GUMMER, Phyllis

Phyllis Mary Gummer was a was a Canadian composer of classical music .

Phyllis Gummer first studied at Queen's University in Kingston, where her father was a mathematics lecturer. During this time, in 1940, she won first prize from the CPRS, the Canadian Composers' Society, for her piano sonata and the song "Requiescat" in their annual composition competition for Canadian composers under 22 years of age.

After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University, Phyllis Gummer studied composition under Healey Willan and violin under Harold Sumberg at the Toronto Conservatory, graduating with a Bachelor of Music . During her time in Toronto, she belonged to a select circle of composers.

During this time, she also performed more frequently in concerts in Canada, both as a violinist and as a pianist, violist, or organist. In 1942, she received a three-year scholarship to the Juilliard Graduate School of Music in New York .

Phyllis Gummer's early compositions consistently garnered critical attention and high praise. In addition to the CPRS Composition Prize, her works received acclaim from audiences at various concerts. For example, a critic for the Canadian Review of Music and Arts wrote the following about a concert of her works on February 28, 1942, at the Conservatory Hall in Toronto:

“I am inclined to think that one work above the others fulfilled more completely every demand that one might make of a composition, and that was the song “The journey”. Here Christina Rosetti's words were wedded most exquisitely to a fine melodic line of grace and loveliness in its own right, and these were bound the more indissolubly by the happiest of accompaniments. In all her works Miss Gummer showed herself to be possessed of real musically creative thought, a capable of producing a fine harmonic texture of great delicacy an strength.”