Margaret Ann Ireland D. Litt (March 23, 1928 – June 20, 2018) was a pianist known in Canada and abroad in the 1950's and 1960's, and had a second career in Toronto and New York as a radio producer.[1]
Margaret Ann Ireland | |
|---|---|
| Born | Margaret Ann Ireland March 23, 1928 Winnipeg, Manitoba |
| Died | June 30, 2018 (aged 90) Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada |
| Education | Royal Conservatory of Music where her teachers included Healey Willan and Hayunga Carman; Mieczyslaw Horszowski, New York (1945-1950), Friedrich Wuehrer in Salzburg and Vienna (1951), and Marguerite Long, Paris (1952) |
| Spouse(s) | Norwood Carter (d. 1971); Walter Nagel (d. 2004) |
| Awards | Canada 125 Medal and an honourary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of New Brunswick |
| Elected | member of the New Brunswick Arts Board (1990) |
Career
editIreland grew up in Toronto and began piano lessons at the age of six.[2] At the age of eight, she was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Conservatory of Music. When she was ten, she composed her musical work Pioneer Lullaby ; it was published in 1939. (The first page is in the Margaret Ann Ireland file at the Literature, Music, Performing Arts, Archives Branch, Library and Archives Canada / Government of Canada). Later, she studied with Mieczyslaw Horszowski in New York (1945-1950), Friedrich Wuehrer in Salzburg and Vienna in 1951, and Marguerite Long in Paris in 1952.[2]
She debuted in 1944 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, receiving praise from the Toronto Globe and Mail which said her execution was imbued with musical intelligence,[3] then gave lecture recitals for CBC radio (1949-1952). In 1960, on her first tour of the USSR, the conductor of the Kharkov state orchestra described her as a high-class performer. She recalled of it the audience`s enthusiasm and that she was often asked to play Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto with orchestras on tour.[4][5]
Her New York debut took place in 1963 at Town Hall and in 1963 and 1964, she recorded three titles for Capitol Records of Canada Ltd.: Margaret Ann Ireland plays Schubert, Rachmaninoff,[6] Margaret Ann Ireland plays Villa-Lobos, Granados,[7][8] and Margaret Ann Ireland plays music of the Polish masters,[9] The Rachmaninoff works she recorded, Six Preludes from Opus 23, were said to be consistently interesting and bold.[10] She was described in 1969 as one of the classical music staples of Capitol Records.[11]
As a producer, she prepared many major music programs for radio. Her series 'Musicscope' (the CBC’s flagship series 1971-1972), received a Major Armstrong Award (Chicago, 1972). She donated several personal items to the sound and moving images section of the CBC Archives (available at https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/shift-nb/segment/15608307).
Her awards included the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of New Brunswick.[1] After her death, she asked that family and friends listen to Rachmaninoff's Vocalise Opus 34 No. 14 as they remembered her.[1]
Ireland's portrait by Miller Brittain (1961) is in the collection of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton. In it, Brittain inserted shards of glass to indicate her flashing hands when she played.[12] In 1967, John Reeves photographed she and her family for the National Film Board of Canada and the photostory has been published on-line by the National Gallery of Canada; it is part of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.[13]
References
edit- ^ a b c "Margaret Ann Ireland Nagel". www.legacy.com. The Globe and Mail, Jul. 7, 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
- ^ a b "Margaret Ann Ireland". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
- ^ Hector Charlesworth, "Junior Audience Won By Vivacious Program". Globe and Mail, Dec. 6, 1944.
- ^ Russell Spurr, A Canadian Pianist wins the Russians, Ottawa Citizen, Weekend Magazine, Vol. 10, No. 24, June 25, 1960, p. 65-66.
- ^ Margaret Ann Ireland, "The Soviet Union 1960". The Atlantic Advocate, November 1960, pp. 19-23.
- ^ "Margaret Ann Ireland plays Schubert, Rachmaninoff". bac-lac.on.worldcat.org. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
- ^ "Margaret Ann Plays Villa-Lobos, Granados". bac-lac.on.worldcat.org. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
- ^ "Margaret Ann Ireland "Villa-Lobos and Granados - Margaret Ann Ireland"". www.discogs.com. Discogs. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
- ^ "Margaret Ann Plays Music of the Polish Masters". bac-lac.on.worldcat.org. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
- ^ "Oistrakh treasures re-issued". Ottawa Citizen, Jan. 4, 1964.
- ^ Bill Gray, "Capitol, Canada to get more Pop acts". Billboard magazine, May 24, 1969, vol. 81, no. 21, p. 22.
- ^ Brittain, Miller; Mogelson, Alex (1981). Miller Brittain in Focus. Toronto: Simon Dresdnere. pp. 150–156. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ "Margaret Ireland". photostories.ca. National Gallery of Canada. 22 August 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
