Rob Chesterman lost his brief but brave battle against pancreatic cancer and passed away in Vancouver General Hospital on June 1, 2007.
Photo courtesy Dagmar Kaffanke-Nunn
Rob was born in Purley, Surrey, England on December 17, 1931. In his youth he studied piano with Percy Taylor and George Oldroyd and earned a diploma in Lumber Technology and Business Administration before joining the Royal Air Force as a Flying Trainee. He emigrated to Canada in 1956, moving to Vancouver the following year where he found work with the B.C. Telephone Company and continued his education, earning a diploma in Industrial Organization and Management as well as pursuing studies in Journalism. Rob joined the staff of CBC Vancouver as a Radio Producer in 1959 - the beginning of a long and prolific career with the Corporation in both Radio and Television which continued until his retirement in 1987.
From 1960 through 1974, Rob hosted CBC Radio's Music Diary and from 1961 to 1966, produced Dave Robbins' broadcasts of Jazz Workshop. His feature program on the Benedictine Monastery in Mission, B.C., The Church at Work, and his 26-program series Masters of the Keyboard, won Ohio State Awards in 1960 and 1961. By 1963, Rob was producing radio drama but continued to address his love of music through production between 1964 and 1972 of profiles of eminent conductors including Ansermet, Bernstein, Boult, Klemperer, Ormandy, von Karajan and Walter. The interviews from that series formed the core of his first book, Conversations with Conductors (London 1976). Continued work with conductors led to a second book, Conductors in Conversation (London 1990). Rob's passion for music and theatre blended seamlessly in radio dramatizations of the lives of Mahler, Bruckner, Haydn (the London period), Mozart (the last years) and Beethoven (an eight-part series, 1970). He produced a documentary on the history of the King's College Choir, Cambridge, for CBC Radio's Tuesday Night series in 1976, and features on the Chicago and Philadelphia Orchestras in 1978 and 1985 respectively.
In 1981, under the banner of Prometheus Productions (Rob's production company) he produced and directed, at the request of King's College, Cambridge, the film Boast of Kings - another look at the King's College Choir - and won a Bronze Medal from the New York International Film and Television Festival. This was followed by production of Which Way to Carnegie Hall?, a study of gifted musical children which Rob directed in 1986, and Summer Song (1988) - a feature film about the B.C. Boys' Choir on tour in the Netherlands which Rob both produced and directed.
Author Bryan N.S. Gooch in The Canadian Encyclopedia of Music, pays tribute to Rob as follows:
"Chesterman's supervision of and contributions to the CBC's Sunday Night, Saturday Evening, Monday Evening and Audience series were important. He brought an international musical culture, especially in terms of Commonwealth countries, to the Canadian audience. He retired from the CBC in 1987 but has continued to work as an independent producer and director of films and radio programs; e.g., Vienna's Golden Autumn for the Ideas series in 1989. Chesterman was a facilitator and catalyst in his early years with the CBC and he later emerged as a creative initiator of artistic projects in various media."
The preceding credits are a small portion of the program legacy of Rob Chesterman. Don Mowatt, who worked with him on a number of projects and programs over a span of 43 years and shared an office with him some of that time, remembers Rob as "a most distinguished producer of radio and film documentaries, plays and concerts from 1960 till his death, receiving many awards and accolades". Dagmar Kaffanke-Nunn, given her start at CBC when she was hired by Rob, says, "He was such a vigorous, life-embracing spirit; creative, funny, inspiring, and rather a father figure to me". Peter Haworth recalls collaborating with Rob on numerous projects and always having tremendous fun in doing so. Three in particular, he said, came to mind...Vienna's Golden Autumn which involved a three-week stay in that city resulting in five one-hour radio documentaries; a trip to Seattle, Washington for a program on Scandanavian music hosted by Lister Sinclair; and The Bronze Horseman (written by Peter), about Russia at the turn of the century and which involved a tremendous array of talent and music. Peter adds that, "Robert enjoyed working with actors and drama and he also had an interest in poetry and history. He was a grand fellow and a friend from the first time I saw him in the 1960's".
Under the heading "About the Director" on the Prometheus Films' website, there is a quote from Rob himself ... "Since so many filmed events around classical music, especially documentaries, seemed to consist of rapid-fire video clips or soundbites that offered little in the way of substance about the music that was being presented, I wanted to create natural and perhaps more truthful representations of the musical world as it exists today - views that unfold like musical compositions themselves." Without doubt, he succeeded, and his programs have aired around the world in Canada, the United States, Great Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Rob is survived by his wife of 47 years, Marguerite; their son Andrew and daughters Sarah and Catharine (engaged to Matt).
A memorial service will be held at St. Phillip's Anglican Church, 3737 West 27th Avenue in the Dunbar area of Vancouver, on June 16th beginning at 2:00 p.m.