In Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s vocabulary, love is always a verb
The legendary musician and synth pioneer combines personal, philosophical and natural worlds in his intricate compositions. He reflects on love, queer legacy and inspiring the next generation.
WORDS BY CHRISTINE KAKAIRE PHOTOGRAPHY BY WYNNE NEILLY Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s biography up to 2020 reads like the epic journey of an artist-hero.
Born in Philadelphia, United States, at the tail end of WWII to music-loving Quaker parents, he grew into a musically precocious child then came of age in 1960s Montreal, Canada, with a scholarship to study classical music at McGill University.
Glenn-Copeland drew unwelcome attention there, not only as the first Black student in the music school, but also as McGill’s first openly queer Black (pre-transition) female student.
