Organist, educator.
Born at Winnipeg in 1934, son of lithographer Thure “Dick” Anderson (1898-1975) and Hazel Isabel Hutchings (?-?), he grew up in Elmwood and started music studies at an early age, studying piano with John Melnyk. He was fascinated with the pipe organ at St. John’s Anglican Cathedral and asked the organist to take him on as a student, setting the direction for the rest of his life. He began working as an organist at Gordon King Memorial United Church at the age of 14. He subsequently studied with Herbert J. Sadler and Hugh Bancroft and graduated from the University of Manitoba (BA degree) and University of Winnipeg. He studied at Utrecht and Haarlem and was a featured soloist at the Diamond Jubilee Convention of the Royal Canadian College of Organists in August 1969.
He taught English and Music at Silver Heights Collegiate (?-1966) and Daniel McIntyre Collegiate (1966-?). He took choirs to the Eisteddfod in Wales and the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, in 1970. In 1966 he became the organist and choir master at Knox United Church, after leaving Westminster United Church, to help design a new Cassavant organ which later was branded as the ‘Barry Anderson Organ’ as a tribute when he retired from Knox after serving there for forty two years.
He was the organist for the original Winnipeg Jets at the Winnipeg Arena, he was an accompanist to the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir for many years, and he performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall under Maestro Pierro Gamba. He was choir master for the Winnipeg Police Service Choir since its inception and conducted the DMCI Alumni Choir the last thirty eight years. He played for all the convocation services for the University of Winnipeg since his graduation and was honoured for almost sixty years of service on a broadcast on CBC radio. He was a featured artist many times on the CBC's Organist in Concert programs, and he was asked to accompany the St. Luke’s Church Choir at Winchester Cathedral in England and play the huge pipe organ there.
On 15 August 1959, he married music teacher Soffia Helga Baldwinson (1931-2017, daughter of Sigvaldi Baldwinson) at St. John’s Anglican Cathedral and they had a son and a daughter before divorcing in October 1974. He later married Alexis and they had a son and a daughter. In recognition of his service, he received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012).
He died suddenly on 22 October 2017.
Marriage registration [Thure Anderson, Hazel Isabel Hutchings], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Anderson - Baldwinson,” Winnipeg Tribune, 26 August 1959, page 19.
“75 divorces declared absolute,” Winnipeg Free Press, 12 October 1974, page 2.
Obituary [Thure Anderson], Winnipeg Free Press, 9 December 1975, page 33.
Obituary [Helga Anderson], Winnipeg Free Press, 15 April 2017.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 28 October 2017.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 24 May 2025
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