Cora B. Ahrens

Ahrens, Cora B.

Cora B. (Bell) Ahrens. Teacher, lecturer, pianist, b Stratford, Ont, 23 Jan 1891, d there 26 Aug 1964; LTCM 1910, B MUS (Toronto) 1926. Her teachers included Viggo Kihl at the TCM. With Leon Vera and Avram Pratz she played in a trio which accompanied silent movies at Stratford's Theatre Albert. During the 1930s she was one of the first itinerant rural school music teachers and taught throughout Perth County, Ont. A co-founder in 1926 with W.B. Rothwell and Margaret Stevenson Grant of the Perth County Music Teachers' Federation (see Stratford), Ahrens also served as secretary 1936, 1940-2 and president 1944-6 of the ORMTA. She lectured in pedagogy at the University of Western Ontario, the University of Toronto, and McGill University, conducted summer workshops in piano pedagogy in most major Canadian cities, and taught privately in Stratford. Her pupils included Irene Bird, Paul Helmer, and Campbell Trowsdale.

Writings

Ahrens, Cora B., Mother Goose Rhymes in Rhythm (Waterloo 1937)

Daily Sight Playing Excercises for Piano, 4 vols (Waterloo 1937, rev 1963)

Rudiments of Music, 9 vols (Toronto 1943-6)

Ear Training, 6 vols (New York 1947-50)

- and Atkinson, G.D. For All Piano Teachers (Oakville 1955, 1980; braille edn Toronto 1985)

- and Younger, J.B. Hints on Harmony (Oakville 1963)