When music scholar Ruth Pincoe (1946–2024) was a student at U of T, she did what many researchers still do today: she lost herself in the Music Library. In the ensuing decades, she continued to return, quietly and patiently, following threads through scores, manuscripts, and archives. Her research resulted in a number of articles for the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, Grove Music Online, and more. Research was, in a sense, the family business. Ruth’s mother, Grace Pincoe, was a music librarian and among the first officers of the fledgling Canadian Music Library Association in the early 1960s. Together, their stories trace a line through Canadian music librarianship: collecting, describing, and above all, making music history discoverable.

In 2024, Ruth’s final act of generosity completed that circle. Through a bequest in her will, she named the University of Toronto Music Library as a beneficiary. Her gift is transformational: it establishes the Ruth Pincoe Research Fellowship, an annual, month-long residency designed to bring new and early-career scholars into our special collections and share their findings with the world. Today, we are excited to officially launch the fellowship and announce that applications are now open.

Each Fellow will spend dedicated time in our reading room exploring the Music Library’s rich holdings—archival papers, rare books, and historic sheet music—and will translate that work into public impact through a community talk and a short piece for our “Notes from the Music Library” blog. In doing so, they’ll help surface overlooked stories, contextualize well-known works, and broaden access to Canada’s musical heritage. Applications are due by December 15, 2025, and the first Fellow will take up their residency in summer 2026.

For details on the fellowship and to apply, click here: http://library.utoronto.ca/project/ruth-pincoe-research-fellowship

Libraries don’t just preserve the past—they catalyze new work. Ruth Pincoe understood that deeply. Her bequest turns years of her careful scholarship into a platform for others, inviting researchers to listen closely to what our collections still have to say. Ruth’s generosity ensures that future researchers will continue to benefit from the Music Library’s collections for many years to come.

A Legacy for Listening: The Ruth Pincoe Research Fellowship

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