Charles A. Sippi | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Charles A. Sippi

Charles A. (Augustus) Sippi. Educator, organist-choirmaster, physician, b Hyderabad, India (Pakistan), 25 Jul 1844, d London, Ont, 15 May 1906; D MED (Dublin), honorary MA (Kenyon College, Ohio). Though of Italian descent Sippi was third-generation Irish.

Sippi, Charles A.

Charles A. (Augustus) Sippi. Educator, organist-choirmaster, physician, b Hyderabad, India (Pakistan), 25 Jul 1844, d London, Ont, 15 May 1906; D MED (Dublin), honorary MA (Kenyon College, Ohio). Though of Italian descent Sippi was third-generation Irish. He attended the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, and the University of Dublin while studying organ with an uncle, John A. Sippi, and voice with Alexander Roche (or Roache). After emigrating to Canada in 1865 he practised medicine in Port Stanley, on Lake Erie, but moved to London, Canada West (Ontario), where he taught English, classics, and physiology 1864-74 at Hellmuth College (University of Western Ontario). Eventually music occupied most of his time. He was manager of A. & S. Nordheimer 's London, Ont, music store 1874-87 and served as organist-choirmaster of Cronyn Memorial Church. As a co-founder, and the first president 1885-7, of the Ontario Music Teachers' Association (Canadian Society of Musicians) he campaigned for the certification of music teachers and increased music teaching in public schools. George B. Sippi was his brother. Their father, a retired British bandmaster, also lived in London, Ont.

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