Warren Herbert Belyea (22 December 1917 – 4 August 2001) was a Canadian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

conductor,

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

, and

music educator Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do original ...

. As a composer he was commissioned to write works by the Manitoba Arts Council, the city of Winnipeg, and several choirs. Several of his compositions have been published by

Frederick Harris Music The Frederick Harris Music Co., Limited (Frederick Harris Music) is a music publishing firm in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1904. The company claims to be the oldest music publishing company in Canada, and has supported the work of composers ...

. As a poet, he has published works using the pseudonym A.C. Darke.

Life and career

Born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, Belyea earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from

St. John's College, University of Manitoba St. John's College is an Anglican-based independent constituent college of the University of Manitoba, located on the university's Fort Garry campus in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The college is the oldest Anglophone institution of higher learning in wes ...

in 1948, a

Bachelor of Education A Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) is an undergraduate professional degree which prepares students for work as a teacher in schools. In some countries such as Tanzania and Kenya, additional tasks like field work and research are required in order for ...

from the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Master of Education from the UM in 1961. He studied singing and conducting privately with W.H. Anderson. He began his career serving overseas in the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also respo ...

before serving as choirmaster at St Jude's Anglican Church in Winnipeg from 1952 to 1966. He later served in that same capacity at St Andrew's United Church during the 1970s. He joined the Education faculty at the University of Manitoba in 1967 where he taught for many years. In 1969 Belyea became conductor of The Choristers after the death of conductor

Filmer Hubble Filmer Edwin Hubble (12 January 1904 – 25 November 1969) was a Canadian organist, choir conductor, adjudicator, and music educator of English birth. Life and career Born in Dulwich, he immigrated to Canada in 1921 at the age of 17. He settled in ...

. He conducted the group until it disbanded in 1974, notably leading them in several performances broadcast nationally on

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

. He also served as an adjudicator and clinician throughout Canada and in 1984 he was named a life member of the Manitoba Music Educators Association.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belyea, Herbert 1917 births 2001 deaths Canadian male composers Male conductors (music) Canadian male poets Canadian music educators University of Manitoba alumni University of Manitoba faculty Musicians from Winnipeg Writers from Winnipeg 20th-century Canadian composers 20th-century Canadian conductors (music) 20th-century Canadian male musicians 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian poets