Barbara Cass-Beggs

On November 10, 1904, Cass-Beggs was born in Nottingham, England. and went on to matriculate to the Royal College of Music, studying composition, pedagogy, piano and voice under Basil Allchin, Percy Buck, C. C. Collier, Herbert Howells and Reginald Jacques. Cass-Beggs obtained an Associate of the Royal College of Music degree and a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music diploma between 1927 and 1928. surviving a torpedo attack on the SS Athenia passenger liner she was sailing in that September. Cass-Beggs had been a member of the 'Oriana' Madrigal Singers and the first soprano of the London Charterhouse Quartet. Cass-Beggs served as director of Toronto's University Settlement Music School at the University of Toronto from 1945 to 1952 and taught music classes. In 1948, she helped to compile a report used by the lawyer Andrew Brewin in his preparation of Canada's first introduced pay equality legislation. In February 1956, Cass-Beggs joined the faculty of the Regina Conservatory of Music as vocal teacher. In Regina, she authored her philosophy that was subsequently published as To Listen, To Like, To Learn as he consolidated working with young children. Cass-Beggs released the recording Folksongs of Saskatchewan to reflect her research in 1963. She left the Regina Conservatory of Music the following year. She presented a paper at an international education and technology conference in Tel Aviv in 1984 and was invited to teach baby/parent classes in Vienna two years later. It was there Cass-Beggs established a Listen Like Learn Association. She presented the paper How music is first introduced as a keynote speaker at the International Society for Music Education conference in Finland in August 1990. Cass-Beggs was an active member of Planned Parenthood, the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, Oxfam and was a founder member of Regina's Unitarian Church. == Methodology ==

She used a method that aimed to assist children discover the relation of music to other arts forms and was also concerned with pitch and rhythm basic training. The program was developed for children aged between two and six years old, and incorporated exercises to get babies and their mothers musically interested in Cass-Beggs's belief children have a natural rhythm. Older children were encouraged to be independent from their mothers in her classes following time to adjust. She attempted to demonstrate that babies who were sung to and hear soft, rhythmic music would develop a liking for music and have better concentration and develop speech quicker. ==Personal life==

She was married to the Saskatchewan Power Corporation president David Cass-Beggs from 1932 to his death of cancer in February 1986. Cass-Beggs and her husband each agreed to take on their respective surnames when they married. They had three children, including Rosemary, who edited the 1982 music anthology The Penguin Book of Rounds. ==Legacy==

The Association for Early Childhood Education presented her with the Children's Service Award in 1982. In November 1992, Planned Parenthood Ottawa began awarding the Barbara Cass-Beggs Memorial Award for Women's Reproductive Rights to commemorate her women's reproductive rights work. The Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan holds a collection of objects connected to Cass-Beggs. They include her folksong complications, audiotapes of songs, her political life in Canada and England as well as her personal papers. ==References==