Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 53, Number 2, 1985

Page 25

George Careless. USHS collections.

George Careless, Pioneer Musician BY BRUCE DAVID MAXWELL

1865, ACCORDING T O George Pyper, Brigham Young called a young English immigrant into his office. "Brother George," he said, "I have a mission for you. I want you to be the Chief Musician of the Church. I want you to take the Tabernacle Choir and the Theatre Orchestra and lay a foundation for good music." 1 However apocryphal Pyper's anecdote may be, that young Englishman, George Edward Percy Careless, did indeed help lay the foundations of Utah musical culture. During his thirty-year career he fostered Salt Lake's nascent taste for classical music through his pioneer

E A R L Y IN

Mr. Maxwell, a graduate in musical composition from California State University, Northridge, is active as a conductor, composer, and flutist in southern California. 1 George Pyper, "In Intimate Touch with Professor George Careless," Juvenile Instructor 59 (1924): 173.


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