took first and second places in the small ensembles class. In addition they were semi-finalists that year in the BBC's amateur choral competition, 'Let the Peoples Sing'. They sang again in Great Britain in 1978. Though they possess a wide repertoire, the Gallery Singers have made a specialty of unaccompanied Tudor and 20th-century works. They have released privately four LPs of music by Byrd, Messiaen, Palestrina, Passereau, Stanford, and Vaughan Williams and various folk songs. The singers' founder and conductor 1968-90, Frederick (George) Carter (b Enfield, England, 5 Mar 1913) trained in London with Harold Darke and, after serving as organist-choirmaster 1951-66 at Armagh Cathedral in Northern Ireland, moved to Vancouver. There he was organist-choirmaster at St John's Anglican Church 1966-80, associate organist at St Mary's (Kerrisdale) Anglican Church 1980-2, and organist-choirmaster at St Augustine's Roman Catholic Church 1982-8 and at Holy Rosary Cathedral 1988-90. He retired from his church position and from the Gallery Singers due to illness in 1990. He was succeeded as conductor of the Gallery Singers by Albert McLane in 1990.