b. August 2, 1918 - Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada / d. August 5, 1985 - Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Canadian composer, pianist, organist, choir conductor, and music critic. From 1952 to 1959 he was principal of the Hamilton Conservatory of Music (later the Royal Hamilton College of Music), and was the director of music at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church and at Melrose United Church in Hamilton. In 1965 he became the music critic for the Hamilton Spectator.
In the Encyclopedia of Music of Canada, Elaine Keillor describes Betts music as: "Betts' fastidious use of chromatic tonality, his sparse textures, and his resourceful rhythms lend his music personality and life. Although his Music for Orchestra, uses a 12-tone series, Betts otherwise showed little interest in dodecaphony and its heirs and successors."
Links:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0000299 (the above cited article in the Encyclopedia of Music of Canada)
http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm?fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=955&by=B (Canadian Music Centre bio of Betts)
List of Works