Jean Ashworth Bartle
Jean Ashworth Bartle, CM OOnt (born 7 March 1947 Littleborough, Lancashire, England) is a Canadian choral conductor, teacher, and Founder/Conductor Laureate of the Toronto Children's Chorus.
Bartle became a naturalized Canadian in 1968 and received an ARCT in performance in 1970, ARCT in teaching in 1973, and a Bachelor's with Honours from the University of Toronto in 1977. Jean Ashworth Bartle won the 1977 Leslie Bell Scholarship (Prize), and the 1982 Sir Ernest MacMillan Scholarship, which enabled her to study with Sir David Willcocks and Margaret Hillis at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey.
Choral Conductor
Jean Ashworth Bartle founded the Toronto Children's Chorus (TCC) in 1978 in order to provide a children's choir for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Since then, under her direction, the TCC has received international acclaim and won many prestigious choral prizes. She has brought the music of Canadian composers to many audiences and expanded the choral repertoire by commissioning and promoting Canadian compositions. She stepped down as artistic director of the choir in 2007, after 29 years at the helm.
Teacher
Jean Ashworth Bartle was a teacher for the Toronto Board of Education 1966-1998, including a period as director of the music program at Howard Public School in Toronto 1970-89, and of the junior choirs at Kingsway Lambton United Church. She was also a member of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. She is highly active as a choral clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor throughout North America, Europe, Israel, South Africa,st, and the Pacific Rim. She holds an annual choral conductors' symposium that attracts choir directors from around the world.
Publications
Jean Ashworth Bartle has two written books; Lifeline for Children's Choir Directors (Toronto 1988)[1] and Sound Advice: Becoming a Better Children's Choir Director (New York 2003)[2] She also edits three choral music series.
Awards
In 1977 Bartle was awarded the Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting. In 1986 she was awarded the Roy Thomson Hall Award for her outstanding contribution to musical life in Toronto. In 1998 she was invested in the Order of Ontario, and also received the Order of Canada. In 2002 she received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in London, and in November 2003 she was awarded an honorary life membership in the Ontario Music Educators' Association. In 2004, an award named in her honour, the Jean Ashworth Bartle Music Education Award, was established at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto.
References
- ↑ Lifeline for Children's Choir Directors amazon.co.uk
- ↑ Bartle, Jean Ashworth, Sound Advice February 2003, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-514178-8
