Dr. Anne Burrows
Anne Burrows liked to tell people she was born under a lucky star, although her grade school teachers made it clear to her that they thought otherwise.
“I was told by someone at my school in Toronto that the only future I could have would be to sew aprons,” she recalled when she was in her 70s, long after she proved those early naysayers very wrong indeed.
By then Burrows, who spent her adult life in Edmonton, had achieved fame and success as a piano teacher, music journalist and critic at the Edmonton Journal, CBC broadcaster, and educator who published the first comprehensive guide in the history of braille music studies, “Music Through Braille.” In 1992, she became a member of the Order of Canada and was awarded the Governor General’s Medallion in recognition of her many contributions to the music community in Edmonton and beyond. She was also awarded an honorary degree from the University of Alberta in 1987 for her outstanding contributions to music education.
Burrows was born in Entrance, Alberta, a Hinton-area community, in 1922. When she was six years old, she was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma. Her family went from doctor to doctor seeking medical advice. It was an Edmonton physician who advised that she undergo enucleation, surgery to remove her eyes.
“Then I could live life as a blind child instead of one always trying to see,” she said, recalling the advice that the doctor gave to her mother. “So they took the eyes out, and everyone said ‘How terrible,’ but it wasn’t terrible at all. I hardly noticed that it had happened. All the people were just as kind to me as before, and I learned to make my way around.”
That innate optimism served Burrows well throughout her life. When she was in her late 70s, she noted that “people of my age and category are generally regarded with a certain amount of pity, and often we’re thought of as has-beens who don’t really have much to contribute,” but she never thought of herself that way.
“The most important things are very simple,” she reasoned. “Get up every morning and greet the day and take it on and make the most of the opportunity that each day gives.”
From a very young age, Burrows seemed to have little doubt that she would succeed at whatever she set her mind to, even if others were less convinced. “Whatever stage of life you’re in, you’re going to be misunderstood by a few people and you’re going to be understood very well by others,” was one of her guiding principles. “What you have to do is increase the number of those who are empathetic and make as good a go of it as you can.”
Burrows’ parents realized early on that if their daughter was going to reach her potential, they’d have to ensure that she was taught by teachers who understood and respected her intellect: that is, teachers who had the insight to understand that just because someone couldn’t see didn’t mean she couldn’t learn. And so, when Burrows was 11, the family moved to England.
“My grandmother wanted me to have an English education, and they had a school in England which had prepared blind girls for university, and that’s what the family wanted me to have, and so I went there and had a marvelous time,” she said.
In 1942, at age 20, Burrows enrolled at the Royal College of Music in London. There she studied piano, voice, music history, and criticism—all of which she drew on during the many years to come. After earning her degree, she spent six years teaching at the Paddington & Maida Vale High School for Girls in London and at the Downe House School in Berkshire.
After returning to Canada in 1952, Burrows settled in Edmonton and began teaching privately. She had no trouble attracting students—but not everyone who requested her services was interested in her music degree. Not long after hanging out her shingle, she recalls, “I got a call saying, ‘You lived in England. I want you to teach my daughter some manners.’”
Burrows became a force in the Edmonton music community. In addition to teaching, she became president of the Edmonton Chamber Music Society, and joined the University Singers, which later became the Richard Eaton Singers. She also worked at the University of Alberta’s Studio Theatre as a music consultant and at the CKUA radio station.
Burrows left Edmonton long enough to earn a Master of Music degree in piano performance with highest distinction at Indiana University. She said it was thanks to the overwhelming support from the Edmonton community that she was able to earn the degree, but limited funding meant she had to cram a two-year program into one.
Upon returning to Edmonton, Burrows continued teaching. She adjudicated numerous music competitions and established the Alberta division of the Canadian Music Competition. Burrows also served as president of the Edmonton branch of the Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association and was a board member for the provincial association.
Over the years she continued to take music courses in England, Canada, and the United States, and she devoted time and energy to supporting education programs for the blind and helping future generations of musicians, efforts that sometimes overlapped. She also served on boards at the regional, provincial, and national levels for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
In the mid-1980s, she ran a one-month summer pilot program at Alberta College of Music where she used braille to teach music to six visually impaired students ranging in age from 11 to 25. The students learned braille music signs, sight singing, music dictation, and basic conducting techniques. That work led to “Music Through Braille,” which Burrows worked on with Bettye Krolick, a US-based music teacher who shared her interests.
Still, there were people who continued to doubt her ability for no other reason than that she was blind. ABMF co-founder Winnie Yiu-Young still cringes when she recalls an ignorant comment someone made upon learning that Yiu-Young’s daughter was taking lessons from Burrows. “She asked me why I was sending her to Anne, since Anne was blind and couldn’t possibly teach the right techniques. She thought my daughter would be disadvantaged. I looked at her and said I was sure my daughter would learn a great deal from Anne, not just music and how to play the piano.”
The Anne Burrows Music Foundation began in 1980 as the Angela Cheng Musical Foundation, a fundraising program to help Edmonton pianist Angela Cheng further her musical education. An immigrant and the daughter of a single mother who worked as a seamstress, Cheng was clearly talented. Her circle of friends and the professionals working with her felt she should study at Juilliard, but the cost was prohibitive.
Yiu-Young, a fellow pianist and friend of Cheng’s, met Burrows at a bridal shower, where the two hit it off; they bonded in large part over their mutual concern for Cheng’s future. They decided to join forces, and together with Burrows’ friend Jenny Diment and Winnie's mom, Mary Yiu, and family friend Mary Lee, they raised the money needed to send Angela to Juilliard for her bachelor’s degree and onto Indiana University for her Master of Music.
Burrows came to think of Cheng as not only the foundation’s first beneficiary, but “the flagship of our organization. She is our most special friend, and we have been delighted with her success,” she told foundation supporters at the annual dinner in 2000. “Happiness and delight are what I want to stress.”
Although Burrows was clearly proud of the students whom the foundation supported, she told the audience at the dinner that the strongest emotion she felt was happiness “that so many of them have done so well, and that we can claim a little share in their accomplishments. Every year we widen our field of vision, and amongst our membership we have some of the finest musicians in Canada and that is a great source of happiness.”
Over the years, the foundation grew to support a wider range of musicians, and in 1991, the board members decided to rename the organization to honour Burrows. “I must have missed that meeting,” Burrows joked. “They told me after they had voted unanimously to call it after me. It was very flattering, of course.”
Though she was far too modest to say so, it was also well-deserved, as it provided an ideal legacy, a way for Burrows’ name to live on in an environment that was so dear to her: giving promising local musicians a chance to learn, grow, and reach their potential.
Anne Burrows passed away in 2007, but she continues to inspire the foundation, now in its 43rd year, in supporting young musicians today and into the future.
“I was told by someone at my school in Toronto that the only future I could have would be to sew aprons,” she recalled when she was in her 70s, long after she proved those early naysayers very wrong indeed.
By then Burrows, who spent her adult life in Edmonton, had achieved fame and success as a piano teacher, music journalist and critic at the Edmonton Journal, CBC broadcaster, and educator who published the first comprehensive guide in the history of braille music studies, “Music Through Braille.” In 1992, she became a member of the Order of Canada and was awarded the Governor General’s Medallion in recognition of her many contributions to the music community in Edmonton and beyond. She was also awarded an honorary degree from the University of Alberta in 1987 for her outstanding contributions to music education.
Burrows was born in Entrance, Alberta, a Hinton-area community, in 1922. When she was six years old, she was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma. Her family went from doctor to doctor seeking medical advice. It was an Edmonton physician who advised that she undergo enucleation, surgery to remove her eyes.
“Then I could live life as a blind child instead of one always trying to see,” she said, recalling the advice that the doctor gave to her mother. “So they took the eyes out, and everyone said ‘How terrible,’ but it wasn’t terrible at all. I hardly noticed that it had happened. All the people were just as kind to me as before, and I learned to make my way around.”
That innate optimism served Burrows well throughout her life. When she was in her late 70s, she noted that “people of my age and category are generally regarded with a certain amount of pity, and often we’re thought of as has-beens who don’t really have much to contribute,” but she never thought of herself that way.
“The most important things are very simple,” she reasoned. “Get up every morning and greet the day and take it on and make the most of the opportunity that each day gives.”
From a very young age, Burrows seemed to have little doubt that she would succeed at whatever she set her mind to, even if others were less convinced. “Whatever stage of life you’re in, you’re going to be misunderstood by a few people and you’re going to be understood very well by others,” was one of her guiding principles. “What you have to do is increase the number of those who are empathetic and make as good a go of it as you can.”
Burrows’ parents realized early on that if their daughter was going to reach her potential, they’d have to ensure that she was taught by teachers who understood and respected her intellect: that is, teachers who had the insight to understand that just because someone couldn’t see didn’t mean she couldn’t learn. And so, when Burrows was 11, the family moved to England.
“My grandmother wanted me to have an English education, and they had a school in England which had prepared blind girls for university, and that’s what the family wanted me to have, and so I went there and had a marvelous time,” she said.
In 1942, at age 20, Burrows enrolled at the Royal College of Music in London. There she studied piano, voice, music history, and criticism—all of which she drew on during the many years to come. After earning her degree, she spent six years teaching at the Paddington & Maida Vale High School for Girls in London and at the Downe House School in Berkshire.
After returning to Canada in 1952, Burrows settled in Edmonton and began teaching privately. She had no trouble attracting students—but not everyone who requested her services was interested in her music degree. Not long after hanging out her shingle, she recalls, “I got a call saying, ‘You lived in England. I want you to teach my daughter some manners.’”
Burrows became a force in the Edmonton music community. In addition to teaching, she became president of the Edmonton Chamber Music Society, and joined the University Singers, which later became the Richard Eaton Singers. She also worked at the University of Alberta’s Studio Theatre as a music consultant and at the CKUA radio station.
Burrows left Edmonton long enough to earn a Master of Music degree in piano performance with highest distinction at Indiana University. She said it was thanks to the overwhelming support from the Edmonton community that she was able to earn the degree, but limited funding meant she had to cram a two-year program into one.
Upon returning to Edmonton, Burrows continued teaching. She adjudicated numerous music competitions and established the Alberta division of the Canadian Music Competition. Burrows also served as president of the Edmonton branch of the Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association and was a board member for the provincial association.
Over the years she continued to take music courses in England, Canada, and the United States, and she devoted time and energy to supporting education programs for the blind and helping future generations of musicians, efforts that sometimes overlapped. She also served on boards at the regional, provincial, and national levels for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
In the mid-1980s, she ran a one-month summer pilot program at Alberta College of Music where she used braille to teach music to six visually impaired students ranging in age from 11 to 25. The students learned braille music signs, sight singing, music dictation, and basic conducting techniques. That work led to “Music Through Braille,” which Burrows worked on with Bettye Krolick, a US-based music teacher who shared her interests.
Still, there were people who continued to doubt her ability for no other reason than that she was blind. ABMF co-founder Winnie Yiu-Young still cringes when she recalls an ignorant comment someone made upon learning that Yiu-Young’s daughter was taking lessons from Burrows. “She asked me why I was sending her to Anne, since Anne was blind and couldn’t possibly teach the right techniques. She thought my daughter would be disadvantaged. I looked at her and said I was sure my daughter would learn a great deal from Anne, not just music and how to play the piano.”
The Anne Burrows Music Foundation began in 1980 as the Angela Cheng Musical Foundation, a fundraising program to help Edmonton pianist Angela Cheng further her musical education. An immigrant and the daughter of a single mother who worked as a seamstress, Cheng was clearly talented. Her circle of friends and the professionals working with her felt she should study at Juilliard, but the cost was prohibitive.
Yiu-Young, a fellow pianist and friend of Cheng’s, met Burrows at a bridal shower, where the two hit it off; they bonded in large part over their mutual concern for Cheng’s future. They decided to join forces, and together with Burrows’ friend Jenny Diment and Winnie's mom, Mary Yiu, and family friend Mary Lee, they raised the money needed to send Angela to Juilliard for her bachelor’s degree and onto Indiana University for her Master of Music.
Burrows came to think of Cheng as not only the foundation’s first beneficiary, but “the flagship of our organization. She is our most special friend, and we have been delighted with her success,” she told foundation supporters at the annual dinner in 2000. “Happiness and delight are what I want to stress.”
Although Burrows was clearly proud of the students whom the foundation supported, she told the audience at the dinner that the strongest emotion she felt was happiness “that so many of them have done so well, and that we can claim a little share in their accomplishments. Every year we widen our field of vision, and amongst our membership we have some of the finest musicians in Canada and that is a great source of happiness.”
Over the years, the foundation grew to support a wider range of musicians, and in 1991, the board members decided to rename the organization to honour Burrows. “I must have missed that meeting,” Burrows joked. “They told me after they had voted unanimously to call it after me. It was very flattering, of course.”
Though she was far too modest to say so, it was also well-deserved, as it provided an ideal legacy, a way for Burrows’ name to live on in an environment that was so dear to her: giving promising local musicians a chance to learn, grow, and reach their potential.
Anne Burrows passed away in 2007, but she continues to inspire the foundation, now in its 43rd year, in supporting young musicians today and into the future.
