Jan Simons (11 November 1925 – 7 May 2006) was a Canadian
baritone
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...
, music teacher and administrator. Complementing a vocal performance career in Canada in the 1950s and 1960s, he was a member of the faculty of music at
McGill University in
Montreal and a long-time teacher and general director at the summer music camp of
Canadian Amateur Musicians/Musiciens Amateurs du Canada (CAMMAC).
Life and career
Born in
Düsseldorf,
Germany, he lived in
The Hague,
Netherlands before moving with his family to
Montreal in 1939.
After graduating from high school, he studied voice in
New York City with
Emilio de Gogorza
Emilio Eduardo de Gogorza (May 29, 1872May 10, 1949) was an American baritone of Spanish parentage.
Biography
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, but brought up and trained musically in Spain. He returned to the USA in his early 20s. He sang in m ...
, then returned to Canada to attend
The Royal Conservatory of Music in
Toronto on a scholarship, where he studied with
Emmy Heim
Emmy Heim (Emilie Heim: 10 September 1885 – 13 October 1954) was an Austrian soprano singer and voice teacher. In her later career she lived in England and Canada.
Life Early life and career
Heim was born in Vienna in 1885. She studied singing t ...
and Ernesto Vinci.
Simons specialized in
lieder
In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French sp ...
as well as oratorio; notable performances include the 1956 Canadian premiere of the ballet ''Dark Elegies'' by the
National Ballet of Canada, set to music of
Mahler's
Kindertotenlieder, and the
Stratford Festival
The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival ...
's first concert in 1955.
Simons taught voice in the
Faculty of Music at McGill University from 1961 to 1993,
continuing to teach song interpretation as well as vocal technique privately until his death.
He also taught for periods of time at Montreal's
Marianopolis College and
Vanier College.
Notable students who went on to vocal careers of their own include
Stephanie Marshall and
Matthew White.
He received the Opus Prix Hommage from the Conseil québécois de la musique in 2005.
He is the father of six children,
including
Nicholas Simons, a
Member of the Legislative Assembly of
British Columbia.
[JAN SIMONS, SINGER 1925-2006 Stone, M JView Profile. The Globe and Mail oronto, Ont29 June 2006: S.9.]
References
* Zarya Rubin, "Remembering Jan Simons", in ''La Scena Musicale'', 16 May 2006. Downloaded 6 Jun 2011 fro
* Obituary of Jan Simons, ''The Montreal Gazette'', 14 May 2006, page A14.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simons, Jan
Canadian operatic baritones
1925 births
2006 deaths
McGill University faculty
20th-century Canadian male opera singers
Musicians from Düsseldorf
German emigrants to Canada