Who We Remember Today

Phyllis Mailing

by David Gordon Duke

Phyllis Mailing
1929–2004

Singer, teacher, and new music activist Phyllis Mailing died at her home on Friday November 26th. Valiantly struggling for some time with cancer, she had recently celebrated her 75th birthday with friends, and ultimately succumbed to heart failure, said spokesperson Don Mowatt.

Mailing was born in Brantford, Ontario and studied at the Hamilton Conservatory and Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music. She sang with several Ontario ensembles, including the Festival Singers, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. In 1965 she was a winner of a Concert Artists Guild Townhall performance and subsequently toured North America and France with pianist William Aide.

Mailing came to Vancouver in the mid-1960s with her then husband, composer R. Murray Schafer, who taught for several years at SFU. She quickly became a vital part of the Vancouver music scene, especially through her practical partisanship of new music by Canadian composers. She was a co-founder and first president of the Vancouver New Music Society.

An intelligent and dramatic singer, Mailing excelled in the presentation of often daunting contemporary scores. She premiered and broadcast works as diverse as Barbara Pentland’s News and Jean Coulthard’s The Pines of Emily Carr, in addition to much of the early vocal music of Schafer.

Mailing taught at Simon Fraser University, and from 1975 at the Vancouver Academy of Music; she became head of the Academy’s voice department in 1983. Her many pupils include countertenor David Lee and soprano Liping Zhang, currently singing the title role in Vancouver Opera’s new production of Madama Butterfly.

In 1977 Mailing was awarded a medal from the Canada Music Council in recognition of her outstanding service to Canadian music. Active as an adjudicator and clinician, she was committed to this country’s music; she compiled and edited three volumes of Canadian art songs, published in 2003. She maintained a long and fruitful association with the Canadian Music Centre. “Phyllis was an amazing mentor to so many people,” said Colin Miles, Regional Director of the CMC. “She was one of the most important champions of contemporary music anywhere.” Last September, in one of her last public appearances, she introduced a revival of Barbara Pentland’s Disasters of the Sun featuring Judith Forst with the Turning Point ensemble, a work she first interpreted.

Mailing was pre-deceased by her second husband, SFU professor Tom Mallinson. Plans are being finalized for a memorial tribute later in December.

Vancouver Sun
30 November 2004

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