Rosette Renshaw

Rosette (Rose Madelaine) Renshaw. Teacher, ethnomusicologist, translator, born Montreal 4 May 1920, died New Paltz, NY, 13 Mar 1997; BA (McGill) 1942, B MUS (Toronto) 1944, D MUS (Toronto) 1949. She attended the École Vincent-d'Indy 1936-8 and studied with Alfred Whitehead and Claude Champagne. She was a pupil of Nicolas Nabokov at the Peabody Cons in Baltimore, and, in 1951, of Nadia Boulanger at the Paris Cons. She worked as early as 1942 as a translator in the House of Commons in Ottawa and performed the same function later in the Secretary of State's office. In England she lectured at the Bath Festival, Yehudi Menuhin's school, and the RCM. She spent some time in India with the aid of a grant from Unesco. On CBC TV she provided commentary for a 1957 concert of Indian music given by Ravi Shankar and presented two programs on the same subject in 1960. She taught 1956-7 at the École Vincent-d'Indy, 1959-64 at the University of Montreal and in the 1960s at McGill University, and began teaching at the State U College in New Paltz, NY, ca 1970. In 1990 she returned to India to further her research in ethnomusicology. She has also spent much of her time researching Nadia Boulanger's papers at the library of the Lyon Cons. She has composed a Symphony in G as a requirement for her D MUS degree, and Madrigal for Strings (1949).