Richard Eaton (choral director)

Richard S. Eaton (1914 January 16 - 1968 January 25) was the founder of the University of Alberta University Singers, which went on to become the Richard Eaton Singers after his death. Eaton was born in Victoria, British Columbia and took his first musical position as an assistant organist at Victoria's Christ Church Cathedral. He began his studies at McGill University in 1936, and from 1939 to 1944, he was a music master at Toronto's Upper Canada College. He moved to western Canada in 1947, where he had been hired by the University of Alberta as a lecturer for the Fine Arts Department. When the Music Department was created in 1965, he headed it. Between 1947 and 1968, Eaton was very involved in the music scene in Edmonton. He served on the boards of both the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Edmonton Opera Association, and he conducted the University of Alberta Mixed Chorus, which travelled extensively throughout Alberta and northwestern Canada. in 1951, he formed the University Singers, and was their conductor until 1967. Following his death in 1968, they were renamed the Richard Eaton Singers in his honor.