The Fred and Ursula Franklin Early Music Support Fund was established to provide an annual grant to the Toronto Consort to support the participation of emerging artists in the Consort’s activities. The Toronto Consort is a well-established, internationally renowned group of accomplished early music specialists. They are known for embracing diverse music and musicians.
Fred and Ursula Franklin were great supporters of early music, and especially the Toronto Consort. They attended concerts regularly, often bringing guests to share their love of the music. As a remembrance of this, friends named four seats for them at the Jeanne Lamon Hall at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, where the Toronto Consort’s regular season usually takes place.
Fred was a talented amateur musician. He played cello, recorder and various other wind instruments. In the early 1960s, he started a business called Franklin Instruments that built Orff instruments (xylophones and glockenspiels) that were used by Toronto elementary school students. Ursula was more of a music appreciator. Listening to music was her way to take a break from her busy and often stressful life as a teacher and educator: she was the first woman professor in her Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Toronto.
Both Fred and Ursula felt it was vital to not just attend concerts, but to actively and financially support the music they loved and those who played it. They were sponsors and patrons for many musicians as well as the Toronto Consort as an organization. They actively supported young people in their many and varied communities: musical, academic/educational, peace/faith and refugee support, among others. This Fund was set up in their honour to continue that legacy.
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