Thelma Reid Lower

Lower, Thelma Reid

Thelma Reid Lower (b Reid). Writer, poet, music critic, b Victoria, BC, 5 Jan 1914; B ED English literature (University of British Columbia) 1958. A soprano chorister in the Ladies Philomel Choir 1947-52 and the Vancouver Bach Choir 1952-72, she established the latter's archives and began to research and write the history of choral societies in British Columbia and beyond. She has contributed a series of 'Musical Flashbacks' and other articles to the Vancouver Playboard magazine (1963-79) and became critic for the Richmond Review in 1980. She has also written for TheCanadian Composer, Music Magazine, Music Market Canada, and TheCanada Music Book. Her two-part article 'General John Reid' (1721-1807), is a study of a soldier-musician who composed regimental marches and flute music while in North America 1755-75 with the 42nd Regiment ('Black Watch') and later funded a professorship of music at the University of Edinburgh (The NS Historical Q, vol 9, Jun, Dec 1979). Her unpublished studies include extensive papers on the Arion Male Voice Choir of Victoria and 'Arion Connections, a brief history of the Arion male-voice singing movement' (1984). She has been a contributor and researcher for EMC.