Peggy Atherton
(b. 1941)
External links
- Detailed biography: None given
IMSLP
Miscellaneous information
Peggy Atherton is a Canadian citizen. Born in Jamaica in 1941, she received her musical training as a pianist first in Jamaica, then in Toronto after her family emigrated to Canada in 1957. Following studies (including keyboard harmony) at Carleton University she became a member of CAMMAC (Canadian Amateur Musicians / Musiciens amateurs du Canada), and served this organization as a member of its volunteer Board of Directors in several administrative positions. Her suggestion that the CAMMAC Music Centre in Quebec devote one week each year to studies in Early Music was adopted in 1985. It became a popular choice for amateur musicians who benefit from contact with, and instruction from, internationally recognized teaching staff and performers during an intensive week of exposure to "Early Music." Dr. Geneviève Soly (following research into the German composer Christoph Graupner) now introduces participants during the Early Music Week to this relatively unknown (to Canadian audiences) composer through lectures and performances of his works. Peggy as co-founder of a summer string orchestra in Ottawa (Sinfonia Ottawa) was able to arrange performances of compositions by Graupner in 2006 and 2007. These works were transcribed from the original autographs to produce scores and parts for the performers. She plays several instruments besides piano: vielle, viola-da-gamba, violone, double bass, and has built several instruments herself (rebec, vielle, pardessus-de-viole) at instrument building workshops held in Ottawa and Scarborough College, University of Toronto. She also founded in 1984 a very small publishing house (Castenchel Editions) whose publications are deposited in the Library and Archives Canada collection. She is a librarian by training, and an amateur musician by choice.
