Born: August 2, 1906 - Bristol, England
Died: October 14, 1981 - Vancouver, Canada

The English-born Canadian baritone, Eric (Alfred Stanley) Tredwell, received his BA (Toronto) in 1945. Raised in Canada, he studied voice in Victoria, British Columbia, with Gideon Hicks and in 1929-1930 in Munich with Julius Schweitzer. Returning to Canada he made his radio debut in 1931 on CNRT, Toronto, and studied from 1931 to 1940 at the Toronto Conservatory of Music with Dalton Baker, Hubert Eisdell, Ernesto Vinci, and Albert Whitehead.

A leading soloist in choral and orchestral concerts in Toronto from the 1930s to the early 1950s, Eric Tredwell was heard on the CRBC and CBC, and in 1933 he sang for the first time with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (with which he recorded Bach's St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) in 1953). He was soloist from 1938 to 1951 at Bloor Street United Church. In 1940 he made his debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and in the mid-1940s he appeared with the Ottawa Choral Union in Messiah and Verdi's Requiem. In the 1940's also he was a member of the CBC Madrigal Singers and sang leading roles in Gilbert & Sullivan operas with the CBC Light Opera and others with the CBC Opera Company. In 1945 he toured the Royal Navy stations in the Pacific with pianist Ross Pratt.

For many years also a public school teacher, Eric Tredwell retired from performance in 1957, after two years with the Festival Singers, to become vice-principal of a Toronto school. He retired from teaching in 1978.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada (Author: Patricia Wardrop) © 2006 Historica Foundation of Canada
Contributed by Eduard van Hengel (September 2006)

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Ernest MacMillan

Bass

BWV 244 [sung in English]

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Tredwell, Eric (The Canadian Encyclopedia)

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