In Memory of Bob de Frece, Founding Conductor of Greenwood Singers

On January 7, 2026 our beloved founding conductor, Dr. Robert de Frece passed away, and we grieve.  The Greenwood Singers, current members and alumni alike, are part of a much larger community of those who are saddened by the loss of our mentor, leader, conductor, teacher, and friend. In one sense, Greenwood Singers members feel that we are special, somehow, because our choir was a passion project of Bob’s, a group he founded in 1980 because there was just so much music to make, and he wanted a chamber choir to make it with. We made music with Bob for more than 40 years!  But then, all the members of the University of Alberta Mixed Chorus who sang under Bob feel that theirs must also be a special grief, as will all the university students he taught and mentored, and the high school students he inspired, and the professional musicians with whom he collaborated, and the littlest children who learned that they too had a song to sing. Bob may have left us, but the treasure of music he has bequeathed is past any ability to fathom.  His is this breathtaking legacy: he saw each one, every one, as having music to make, songs to sing, and lives to touch in the process. His was a life of empowering children, youth, young adults, adults young at heart, those with experience, and those who had been afraid to try, each and all alike.  The world has in it more song, more music, more community, more beauty because of the life Bob lived.  Some lyrics for this moment...

Through all the tumult and the strife,

I hear that music ringing.

It finds an echo in my soul,

How can I keep from singing?

No storm can shake my inmost calm,

While to that Rock I’m clinging,

Since Love is lord of heav’n and earth

How can I keep from singing? (Anon)

Shannon Robertson, on behalf of Greenwood Singers