Frederick Bacon-Shone

1924 - 2012

Frederick Bacon-Shone, pianist, organist, and conductor, was a music educator for over forty years, teaching at three Seventh-day Adventist colleges and in public high schools in California. He also served as a church musician and was active in many arts, community, and environmental organizations.

Frederick was born in London, England, and raised in Walthamstow, the youngest of three sons of Frederick Carney Shone, a physician, and Violet Victoria Bacon. He experienced firsthand the World War II bombing of London during his teenage years and near the end of the war served as an Air Raid Precautions Warden, enforcing the blackouts and rescuing neighbors from burning houses that had been struck by incendiary bombs.

He earned a licentiate in piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and then was a staff member at Newbold College while maintaining a private studio. He emigrated to Canada, entering that country after coming to the U.S through New York City, residing in Michigan for a short while, and then teaching piano and directing the band at Canadian Union College, now Canadian University College, from 1947 to 1952.  During that time Bacon-Shone completed an undergraduate degree at the University of London in 1949.

Beginning in 1952, he taught piano and theory at Pacific Union College for four years, completing a master’s degree at Columbia University during that time. He spent the rest of his career teaching music in the Covina, California, school system, where he directed choirs, orchestras, and bands and directed a number of high school musicals.

During those years he completed a Ph.D. at the University of Southern California in 1976. His dissertation, Form in the Chamber Music of Frederick Delius, established that formal structures existed in Frederick Delius’ chamber music which until that time had been presumed to be amorphous.

Bacon-Shone was a devout Seventh-day Adventist and served as an organist for his church as well as for Methodist and Presbyterian churches. He was a founding member of San Diego Wild Animal Park, a House Manager for the Riverside Philharmonic, and an usher for several years at the Three Choirs Festival in England. He was active in the Rotary Club and served as a president of a local chapter for many years.

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Sources: Obituary, Press-Enterprise, 13 January 2013; “There is Music for All at Canadian Union College,” Canadian Union Messenger, 7 November 1951, 10; Pacific Union Recorder, 22 September 1952 (Introductory biography); Frederick Carney Shone obituary, British Advent Messenger, 28 February 1964, 16.