Beverly Glenn-Copeland

Beverly Glenn-Copeland (born January 1944) is an American-born Canadian^[1][2] singer-songwriter. His albums include Keyboard Fantasies (1986).^[3] Glenn-Copeland began publicly identifying as a trans man in 2002.^[4][5][6]

Early life

Glenn-Copeland was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a musical family.^[7] As a child, Glenn-Copeland listened to his father play the music of Bach, Chopin, and Mozart on the piano, and heard his mother occasionally sing spirituals.^[6]

In 1961, Glenn-Copeland was one of the first black students to study at McGill University in Montreal.^[8]

In 1973, while in Los Angeles, Glenn fell in love with the chanting at a local Soka Gakkai International meeting and has been a practicing Buddhist since the mid-1970s.^[9]

Musical career

Glenn-Copeland started his career as a folk singer incorporating jazz, classical, and blues elements.^[10] He also performed on albums by Ken Friesen, Bruce Cockburn, Gene Murtynec, Bob Disalle, and Kathryn Moses^[11],^[10] and was a writer on Sesame Street.^[12] He spent twenty-five years entertaining children as a regular actor on Canadian children's television show Mr. Dressup.^[13]

Glenn-Copeland's 1986 electronic album Keyboard Fantasies, recorded using equipment including a Yamaha DX7 and a Roland TR-707,^[14] and other recordings were rediscovered and promoted by Japanese record collector Ryota Masuko in 2015.^[6][15][16] Before Glenn-Copeland's gender transition was made public, Keyboard Fantasies was selected as one of the 70 greatest recordings by women by The Stranger.^[17] The album was named as the public vote winner of the Polaris Heritage Prize at the 2020 Polaris Music Prize.^[18] Keyboard Fantasies was remastered and reissued in February 2017 as Copeland Keyboard Fantasies by Invisible City Editions^[19] and re-released again on vinyl that same year on Séance Centre.

Other albums by Glenn-Copeland include Beverly Copeland (1970), Beverly Glenn-Copeland (1971), At Last! (1980), Primal Prayer (released under the pseudonym Phynix in 2004), and the career-spanning compilation Transmissions (2020).^[20]

Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story, a documentary directed by Posy Dixon, was released in 2019.^[21][22]

Planned 2020 international tours to Australia, the United Kingdom, and other European destinations were rescheduled to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A fundraising campaign was initiated to help Glenn-Copeland and his wife after the loss of their house that resulted from these changes; the campaign raised over $90,000.^[23] In the same year, Glenn-Copeland created a prerecorded video performance of his song "Courage" for Buddies in Bad Times and CBC Gem's online Queer Pride Inside show.^[24]

Discography

Studio albums

• Beverly Copeland (1970)
• Beverly Glenn-Copeland (1971)
• At Last! (1980)
• Keyboard Fantasies (1986)^[25]
  • Copeland Keyboard Fantasies (Invisible City, 2017) – remastered and reissued edition
  • Copeland Keyboard Fantasies (Séance Centre, 2017) – on vinyl
• Primal Prayer (2004) – released under the pseudonym Phynix
• The Ones Ahead (Transgressive, 2023)

Other albums

• Live at Le Guess Who? (Transgressive, 2020)^[26]
• Transmissions: The Music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland (compilation, Transgressive, 2020)^[27]
• Keyboard Fantasies Reimagined (Transgressive, 2021) – Keyboard Fantasies tracks remixed/reworked by Bon Iver and Flock Of Dimes, and by Joseph Shabason and Thom Gill; remixed by Julia Holter, Arca, Ana Roxanne, Kelsey Lu, and Blood Orange; and performed by Jeremy Dutcher^[28][29]

Films

• Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story (2019) – documentary directed by Posy Dixon^[30]

References

Further reading

• Honored onscreen and in sound, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, a messenger whose time is now. McCabe, Allyson, November 29, 2021 NPR

External links

• Official website

This page was last edited on 9 April 2024, at 12:07