Wendy Edwards Beardall-Norton

"She knows the instrument so well from her years of being a piano pedagogue and her music is a joy to play"

(Sandra Mogensen)

Born in Toronto, Canada, Wendy Edwards Beardall-Norton spent most of her early years in Hamilton, Ontario.

She studied both dance and piano as well as having occasional singing lessons. She was a student at Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton, which had an outstanding music programme and she played clarinet, studied music theory, and played in bands and orchestras and sung in an excellent choir.

In 1972 Wendy's husband’s work took her to Fredericton, New Brunswick, where she proceeded to take formal lessons again and within a year had started her own piano studio. In 1999 her husband suffered a fatal heart attack and she decided to stay in New Brunswick. For the next 15 years she continued to teach piano and music theory and was very active in the local branch of the NBRMTA.

Wendy taught all grades up to ARCT and found time (sporadically) for writing some music of her own, either to inspire students, or to express her own musical creativity.

Wendy:

In 2007, the renowned UK composer Christopher Norton came to Fredericton as part of a North American tour to launch his ‘Connections’ series,

commissioned by the Royal Conservatory of Music, Canada’s premier examining board.

At the time I was President of the local RMTA branch and I was asked to look after Chris during his time in town. Who was to know then that seven years later he would return and propose to me with the question ‘would you rather spend the next forty years of your life teaching piano, or would you like to leave it all, and travel the world with me?’ Well, what would any sane woman say to that proposal?

When we married, Chris had no idea that I was a writer of words – I had written short stories and works for children, as well as a lot of poetry. I was also a lyricist, and had written words to many songs, my own as well as for others. I had already written a lot of music.

Of course, I had never felt it necessary to publish ANY of my work!

Chris has been the most encouraging of partners, and because of that, I have had a great deal of my work published, both by the excellent Canadian publisher, Debra Wanless Music, and by Chris’s own publishing company, 80 Days Publishing.

I have also co-written, with Chris, many of his 30-plus MicroMusicals for junior and senior schools, some of which I wrote completely myself! These are now available worldwide through 80 Days

Publishing.

A writer of piano music (4 volumes to date) as well as music for flute (accompanied and unaccompanied) and songs, both secular and religious, Wendy has proved to be a wonderful melody writer with an instinctive sense of form.

Carousel Waltz from Take It From Me (Debra Wanless Music) with an introduction from Wendy:

Carousel Waltz (from Take It From Me) by Wendy Edwards Beardsall-Norton.mp4

Here is an excerpt from the music score of Glendalough, from Take it from Me Again (also available from Debra Wanless Music):

and a wonderful live performance of Glendalough by pianist Sandra Mogensen:

Glendalough (Sandra Mogensen).mov

Take it from me and Take It From Me Again are both available from Debra Wanless Music

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The three piano books published by 80days Publishing are:

So Here We Are Again

Buy So Here We Are Again

Images of Remembered Places

Buy Images of Remembered Places

Streets of Salamanca

Buy Streets of Salamanca

The pieces range far and wide, musically and geographically, but are bound together by an outstanding gift for melody and an instinctive sense of structure.

Wendy is a Spotify artist and all of her publications are also available on all of the main digital platforms.

Listen on Spotify:

2 beautiful examples -

Chaconne from So Here We Are Again, played by Sandra Mogensen:

Chaconne.MOV

and Moon over Manarola, from Images of Remembered Places, also played by Sandra Mogensen:

Moon over Manarola.mov

Streets of Salamanca has been profiled on this blog site. Check out it out here:

Streets of Salamanca

Wendy's vocal writing is exemplified by Memories, a book of 4 songs for voice and piano, with dedications to people whose memory she wishes to treasure and preserve.

Wendy:

Here is Measure of A Man, a piece written to eulogise the memory of Jovanni-Rey de Pedro, a brilliant young man, an awesome concert pianist and educator and a remarkable human being. He left us far too young, with so much of his life yet to experience. The memory I hope we will treasure was not of the length of his life, but how he chose to live it.

The Measure of a Man A tribute to Jovanni-Rey de Pedro (1).mp4

Wendy has also been a collaborator on the Micromusicals project and there are 5 graded collections of Songs from the Micromusicals, for low voice and high voice, available from 80days Publishing.

Here is the audio for I Want to Run Away from Animal Farm: