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Faculty & Staff

Benita Wolters-Fredlund

wolters-fredlundDr. Benita Wolters-Fredlund

Office: Spoelhof Center 344

Phone: (616) 526-6909

Email

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Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

Ph.D., 2005, Musicology, University of Toronto
Thesis: “We Shall Go Forward with our Songs into the Fight for Better Life”: Identity and Musical Meaning in the History of the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir, 1925-1959

M. A., 1999, Musicology, University of British Columbia
Thesis: The Early Years of the Canadian League of Composers

B. C. S., 1996, Redeemer University College
Four-Year Liberal Arts Degree; Majors: Music and Philosophy

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

  • “Experiencing Beauty in the Music of the Holocaust,” The Cresset: A review of literature, the arts and public affairs 72:4 (Spring 2009): 21-31.

  • Review of The North American Folk Music Revival: Nation and Identity in the United States and Canada, 1945-1980, by Gillian Mitchell.  Institute for Canadian Music Newsletter 6/1 (January 2008): 10-12.

  • “‘We Shall Be Better Canadians by Being Conscious Jews’: Multiculturalism and the Construction of Canadian Identity in the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir,” Intersections: Canadian Journal of Music 25/1-2 (2005), 187-201.

  • “Leftist, Jewish and Canadian Identities Voiced in the Repertoire of the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir, 1939-1959,” Canadian Journal for Traditional Music 29 (2002): 19-31.

    • RECENT PRESENTATIONS

  • “Playing the Part: Dehumanizing Music in Concentration Camps,” in panel session “Music in Jewish Life During and After the Third Reich,” Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society (Philadelphia), November 2009.

  • “A ‘League Against Willan’ versus a League for All: Constructing an Identity for the Canadian League of Composers,” Annual meeting of the Society for American Music (Denver), March 2009.

  • “Beauty and Suffering in the Music of the Holocaust,” Plenary speaker for Lily Fellows Network Conference, Seattle Pacific University, October 2008.

  • “Celebrating Jewish Resistance:  Max Helfman’s post-Holocaust Cantata Di Naye Hagode,” Annual meeting of the Canadian University Music Society (Vancouver), June 2008.

  • “Judas Maccabaeus as Revolutionary Jewish Hero: Progressive Jewish Readings of Handel’s Oratorio during the Holocaust,” Annual meeting of the American Musicological Society (Los Angeles), November 2006.

  • “Singing Solidarity with the Oppressed: Paul Robeson and the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir, 1946-1949,” Music and Social Justice, conference hosted by the Musicological Society of Australia (Sydney, Australia), September 2005.

  • “‘We have drowned out the roar of hateful propaganda:’ Politics and Musical Meaning in the Western-World Premiere of Shostakovich’s Song of the Forests by the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir, 1951,”  Meeting of the New York State-Saint Lawrence Chapter of the American Musicological Society (Toronto), April 2005.

    • CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

    Performance
    Grace Episcopal Church (Grand Rapids, MI), soprano section leader (2009-ongoing)
    Calvin Oratorio Society, assistant director (2006-2008)

    Recording Projects
    Christmas with the Massey College Quintet (Independent, 2005)
    Clear with musica intima (Twentieth-century repertoire; ATMA Classique, 1999)
    Josef Gabriel Rheinberger: Abendlied with Vancouver Cantata Singers (Carus-Verlag, 1999)
    The Bach Chorales (interactive CD-ROM; PG Music Inc., 1998)