Beverly Glenn-Copeland
American singer and songwriter (born 1944) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American singer and songwriter (born 1944) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
Beverly Glenn-Copeland | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Born | January 1944 (age 81) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Origin | Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada (now Tantramar, New Brunswick, Canada) |
| Genres | Jazz, new age, folk |
| Occupation(s) | Songwriter, musician, actor |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar, piano, synthesizer |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Labels | GRT, Atlast |
| Website | beverlyglenncopeland |
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]
Glenn-Copeland started his career as a folk singer incorporating jazz, classical, and blues elements.[9] He also performed on albums by Ken Friesen, Bruce Cockburn, Gene Murtynec, Bob Disalle, and Kathryn Moses,[10][9] and was a writer on Sesame Street.[11] He spent twenty-five years entertaining children as a regular actor on Canadian children's television show Mr. Dressup.[12]
Glenn-Copeland's 1986 electronic album Keyboard Fantasies, recorded using equipment including a Yamaha DX7 and a Roland TR-707,[13] and other recordings were rediscovered and promoted by Japanese record collector Ryota Masuko in 2015.[6][14][15] 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.[16] The album was named as the public vote winner of the Polaris Heritage Prize at the 2020 Polaris Music Prize.[17] Keyboard Fantasies was remastered and reissued in February 2017 as Copeland Keyboard Fantasies by Invisible City Editions[18] 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).[19]
Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story, a documentary directed by Posy Dixon, was released in 2019.[20][21]
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.[22] 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.[23]
His 2023 album The Ones Ahead was a longlisted nominee for the 2024 Polaris Music Prize.[24]
In 2024 Glenn was awarded an honorary doctorate from University of Toronto, and won the Joyce Warshow Lifetime Achievement Award from SAGE, an organization that focuses on advocacy and services for LGBTQ+ elders.
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.[25]
In September 2024, Glenn-Copeland shared that he has been diagnosed with dementia.[26]
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