He wrote his first opera, The Brideship (for which George Woodcock provided the libretto), during a sojourn in Italy in 1968. This led to a string of early successes including Nocturne (1956, orchestrated 1965), A Children's Overture (1958), Symphony for Strings (1960), and Three Episodes (1963). His first large commission was Opening Night:Theatre Overture, premiered by Irwin Hoffman and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 1955. Turner's earliest success was his String Quartet No.

Among his students who have had successful careers are Patrick Carrabré, Jim Hiscott, Diana McIntosh and Glenn Buhr. He was appointed professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba upon his retirement in 1985. He taught at the University of British Columbia 1955-7, at Acadia University 1968-9, and at the University of Manitoba 1969-85. Turner worked as a CBC Vancouver music producer 1952-68, where his responsibilities included the broadcasts of the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. His other teachers included Herbert Howells and Gordon Jacob at the Royal College of Music 1947-8, Roy Harris again at the George Peabody College of Teachers in Nashville, Tenn, 1947-50, and Olivier Messiaen at Tanglewood 1949. He continued studies with Douglas Clarke and Claude Champagne at McGill University, then with Roy Harris at Colorado College in 1947 (where he met his wife, percussionist Sara Scott they married in 1949). As a teenager Turner studied piano with Frank Hanson and Walter Hungerford, as well as composition with Irvin Cooper at the McGill Conservatory of Music. Composer, radio producer, teacher, b Montreal, died Winnipeg B MUS (McGill) 1943, M MUS (Peabody College) 1950, D MUS (McGill) 1953.

Submissive by Roy Turner