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Mark Hopkins interviewed Nancy Telfer by telephone for Canadian WindsA/ents canadiens on December 29, 2014. The following is an edited transcript of that interview.
ICW/Vc: Tell us about your early musical experiences.
NT: I grew up on a farm northwest of Toronto. Although my father liked listening to music, neither he nor my mother were able to carry a tune. However, sometimes things skip generations. In previous generations of my family, there were many musical people who took piano lessons and the like, but no-one who pursued music as a career. My earliest memories of music are connected with one of my grandmothers. She lived in the other half of our house when I was small, so the kids were constantly back and forth. She played piano, and that was my first connection with music.
CW/Vc: Was she your first teacher?
NT: There was no formal instruction at all, but she had a pile of method books and sheet music that she let me go through myself. I learned from books at this stage, when I was about six years old. I did not get into a real music program until high school, and I didn't sing in a choir until my second year of university.
CW/Vc: So much of your musical output is choral that I would have thought you grew up in that type of ensemble.
NT: I can't really explain it. When I was in high school, I was heavily involved playing French horn in bands and the orchestra.
CW/Vc: Tell us about your high-school music program.
NT: I went to Central Peel for a year, then to Bramalea Secondary School. Both of them had top-notch music teachers who were inspirational to me. Gail Meade (later, Co-ordinator of Music Programs for the Peel Board) was at Central. At Bramalea, we had Anna Osborne, a completely different personality. She was very quiet, not colourful, but had a fantastic band program. If you met her outside of school, it would have seemed improbable that she led such a vibrant, exciting band program. She had an inner enthusiasm, and everyone loved her. It helped me make up my mind at an early age not to judge a book by its cover. There are many...