Campbell Trowsdale

Trowsdale, Campbell

(George) Campbell Trowsdale. Educator, violinist, b Stratford, Ont, 17 Oct 1933; ARCT 1953, B MUS (Toronto) 1954, B ED (Toronto) 1957, M ED (Toronto) 1959, ED D (Toronto) 1962. His teachers included Cora B. Ahrens (piano and theory) in Stratford and Elie Spivak, Albert Pratz, and John Moskalyk (violin) in Toronto. In the late 1950s Trowsdale became a member of the Hart House Orchestra and played occasionally in the TSO. He was appointed in 1961 to the faculty of education at the University of British Columbia and retired as professor emeritus in 1988. He joined the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra in 1964 and became its concertmaster in 1967; he also became concertmaster of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra in 1977, and continued to hold both these positions in 1990. He has performed as soloist and as a chamber musician in Vancouver and on CBC radio, his repertoire reflecting his interest in contemporary music. He is heard in a performance of Jean Coulthard'sThe Bird of Dawning Singeth All Night Long with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, conducted by Mario Bernardi, on the album Entre Amis (1985, 2-CBC SM-5050). Trowsdale's teaching has employed elements of the methods of Orff, Kodály, Schafer, and others. He has worked - especially at the elementary level - to develop a fully integrated musical curriculum in the belief that music education should produce listeners as well as performers.

Since his retirement from the University of British Columbia, Trowsdale has been largely engaged in consulting and performing. He served as music and educational consultant to the Langley Fine Arts Elementary School (established in 1986 in Langley, BC), was project co-ordinator for the Trowsdale Report, and in 1988 he released (with Robert Creech) a report on the OAC's support programs for orchestras. In 1989 and 1990 he served as an academic consultant to the RCMT and participated in the preparation of material relating to the separation of that institution from the University of Toronto. In 1990 he was chairman of the RCMT's national examination system commission, whose report was issued in May 1991.

Writings

'A history of public school music in Ontario,' ED D thesis, Toronto 1962

'Vocal music in the Common schools of Upper Canada: 1846-1876,' J of Research in Music Education, vol 18, Winter 1970

'Public institutions and music education: a profile of the Polish music schools,' CAUSM J, vol 2, Jul 1972

'The history of music education as a field of study: a consideration of status, research and needs,' CAUSM J, vol 3, Spring 1974

'Music and performing arts institutions in public education: the Toronto experience, 1960-1970,' CAUSM J, vol 7, 1977

'Innovation and excellence: the music education system of Halifax, 1967-1976,' CME, vol 19, no. 1-2, 1977

'The funding nightmare,' Music, vol 12, Jun-Jul 1989

'The furthest west: the beginnings of modernism in Vancouver,' Célébration