Ruth Louise Watson Henderson (born 23 November 1932) is 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 ...

and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

. She was the

accompanist Accompaniment is the part (music), musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmony (music), harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in ...

for the Festival Singers of Canada under Dr.

Elmer Iseler Elmer Walter Iseler, (October 14, 1927 – April 3, 1998) was a Canadian choir conductor and choral editor. He was the conductor of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and founder of the Festival Singers of Canada and the Elmer Iseler Singers. Edu ...

for many years, where she developed her ear for composing mixed-choral works. Henderson also accompanied the

Toronto Children's Chorus The Toronto Children's Chorus is a children's choir based in Toronto. It was founded in 1978 by Jean Ashworth Bartle. The group has close to 500 members aged 6 to 30. History In 1982, the choir won first prize at the International Eisteddfod in ...

under Jean Ashworth Bartle from its inception in 1978 to 2007 and was music director for Kingsway-Lambton United Church in Toronto from 1996 to 2013. An associate of the

Canadian Music Centre The Canadian Music Centre was founded in 1959 by a group of Canadian composers who saw a need to create a repository for Canadian music. It now holds Canada's largest collection of Canadian concert music, and works to promote the music of its As ...

, Watson Henderson's compositional output includes works for

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, violin, trumpet,

string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first ...

, and more than 200 choral pieces. Her works are known for their use of modal and

impressionistic Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

harmonies In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However, ...

. In 1989 her ''Chromatic Partita for Organ'' won a prize in an International Competition for Women Composers in Mannheim, Germany. In 1992 her ''Voices of Earth'' won the National Choral Award for Outstanding Choral Composition. In 1996 she received the Distinguished Service Award of the Ontario Choral Federation. Many of her works have been recorded and enjoy international popularity. Additionally, Canadian choirs often perform entire concerts of her compositions.

Life and career

Born Ruth Louise Watson in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Watson Henderson studied the

with Viggo Kihl from 1937 to 1945. She then entered

The Royal Conservatory of Music The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM), branded as The Royal Conservatory, is a non-profit music education institution and performance venue headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1886 by Edward Fisher as The Toronto Con ...

where she studied from 1945 to 1952 and earned an associates diploma in 1949 and a licentiate diploma in 1951. Her piano teacher there was

Alberto Guerrero Antonio Alberto García Guerrero (February 6, 1886November 7, 1959) was a Chilean composer, pianist, and teacher. While he is most famously remembered as the mentor of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, García influenced several generations of musicia ...

. She also studied composition privately with Oskar Morawetz, Samuel Dolin and Richard Johnston. From 1952 to 1954 she studied piano at the

Mannes College of Music Mannes School of Music is a music conservatory in The New School, a private research university in New York City. In the fall of 2015, Mannes moved from its previous location on Manhattan's Upper West Side to join the rest of the New School cam ...

in New York City with

Hans Neumann Hans Neumann (a.k.a. Hans Newman) (18??–1919(?)) was a founding member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain. Neumann had previously been very active in the Social Democratic Federation, being a public speaker for that party and secretary of ...

(pianist). Watson Henderson made her professional concert debut in 1952 in Toronto and quickly became active as a solo concert pianist with

symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

s throughout Canada. She also played with some frequency 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 ...

. In 1956 she won the grand prize on the CBC radio talent show '' Opportunity Knocks''. After this, she moved to Manitoba where she lived in Winnipeg until 1961. After a few years in Kitchener, she returned to Toronto where she still resides. While she was the accompanist for the Festival Singers of Canada she began to compose choral music, including her 'Missa Brevis.' Later large works influenced by her experience in working with fine choirs include 'Voices of Earth' and 'From Darkness to Light.' When she was the accompanist for the

, she wrote many compositions for children's voices, including ''Clear Sky and Thunder'', a music-drama about

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

children, which the TCC premiered in 1984 and 'The Last Straw' which featured tenor Ben Heppner in 1990.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson Henderson, Ruth 1932 births Living people Canadian classical pianists Canadian women pianists Canadian composers Canadian music educators Canadian women music educators The New School alumni The Royal Conservatory of Music alumni Academic staff of The Royal Conservatory of Music Canadian women composers 21st-century classical pianists Women classical pianists 21st-century women pianists