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Jean Blake Coulthard

Article by Bryan N.S. Gooch, Betty Nygaard King, Janice Butler

Published Online June 26, 2007

Last Edited July 7, 2015

Jean (b Robinson) Coulthard, (Blake). Pianist, teacher, patron, b Moncton, NB, 13 Aug 1882, d Vancouver 16 Jul 1933. She studied piano with Charles Dennée at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and graduated in piano and singing.

Jean (b Robinson) Coulthard, (Blake). Pianist, teacher, patron, b Moncton, NB, 13 Aug 1882, d Vancouver 16 Jul 1933. She studied piano with Charles Dennée at the New England Conservatory, Boston, and graduated in piano and singing. Settling in Vancouver in 1905, she was a founding member (and president 1910-12) of the Vancouver Woman's Musical Club. She performed frequently as soloist (eg, in Messiah, in Christ Church Cathedral, conducted by Frederick Chubb) and accompanist and became known ca 1908 as a champion of contemporary music, particularly that of Debussy. A Vancouver press notice in 1910 commended her brilliant rendition of Jardins sous la pluie. She taught voice and piano, and among her outstanding pupils were Maxine Castleton of the San Francisco Opera and Joan (Brownie) Peebles. She was instrumental in getting Walter Damrosch and the New York Philharmonic to visit Vancouver. In the early 1920s she was an organizer of the British Columbia Music Teachers' Federation, and she remained influential in artistic circles in Vancouver until her death.

See also Jean Coulthard (her daughter).