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]
Musical career
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-Copeland 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 2025, Glenn-Copeland and his wife Elizabeth Copeland recorded a new album, Laughter in Summer, due out in February 2026. [25] [26]
Personal life
In 1973, while in Los Angeles, Glenn-Copeland fell in love with the chanting at a local Soka Gakkai International meeting and has been a practicing Buddhist since the mid-1970s. [27]
Glenn-Copeland is married to Elizabeth Copeland, who he met in 1992 and has collaborated with in education, arts, and activism. The two live in Hamilton, Ontario. [25]
In September 2024, Glenn-Copeland shared that he has been diagnosed with dementia. [28]
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