Hugh McLean |
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| Birth name | Hugh John McLean |
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| Born | (1930-01-05)5 January 1930
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
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| Died | (2017-07-30)30 July 2017
Naples, Florida, United States |
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| Genres | |
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| Occupation(s) | Organist, musicologist, choirmaster |
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Musical artist
Hugh John McLean CM (5 January 1930 – 30 July 2017[1]) was a Canadian organist, choirmaster, pianist, harpsichordist, administrator, teacher, musicologist, composer, and editor.
Early life
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, McLean was a boy chorister at All Saint's Anglican Church in Winnipeg. While in Winnipeg, he studied piano and organ with Russell Standing for ten years, then studied organ for two years with Hugh Bancroft in Vancouver, before taking his first position as organist at St. Luke's Anglican Church, Winnipeg, age 15. He was first heard in recital, as an organist, on the CBC in 1947.[2]
Career
In 1949, McLean travelled to the Royal College of Music, England on an organ scholarship. His teachers were Arthur Benjamin (piano), Sir William H. Harris (organ), and W.S. Lloyd Webber (composition). From 1951 to 1956, he was the first Canadian to be named Mann Organ Scholar at King's College, Cambridge, under the supervision of Boris Ord, and later David Willcocks (who had preceded him as Organ Scholar).[3] The 1954 recording Festival of Lessons and Carols as Sung on Christmas Eve at King's College, Cambridge, upon which McLean is featured, has been named to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.[4] When Boris Ord declined to give organ lessons to then-chorister[5] Simon Preston, Preston took organ instruction from McLean. McLean made his London debut in 1955 with Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, in the premiere performance of Malcolm Arnold's Organ Concerto; a Royal Command Concert in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Festival Hall.[6] During Canada's Centennial year, 1967, McLean was a featured soloist at Expo 67 on the Casavant Organ installation at "Man and His World." That same year, he presented a recital at the International Congress of Organists, held in Canada.[7]
Upon his return to Vancouver, McLean served as organist-choirmaster at Ryerson United Church 1957-73,[8] founded and conducted the Vancouver Cantata Singers, founded the Hugh McLean Consort – a Baroque music instrumental ensemble, and founded the CBC Vancouver Singers. He taught 1967–69 at the University of Victoria and 1969–73 at the University of British Columbia.[9] From 1973-1980, he served as dean of the Faculty of Music, University of Western Ontario (now Western University), where he continued to teach organ, harpsichord, and music history. He was also organist and choirmaster at the Church of Saint John the Evangelist[10] during his time in London, collaborating with local organ builder Gabriel Kney in the installation of the parish's Kney tracker organ. In 1995 he retired as professor emeritus, and became Minister of Music at All Saints Episcopal Church, Winter Park, Florida.[11] He retired as Winter Park's Minister of Music in 2010.
As an organ recitalist, McLean was frequently heard on the CBC, and appeared in every major Canadian centre. He also broadcast with the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Swiss Radio, and NHK Japan. He was heard on Polish radio as a conductor (1975), and in 1988 was the first Canadian organist to tour the USSR. McLean performed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and at two of Bach's churches, the Blasiuskirche of Mühlhausen and the Thomaskirche of Leipzig. He gave the Canadian premieres of Hindemith's Organ Concerto No. 1 (19 September 1970) and No. 2 (16 May 1972) with the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra, conducted by John Avison. He appeared as organ soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, performing Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3 (3 and 4 April 1979), Poulenc's Concerto (12, 13, and 16 September 1982) in the inaugural concerts[12] of Roy Thomson Hall on the Gabriel Kney Organ that he helped to design. He premiered Bengt Hambraeus' Icons (29 September 1975) in Toronto during Canada Music Week. He also toured Great Britain, Japan, Scandinavia, and Switzerland, and presented lecture-recitals and masterclasses in Germany and Australia.[13]
McLean specialized in 17th- and 18th-century musicology studies, and was awarded Canada Council grants in 1960 and 1965 to investigate the Cummings collection of western manuscripts at Nanki Music Library, Japan. A further grant in 1972 enabled him to visit Poland and the German Democratic Republic, where he located a lost opera by Alessandro Scarlatti, and works by Johann Hermann Schein. From 1989, he served as a consultant for the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, editing new series of repertoire for voice, violin, and piano that included translations of song texts from French, German, English, and Norwegian into English, new arrangements of folk songs, and original compositions. He also served on the editorial board of the new C.P.E. Bach edition, and wrote 19 articles for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.[14]
