Don Garrard

Don (Donald) Garrard. Bass, b Vancouver 31 Jul 1929. He was a semi-finalist in the CBC’s ‘Singing Stars of Tomorrow’ . He made his COC debut as the Speaker in The Magic Flute and won a leading role in the premiere of Dolores Claman’s Timber!! at Vancouver’s TUTS. He undertook a sustained course of study 1952-7 at the Royal Conservatory Opera School. On 14 May 1953 for the CBC he sang Don Giovanni (this also was the first production of any complete opera on TV in North America). He won the ‘Singing Stars of Tomorrow’ in 1953 and ‘Nos Futures Étoiles’ in 1954. He sang Handel’s Solomon in a 1972 performance by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and the NACO at Massey Hall, Toronto. Garrard joined Sadler’s Wells as principal bass in 1961. He made his debut at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, in 1970. He appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival, at the Glyndebourne Festival He was Sarastro at the NAC in Festival Canada’s production of The Magic Flute in 1977 (see Festival Ottawa). He was Wotan in the Seattle Opera’s production of the entire Der Ring des Nibelungen (1980) and sang with the San Diego and Palm Beach Operas both in 1985. After his 1988 performance of Verdi’s Requiem with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, critic Peter Mose wrote ‘Garrard’s was the voice of the wisest, ripest eminence’ (Toronto Star 11 May 1988). Garrard continued to appear in Canada with the COC, in recital, and on CBC radio and TV. In 1989 he moved from Canada to South Africa where he appeared in concerts, and gave masterclasses. He has been heard on the BBC, RAI (Italy) and PBS networks