Husband Dr. Ronald George Buchanan Turner MBChB, FRCS [8374]
Born: 26 Mar 1928
Christened:
Died: 14 Aug 2005 - Memorial Hospital, Bowmanville, , , Canada
Buried: - Groveside Municipal Cemetery, Whitby, Durham, Ontario, Canada
FamilySearch ID: PWCW-5NY
Find A Grave ID: 257061336
Marriage:
Events
• His obituary was published. TURNER, Ronald George Buchanan MBChB, FRCS
Passed away peacefully on August 14th, 2005 at Memorial Hospital Bowmanville after a long, and astonishingly courageous battle with poor health Cherished husband and best friend of Norma Beecroft, and loving brother of Graeme. He will be sadly mourned by his children Roddy and wife Frances Turner, Laura McNeill, Karen and husband Corrado Tomarchio, and Wendy Turner. Loving Papa of Corrie and Susie Turner, Ian and Alexander McNeill, and Robin and Adriana Tomarchio. Special thanks for the special care to the staff of Marnwood Life Care, Bowmanville and the doctors and nurses at Memorial Hospital Bowmanville. Cremation has taken place. Friends are welcome to attend a Memorial Service at THE NORTHCUTT ELLIOTT FUNERAL HOME 53 Division St. N. Bowmanville on Friday August 19th, 2005 at 11 am. If desired, donations can be made to Memorial Hospital Foundation, Bowmanville.
Wife Norma Marian Beecroft [5932]
Born: 11 Apr 1934 - Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
Christened:
Died: 19 Oct 2024 - Ontario, Canada
Buried:
FamilySearch ID: PWCW-CL5
Father: Julian Balfour Beecroft [5929] (1908-2008)
Mother: Eleanor Chambers Norton [5930] (1906-2007) 1
Events
• Biography: BEECROFT, Norma Marian was born in Oshawa, Ontario, on 11 April 1934. Her parents were both active in the artistic field, her father, Julian Balfour Beecroft, was a musician and inventor, and was a pioneer in the development of magnetic tape. Her mother, Eleanor Beecroft Stewart, was trained in music and dance, and enjoyed a successful career as an actress. The second of five offspring, Norma has enjoyed an active life in music, as a composer, producer, broadcaster and administrator. Some of her siblings have pursued occupations in the arts and/or technology, Jane (b. 1932) was a poet and painter, Eric (b.1935) was active in film, and Charles Andrew Stuart (b. 1942) is a noted documentarist in the field of natural sciences.
Norma Beecroft's early musical studies began with the piano, taking piano lessons from Aladar Ecsedy (1950-52), then between 1952-58 with Gordon Hallett and Weldon Kilburn. At the same time she studied composition with John Weinzweig. The recipient of a bursary from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 1957-58, she began flute studies with Keith Girard as well. She continued her composition studies on scholarship at the Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood, with Aaron Copland and Lukas Foss, and in 1959 was accepted into the Corso di Perfezionamento at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, under Goffredo Petrassi, where she graduated in 1961. The same year she was the recipient of an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs scholarship. During her three years in Europe she attended lectures given by Bruno Maderna at Darmstadt, Germany, and at the Dartington School of Music in England, and she continued her flute studies with Severino Gazzelloni. Upon her return to Canada, she attended the electronic music classes of Myron Schaeffer at the University of Toronto, and in 1964 spent the summer working with Mario Davidovsky at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, New York.
Concurrent with her composing life, Beecroft has enjoyed a long association with the world of broadcasting. She was first attracted to the then-new world of television and joined the CBC in 1954 as a script assistant for music programs, and later music consultant. After her European studies, she returned to CBC, working as a script assistant 1962-3, then successively as talent relations officer 1963-4, national program organizer for radio 1964-6, and producer 1966-9. In 1969 she resigned from CBC, and began a freelance career as producer and commentator on contemporary music. She was the host of the weekly series "Music of Today" for many years, and her freelance productions included many documentaries commissioned by the CBC on major Canadian composers of the latter 20th Century, including John Weinzweig, Harry Somers, Harry Freedman, Barbara Pentland, Jean Coulthard-Adams, Bruce Mather, Gilles Tremblay, etc. In 1976 her documentary "The Computer in Music" received a Major Armstrong Award for excellence in FM broadcasting. Among her numerous freelance projects was the preparation in 1975 of 13 broadcast records "Music Canada" from tapes in the libraries of RCI and CAPAC, and she contributed numerous documentaries on her Canadian colleagues for the Anthology of Canadian Composers series. Beecroft produced electronic music for the Stratford Festival productions of Macbeth (1982) and Midsummer Night's Dream (1983), and incidental music for the TVO series "Fish On".
Most of Beecroft's compositions have been commissioned by organizations and individuals (see list), and many combine electronically produced or altered sounds together with live instruments. She regards her particular use of electronic music as an extension of vocal and/or instrumental sounds rather than a contrast of timbres. From Dreams of Brass (1963-4) is the first example of this technique, and her large scale work, the ballet Hedda (1982), is a later illustration. Her musical aesthetic was first influenced by the music of Debussy, then later by her teachers- Weinzweig, Petrassi and Maderna, and during her European years, she was impressed by the work of Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the first composers to combine electronic music with live instruments.
Beecroft has long been active in the promotion of Canadian and contemporary music in addition to her broadcasting and composing career. She was President in 1956-7 of Canadian Music Associates (the Toronto concert committee of the Canadian League of Composers), and in 1965-8 President of Ten Centuries Concerts. In 1971, she co-founded (with Robert Aitken) New Music Concerts, and was its President and General Manager until 1989. For her service to Canadian music, in 1996 she was awarded a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, from York University, Toronto.
Norma Beecroft is a member of the Canadian League of Composers and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre. In 2002, she was awarded an Honorary Membership in the Canadian Electro-acoustic Community.
2003.
• Biography: Beecroft, Norma
Beecroft, Norma (Marian). Composer, producer, broadcaster, administrator, b Oshawa, Ont, 11 Apr 1934; honorary D LITT (York) 1996. Her father, Julian Balfour Beecroft, was a musician, an inventor, and a pioneer in the development of electronic tape. Her mother, Eleanor (Chambers) Beecroft (b Norton), was trained in music and dance and was an actress.
Norma Beecroft took piano lessons, first 1950-2 privately with Aladar Ecsedy, then 1952-8 at the RCMT with Gordon Hallett and Weldon Kilburn, and at the same time studied composition with John Weinzweig. She also took flute lessons 1957-8 with Keith Girard and continued composition studies (summer 1958) on scholarship at the Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood, with Aaron Copland and Lukas Foss, and 1959-61 at the Accademia Santa Cecilia, Rome, with Goffredo Petrassi. She took private flute lessons 1959-62 in Rome with Severino Gazzelloni. She attended lectures given by Bruno Maderna in 1960 and 1961 at Darmstadt, Germany, and the Dartington School, England, and the electronic music classes of Myron Schaeffer 1962-3 at the University of Toronto, and worked with Mario Davidovsky in 1964 at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, New York.
Beecroft's first musical employment was with the CBC as a script assistant 1954-7 for TV music programs and as a music consultant 1957-9. After her European studies she returned to the CBC, working as a script assistant 1962-3, then successively as talent relations officer 1963-4, national program organizer for radio 1964-6, and producer 1966-9 of such series as 'Music of Today,' 'Organists in Recital,' and 'RSVP,' and such programs as 'From the Age of Elegance,' which showcased the music of the baroque period. When she resigned as a producer in 1969 she remained as host and commentator for 'Music of Today.' In 1976 her documentary 'The Computer in Music,' a freelance production, received a Major Armstrong Award for excellence in FM broadcasting. Another freelance project was the preparation in 1975 of 13 broadcast records, 'Music Canada,' from tapes in the libraries of RCI and CAPAC. As a freelance producer, Beecroft created documentaries on numerous Canadian composers for CBC radio, including Weinzweig, Barbara Pentland, Harry Somers, Jean Coulthard, Bruce Mather, Harry Freedman, and Gilles Tremblay, and later for CJRT-FM on Murray Adaskin and Violet Archer.
She produced electronic music scores for the Stratford Festival productions of Macbeth (1982) and Midsummer Night's Dream (1983). Assiduous in the service of Canadian music, Beecroft was president 1956-7 of Canadian Music Associates (the Toronto concert committee of the CLComp); president 1965-8 of Ten Centuries Concerts; and co-founder (in 1971 with Robert Aitken), president, and manager of NMC until 1989. She taught electronic music and composition at York University 1984-87.
Most of Beecroft's compositions have been commissioned by organizations and individuals including the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra (Pičce Concertante No. 1), Ten Centuries Concerts (Elegy and Two Went to Sleep), the puppeteers Dora and Leo Velleman (Undersea Fantasy), Waterloo Lutheran University (Wilfrid Laurier University) choir (The Living Flame of Love), the SMCQ (Rasas I), the NACO (Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 2), the CBC (Rasas II, 11 and 7 for 5+, Piece for Bob, Accordion Play, Evocations), the Toronto Symphony Junior Women's Committee (Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 3), the Ontario Youth Choir (Three Impressions), NMC (Rasas III, Collage '76, Jeu II, Jeu IV), the Canadian Electronic Ensemble (Consequences for Five), Music Inter Alia (Collage '78), James MacDonald (Quaprice), Days, Months and Years to Come (Cantorum Vitae), Rivka Golani (Troissonts, Jeu III), the National Ballet of Canada (Hedda), the Bach 300 (Jeu de Bach), the York Winds (Images), CKLN Radio, Toronto (The Dissipation of Purely Sound), and the Music Gallery (Hemispherics, String Quartet No. 2).
The character and variety of Beecroft's work derive from her strong responses to specific stimuli, whether the musical influences of her childhood, the successive effects of her several main teachers, the talents of friends in the performing world, or the challenge of commissions.
Basic and persistent among the influences, however, is the music of Debussy, which she experienced as a child and which, with its sensuality and subtle colours, continued to affect her aesthetic predispositions despite the intrusion of four strong subsequent influences: the resilient counterpoint of Weinzweig; the new academism of Petrassi (founded on analyses of the scores of Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Bartók); the modified 12-tone precepts of Maderna; and the allure of the new electronic hardware. Each of these enlarged her horizons, altered her vocabulary, or increased her skills, but her choice and blending of timbres remained neo-Debussyan even in her 12-tone and electronic pieces. She has used electronically produced or altered sounds as an extension of vocal and instrumental sounds rather than as an alien alternative (From Dreams of Brass is the first obvious example). Much of Beecroft's interest in exploring mixed media stemmed from hearing Stockhausen's Kontakte for four channel tape and live percussion in Darmstadt in 1961. 'That was a coup de foudre. When I returned to Canada in 1962, this was the direction I thought most interesting to pursue, to mix electronic sounds with live instruments so that one could have the visual interest on stage, and yet, at times, wonder what was live and what was on tape.' In the mid-1980s her work took on the additional complexity of digital process, either with instruments or on its own. She has stated that 'The most important concern to me is the quality of the end sound result, no matter how it is made or from what it is made, and that I suppose is the Debussyian influence of colour and texture.'
A sister, Jane Beecroft (poet, painter, b Toronto 1932), collaborated with Norma, as writer or translator, on several works (From Dreams of Brass, Rasas II, and The Living Flame of Love).
Norma Beecroft twice won the Canada Council's Lynch-Staunton Award for composition. She was a member of the jury for the SOCAN Awards (1996) and the Prix Jules-Léger (1997), and guest-lectured on new music at the University of Montreal and York University. As of 2003, Beecroft continued to compose.
Volume 13 of RCI's Anthology of Canadian Music (4-ACM 13), issued in 1982, is devoted to Beecroft's compositions. Her Troissants and Jeu II can be heard on the 1990 disc New Music 90 (NMC-001). She is a member of the CLComp and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, and an honorary member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community. She donated her papers and recordings to the University of Calgary in 1988.
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• Biography: International Who's Who of Women. page 50, Beecroft, Norma Marian; Canadian composer; b 11 April 1934, Oshawa, ON; d of Julian and Eleanor (nee Norton) Beecroft. Educatino: Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music, Berks Music Centre, Acad of St Cecilia (Rome) and Germany and UK. Career: Freelance commentator on modern music 1969-; Dir Workshops York Univ 1984-87; numerous TV and radio appearances; producer programmes on TV and radio, including programmes on Murray Adskin 1993 and Violet Archer (qv) 1994; mem Composers', Authors' and Publishers' Asscn of Canada; numerous commissions; Armstrong Award for Excellence in FM Broadcasting, Victor M Lynch-Staunton Award 1978-79, 1989-90; Dr hc (York Univ) 1996. Compositions include: Tre Pezzi Brevi 1961, From Dreams of Brass 1964, Elegy and Two Went to Sleep 1967, Undersea Fantasy 1967, The Living Flame of Love 1967, Three Impressions from Sweetgrass 1973, Piece for Bob 1975, Consequences for Five 1977, Quaprice 1980, Cantorum Vitae 1981, Troissants 1982, Macbeth (score) 1983, Midsummer Night's Dream (score) 1984, Jeu de Bach 1985, Images 1987, The Dissipation of Purely Sound 1988, Accordion Play 1988, Hemispherics 1990, Evocations: Images of Canada 1991, Amplified String Quartet 1991-92, Esprit Eternel 1994, Face a Face 1994. Address 1866 Glendale Drive, Pickering, ON L1V 1V5, Canada.
• Event: 5 Jun 1996. Founders and McLaughlin Colleges
Wednesday, June 12 at 2:30 p.m.
Norma Beecroft will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree as a broadcaster and award-winning composer renowned for her use of electronic sound. She has been a pioneer and innovator in the musical life of Canada. The composer of more than 20 works, Beecroft has been commissioned by most of Canada's leading artists, ensembles and organizations. She has enjoyed a long career in broadcasting, in television and as a radio producer, commentator and documentarist for the CBC and for CJRT-FM radio. This ceremony will also see Elaine Newton receive the University-Wide Teaching Award for full-time teaching.
• Event: Speech of Assunta Marcolongo, 19 Mar 2003. IAMAT was founded in 1960 by my late husband, Dr. Vincenzo Marcolongo. Vincenzo had come to Canada in 1950 with a scholarship to McGill University. He was already a physician in his native Italy, but he very much liked what he learned here and to be able to practice here he did 4 years of rotating internships at McGill.
In 1959 he returned to Rome to start his practice there and soon he was among the city's leading physicians, treating not only social leaders and politicians but movies stars such as Liz Taylor and George C. Scott and very often, because of his North American training, he was called upon by the Canadian and American embassies to treat travellers who had fallen ill while in Rome. And it was just such a visitor, Norma Beecroft, a young Canadian studying music in Italy, who turned his life around -- a turn which led to IAMAT and me being here today.
That happened when he was asked by fellow physicians to look at a patient, Miss Beecroft, whose white blood cells were rapidly being destroyed by some unknown agent despite their best efforts to save her. She had fallen ill after a visit to a dentist and despite the liberal use of painkillers and drugs her condition was daily growing worse.
For him, thanks to his North American training, there was an obvious answer: She was dying from agranulocytosis (the destruction of white blood cells) caused by a drug called aminopyrine, which was then widely used as an effective and inexpensive painkiller in southern Europe.
The drug had been given to her after dental work and again when she fell ill in repeated efforts to alleviate pain, each dose increasing the problem and baffling the physicians.
But Dr. Marcolongo knew something vital that they, who treated only Latins, didn't: that this drug could destroy the white blood cells of persons of Anglo-Saxon extraction and had been banned in Canada since 1938.
He was able to save Ms. Beecroft's life with blood transfusions, antibiotics and heavy doses of vitamins. Dr. Marcolongo had seen many travellers becoming ill - from heart attacks to broken legs - but this one case jolted him into action. Modern drugs can be racially selective. What cures one kills another. And all over the world local doctors know only their own remedies and peoples. And they would treat the stranger among them, the traveller, as they would their own. Which could be fatal.
• Her obituary was published in The Globe and Mail on 26 Oct 2024. NORMA BEECROFT Obituary
It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Norma Marian Beecroft, in her 91st year, peacefully, on Saturday, October 19, 2024. Norma is survived by her brother, Charles A. Stuart (Barbara); predeceased by sisters, Jane and Carolyn; and brother, Eric. She will be missed by her nephews, nieces, and countless friends and colleagues from the music community. A beloved Canadian composer, electronic music pioneer, and trailblazer in the world of modern music, Norma's legacy will continue to resonate through her groundbreaking compositions, the artists she inspired, and the profound impact she had on Canadian music. Norma had an unwavering commitment to supporting young composers and musicians, many of whom cite her as a mentor and inspiration. Later in life, her creativity and passion for cooking led to the formation of Norma's Edible Flowers and Herbs and her involvement in many farmers markets across southern Ontario. A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, November 16, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. at Rosar Morrison Funeral Home, 467 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, ON. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Canadian Music Centre (CMC, canadianmusiccentre.formstack.com/forms/donation) in memory of Norma Beecroft would be especially appreciated by the family.
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