Biographical History

Dr. Gordon Childs (born 1927) is a well-known viola d'amore performer and teacher and was one of the co-founders of the International Viola d'Amore Society/Congress.

Born on October 22, 1927 in Springville, Utah, Gordon B. Childs has B.A. and M.A. degrees in Music Education and Musicology from Brigham Young University and the Ed.D. degree in Music Administration from the University of Montana.

A violist and violinist, he was introduced to the Viola d’Amore by Professor Homer Wakefield in a music history class at BYU in the fall of 1951. He subsequently wrote his master’s thesis on the History, Technique and Literature of the Viola d’Amore, and played a graduate recital of viola d’amore music using Professor Wakefield’s instrument.

From solo to chamber music to concerti, he has given solo recitals, chamber music concerts and played concertos with symphony orchestras in most of the mid-west and western states in America and in Mexico, Poland and Germany.

Assisted by Dr. Myron Rosenblum of New York and Dr. Daniel Thomason of California, the directors of the Viola d’Amore Society of America, Dr. Childs hosted the first International Viola d’Amore Congress in 1982 at the University of Wyoming in Laramie where he was on the music faculty. Since the success of this first Congress, others have been held every other year in many cities in the United States, in England, Germany, and Poland including two he organized in Utah after retiring there in 1993.

Even after 21 years of retirement in Orem, Utah, Dr. Childs still teaches and performs on this beautiful “Viola d’Amore, Viole d’Amour, Viola of Love.”