NEWS photo Mike Wake

JEAN Coulthard, photographed in 1991 with daughter Jane Adams, was the first
composer from ‘Canada’s West Coast to achieve netional stature and interna-
tional recognition. Coulthard died peacefuily at Lions Gate Hospital on March 9.

WV composer lett
rich artistic legacy

Layne Christensen

News Reporter
lehvistensen@nsnews.com

JEAN Coulthard, one of

Canada’s most prolific

and honoured com-

posers, produced more

than half her life’s work
ter retirement.

“She always joked and said
her career began at 70,” said
hee daughter, artist. Jane
Adams. Coulthard, a resident
of West Vancouver since 1983,
died March 9 at Lions Gate
‘Hospital after suffering a
stroke. She was 92.

Coulthard was born in
1908 in Vancouver and began
her musical training with her
mother, Jean Robinson
Coulthard at the age of five. By
nine she was writng her first
compositions.

In 1928, with a scholarship
from the Vancouver Women’s
Music Club, she enrolled at the
Royal College of Music in
Londen, England, to study
under Ralph = Vaughan
Williams.

Upon her return to
Vancouver, she ran a successful
music studio with her mother
and sister, Babs Brock, later a
North Shore resident, before
her death in 1998.

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in 1935, Coulthard married
Donald Adams, a noted
designer. From 1947 to 1973,
she taught in UBC's
Department of Music while
continuing to compose. She
composed in every genre:
opera, symphonies, concertos,
sonatas for virtually all instru-
ments and hundreds of key-
board, choral and vocal works,
more than 450 compositions in
all, with the majority complet-
ed after her retirement from
UBC.

Adams recalls her parents’
retirement to the North Shore
in 1983, to a small condomini-
um development in Caulfeild
Cove, where they came to
enjoy the eccentricities of living
ona rail Line.

“It was a beautiful spring
day,” Adams recalls of their first
day in the new home. “Dad
and Mum were quite peaceful
people. They were making tea
after the big move and they
were sitting out on their beau-
tiful patio and suddenly the
Royal Hudson went by. It was
literally 25 feet from where
they were sitting and they did-
n't know the railway was there.
There was the tain and they
nearly died.”

Coulthard grew to love the
rumble of passing trains, said
Adams.

“Mum said it became part

ee

of her music. Every time the
train went by she incorporated
it into her music.”

Later, following fer hus-
band’s death in 1985,
Couithard moved to an apart-
ment in Dundarave, where she
never tired of the view from her
window.

“She used to tell people
when they'd visit that she could
see all phases of her lite from
the window at 2222 Bellevue,”
recalled her daughter. “She
could see the West End, s-here
she was born, and she could see
the hilltop just over Kerrisdale
where she lived most of her life,
and UBC where she taught.
She loved that view.”

On Feb. 12, Coulthard
moved to Hollyburn House
where she was enjoying making
new friends before suffering a
stroke, said Adams.

Cuulthard’s legacy lives on,
said Bill Bruneau, a professor of
history at UBC = and
Coulthard’s biographer.
Bruneau is completing two vol-
umes about the composer’s life
and work, the first due out late

susmuner.

“In some sense, her life and
the history of it is the story of
the city over nearly a century,”
said Bruneau of Couithard’s
impact on West Coast arts and
culture.

Coul!thard’s legacy is her
family, daughter Acams and
grand-daughter Alexa
Poulsson, a landscape architect
~— artists in their own right,
said Bruneau — her recordings
and compositions and her
impact on other artists.

Rodney Sharman, compos-
er in residence with the
Vancouver Symphony
Orchestra, first met Coulthard
in 1974 at the Shawnigan Lake
Sunimer School for the Arts,
where Coulthard was on’ the
faculty after leaving UBC.

Then 16, Sharman had -
moved ‘from a small town in
Saskatchewan ‘to_ Victoria to:
study composition and was at
Shawnigan for a- concert’ By”

Coulthard and her music’ stu-" =. :

dents. “In Victoria in’ the
1970s, most composers were
these tweed-wearing, : Pipe- a
smoking bearded men.” .

Sharman was. stunned: by .”
Coulthard’s appearance. :4In -
walks this woman ‘with ‘the
most incredible posture and
bearing, wearing a aa white -
and black caftan with hot pink
lining. I had never seen anyon
so elegant and . graceful . and:

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commanding in my life.” -

In its 1997-1998: “season, :
the Vancouver symphony per-
formed a special tribute concert.
for Coulthard, in. recognition ©
of her 90th birthday. The same
season, the VSO inaugurated
the Jean Coulthard. Readings, .

~ which take place every fall asa:
forum for young composers to
have their works read by a Pro-.
fessional orchestra. os

At the request of its musi-
Gans, the symphony will dedi-..-
cate this weekend’s concerts to: -.
the memory of Coulthard. =, ©

Sharman said the symphony
has remained committed to
including « Couithard compo- ©
sition in its regular season pro-
gramming, each year:’“She was
such a big part of the musical
comnuunity here and it was ..

* only natural that the symphony
would be playing her music as a -
matter of course.” :

Coulthard continued | to.”
write. undil just a few menths :

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