Barbara Cass-Beggs

Barbara Cass-Beggs (November 10, 1904 – September 13, 1990) was an English-born Canadian folk song collector, singer and teacher. She was director of the University Settlement Music School at the University of Toronto and was a faculty member of the Regina Conservatory of Music as vocal teacher. Cass-Beggs set up the Regina Junior Concery Society in 1957 and collected folk songs for use in teaching. She was a private music educator to children and did pre-school teacher music courses at Algonquin College's early childhood education. An award and scholarship are named after Cass-Beggs whose personal objects are in the collection of the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.

Biography On November 10, 1904, Cass-Beggs was born in Nottingham, England. and went on to matriculate to the Royal College of Music, studying composition, pedagogy, piano and voice under Basil Allchin, Percy Buck, C. C. Collier, Herbert Howells and Reginald Jacques. Cass-Beggs obtained an Associate of the Royal College of Music degree and a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music diploma between 1927 and 1928. surviving a torpedo attack on the SS Athenia passenger liner she was sailing in that September. Cass-Beggs had been a member of the 'Oriana' Madrigal Singers and the first soprano of the London Charterhouse Quartet.

Cass-Beggs served as director of Toronto's University Settlement Music School at the University of Toronto from 1945 to 1952 and taught music classes. In 1948, she helped to compile a report used by the lawyer Andrew Brewin in his preparation of Canada's first introduced pay equality legislation. In February 1956, Cass-Beggs joined the faculty of the Regina Conservatory of Music as vocal teacher. In Regina, she authored her philosophy that was subsequently published as To Listen, To Like, To Learn as he consolidated working with young children. Cass-Beggs released the recording Folksongs of Saskatchewan to reflect her research in 1963. She left the Regina Conservatory of Music the following year. She presented a paper at an international education and technology conference in Tel Aviv in 1984 and was invited to teach baby/parent classes in Vienna two years later. It was there Cass-Beggs established a Listen Like Learn Association. She presented the paper How music is first introduced as a keynote speaker at the International Society for Music Education conference in Finland in August 1990. Cass-Beggs and her husband each agreed to take on their respective surnames when they married. They had three children, including Rosemary, who edited the 1982 music anthology The Penguin Book of Rounds.

Legacy The Association for Early Childhood Education presented her with the Children's Service Award in 1982. In November 1992, Planned Parenthood Ottawa began awarding the Barbara Cass-Beggs Memorial Award for Women's Reproductive Rights to commemorate her women's reproductive rights work. The Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan holds a collection of objects connected to Cass-Beggs. They include her folksong complications, audiotapes of songs, her political life in Canada and England as well as her personal papers.