The following is extracted from Volume I of the 1986 edition of South African Music Encyclopedia (J.P. Malan, ISBN 0 86965 586 8)
IAN BRUCE ANDERSON, baritone, born 4 September 1905 in Southport (Lancashire, England), died ?
Bruce Anderson was educated in St Paul's School in London and studied singing on a scholarship of the Royal Academy of Music under Thomas Meux (1924-27). This led to further studies in Milan where he made his operatic debut at the Teatro Duse in Madama Butterfly. Back in England, he sang for various opera companies and in broadcasts, as well as in Noel Coward's Bitter Sweet (New York). His connection with South Africa started in 1936, when he was a member of the company that toured this country with White Horse Inn. He returned in 1937 to join the SABC, establishing a reputation as a producer of radio opera productions and as a solo and operatic singer. After 1938 he collaborated with John Connell in his Music Fortnights, participating mainly on the operatic side.
At the outbreak of war, Bruce Anderson joined the First South African Brigade and was transferred to the Mobile Recording Unit, becoming the first South African to be awarded the OBE in recognition of his work as a war correspondent. After the war he was on the staff of the South African Embassy in Rome (1945-47), where he resumed his singing career. In 1947 her returned to South Africa to take over the teaching practice of Margaret Roux, and to participate in Connell's opera seasons as a singer and producer. Until 1950 he was active as a teacher of singing, and as singer-producer in a variety of works, including Die Fledermaus, Tannhäuser and Aida (1949), and Faust and Pagliacci (1950). Bruce Anderson also exerted himself in the creation of a National Opera Company and was one of the members of the committee of the National Opera Association formed by Alexander Rota in 1955. In June 1958 he produced Gianni Schicchi, one of the four operas staged at the Reps Theatre by the federated National Opera Association of South Africa.and Die Operavereniging van Suid-Afrika (OPSA).
Bruce Anderson has also become well known as an actor in a variety of theatre productions and was featured in the film Cry the Beloved Country (Alan Paton). He was married to Erica Jolley who was trained as a violinist at Trinity College, London, and played in the SABC Orchestra for many years after 1937. She made valuable contributions to Johannesburg's musical life as a member of Hermann Becker's Johannesburg String Quartet (1942-43) and of Jeremy Schulman's quartet in 1943.
