The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Summers, Joseph

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1452052The Dictionary of Australasian Biography — Summers, JosephPhilip Mennell

Summers, Joseph, Mus. Doc., youngest son of George Summers, of Charlton, Somersetshire, and brother of the above, was born in 1843, and in early life was a chorister in Wells Cathedral. After studying under such eminent musicians as Dr. Gauntlett and Sir W. Sterndale Bennett, Mr. Summers graduated Mus. Bac. at Oxford in 1863, and after holding the post of organist at Weston-super-Mare and at Notting Hill, London, he emigrated to Melbourne (1865), and for fourteen years was choirmaster and organist at St. Peter's, Eastern Hill, Melbourne, one of the oldest and leading Anglican churches in Victoria. In 1876 he was appointed Government Inspector of Music for State Schools; acts as Musical Examiner for the Tasmanian Council of Education; also the Education Department of Victoria, and assists Professor Ives (late of Glasgow) as examiner at the University of Adelaide. In 1890 the degree of Mus. Doc. was conferred on Mr. Summers by the Archbishop of Canterbury, as a social mark of recognition of his anthems and other high-class sacred music.