A Special Bequest

Confluence Concerts was honoured to be the recipient of a legacy gift from the estate of Ruth Pincoe (1946-2024) earlier this year. Ruth was a friend and colleague of both of my parents. She was a multi-talented, brilliant and energetic contributor to Canada's cultural life as an editor and indexer, theatre practitioner, musician, board member, hiker and offerer of enthusiastic encouragement. As a freelance librarian, Ruth tackled the herculean task of organizing and indexing the papers of Glenn Gould for the National Library of Canada after his death in 1982 and she produced a two-volume overview of this collection. She was a contributing writer and editor for the Canadian Encyclopedia. She was known for her ongoing meticulous editing of the Royal Conservatory of Music piano series for which she was awarded the 1994 Tom Fairley Award. She was a hard-working member of the University Alumnae Dramatic Club - which is where I first met her in the early 1980s - as a lighting and sound operator, stage manager, and producer on dozens of productions. I owe her a personal debt of gratitude especially for stage managing the 1995 Arbor Oak Trio production of John Gay's Beggar's Opera at the Bathurst Street Theatre, which was a great success, but a very chaotic and stressful experience. After the final show, as we were delivering rented lights back to the Glen Morris Theatre, Ruth turned to me and said "well, that was good fun!". She supported Toronto Masque Theatre generously, was a past president of the Toronto Consort, a longtime member of the Toronto Bruce Trail Club - for which she wrote an early history - and a dedicated member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), for whom she edited the Daily Quacker newsletter and contributed often to The Canadian Friend magazine. 

Ruth was a no-nonsense, fun, smart, generous, optimistic soul and I am grateful for the experiences we shared. At Confluence Concerts, we honour her memory with our work.

Larry Beckwith