Virginia Garrison

Garrison, Virginia

Virginia (Hope) Garrison. Ethnomusicologist, teacher, b Indianapolis, Ind, 6 Jun1938; B SC (Ball State) 1960, M MUS (Michigan) 1966, PH D (Wisconsin) 1985. She was a music teacher, consultant, and supervisor in the mid-western USA 1960-4 and 1970-5, co-ordinator of music education at Bowling Green U (Ohio) 1964-70, and taught at the University of Wisconsin at Madison 1975-8. She was president of the Wisconsin Music Educators Conference 1977-9 and was a consultant and writer on folk music for books 7 and 8 of The Music Book (New York 1981).

Garrison, a specialist in folk instruments, was a music teacher and choir director in Nova Scotia schools 1979-86 and continued in those capacities after teaching at the University of Toronto 1986-7. Her 1985 PH D thesis for the University of Wisconsin at Madison was on 'Traditional and non-traditional teaching and learning practices in folk music: an ethnographic field study of Cape Breton fiddling,' and she gave a presentation on this topic at the Ethnomusicology in Canada conference at the University of Toronto in May 1988. Also in 1988 she was a member of the province of Nova Scotia's task force on high school music curriculum. In 1991 she retained the audio tapes of her extensive field work in Cape Breton, transcriptions of interviews with fiddlers and students, observation notes from fiddle classes, concerts, dances, and house parties, together with photographs of Cape Breton cultural activities.