Ruth Watson Henderson, a Canadian composer and pianist known for her choral music, died on June 9, 2026.
She was 93. Born Ruth Louise Watson in Toronto on November 23, 1932, she studied at The Royal Conservatory of Music and later at The New School.
Henderson spent many years as accompanist for the Festival Singers of Canada under Dr. Elmer Iseler and accompanied the Toronto Children’s Chorus from its founding in 1978 until 2007. Her output included more than 200 choral works as well as music for organ, piano, violin, trumpet and string orchestra, and in 1989 her Chromatic Partita for Organ won a prize in an international competition for women composers in Mannheim, Germany.