File:The Draper Trio.jpg

Summary[edit]

The Draper Trio

The Draper Trio, a pioneering Canadian instrumental ensemble, was comprised of siblings Jean, Barbara and Norman Draper. All were children of Calgary, Alberta, musicians Janet and Harold Draper. Harold Draper was a cornetist in early Calgary civilian and military bands, and a bugle instructor in the Canadian military (137th Regiment, and later the 50th Battalion) in WW 1. Janet Draper trained as a pianist in Ontario, and taught piano in Edmonton, Alberta, and following her marriage to Harold, in Calgary.

Formed when the siblings were children, Jean, the eldest, played piano, middle child Barbara was the cellist, and youngest sibling Norman played the piano. These siblings, stars on the Canadian music scene during the 1940’s, performed together until the mid 1940’s. Both as a trio and as individual performers, they played at many competitive musical festivals and were the recipients of many awards and scholarships.

The Trio’s first public performance was at Hillhurst United Church in Calgary, on June 11, 1939. Canada’s involvement in WWII began later that year, and most older musicians were called up into military service. Thus, the young musicians of the Draper Trio found themselves increasingly called on to perform locally and nationally. They became regular performers at varied venues such as fund raisers, fashion shows, graduation ceremonies, Navy and Air Force trainee socials, and for the Canadian and Commonwealth armies. The Draper Trio also toured across Canada’s west, giving recitals for the public, displaying their talents with a professional repertoire that included Haydn, Beethoven and Mendelssohn.

The Draper Trio received many accolades during their career, summarized by the Calgary Herald, in its issue of March 12, 1943, which stated that “These youthful musicians deserve to be congratulated on having carried out so successfully, and with such engaging simplicity of manner, a serious undertaking such as this concert must have been.” In 1944, their last year together, they produced their own weekly radio program on Canadian station CJCJ in Calgary. The trio had a huge following for this weekly broadcast which reached listeners in Calgary and surrounding areas. The trio maintained its musical activities until late 1944 at which time pianist Jean, left Calgary to emigrate to New Zealand with her new husband, a member of the RAF. There Jean had two daughters, Andrea and Gwyn, the latter who became a professional violinist.

After the Trio disbanded, cellist Barbara continued to pursue her musical studies professionally at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, with the esteemed performer and teacher Leonard Rose, subject of a 2010 biography by Steven Honigberg, Leonard Rose: America’s Golden Age and Its First Cellist (Beckham). Barbara enjoyed a long professional career as a cellist performing with various orchestras and reviews such as the Radio City Orchestra. Although now retired from public performing, Barbara, who married violinist Joseph Pepper in 1954 and is the mother of American writer and amateur violinist Rachel Pepper, remains a sought after private teacher in her home city of Toronto, Canada.

Norman was a silver medalist in Grades IX and X of the Toronto (later Royal) Conservatory of Music. Norman continued his violin studies with Jascha Galperin at Mount Royal College Conservatory and later with Mary Shortt. He obtained an LRSM in violin performing from the Royal School of Music, London. Norm studied electrical engineering education at the University of Oklahoma, where he also took up the clarinet. Following his return to Calgary to begin a career with Shell Oil, he continued his band activities with the RCAF 403 Reserve Squadron band and the Calgary Concert Band. In recognition of Calgary’s 100th anniversary of founding, Norm authored a Centennial Calgary book entitled “Bands by the Bow,” a history of Calgary bands during the last century.

Although only siblings Barbara and Norman survive today, the Draper Trio is still remembered by an entire generation of Canadians, living on as a symbol of that country’s national and musical pride.

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