{"id":84630,"date":"2020-04-23T14:29:50","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T18:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=84630"},"modified":"2020-04-25T11:20:35","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T15:20:35","slug":"memories-of-music-festivals-and-music-teachers-martha-briggs-watson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/memories-of-music-festivals-and-music-teachers-martha-briggs-watson\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories of music festivals and music teachers: Martha Briggs Watson"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What were you doing April 2-5?<\/p>\n

If you were like me, you were in isolation. But for COVID-19, you may have been attending, participating in or volunteering for the Huntsville Festival of Music. On April 2 and 3, participants would have been receiving coaching by qualified adjudicators\/teachers. On April 5, we would all have had the pleasure of enjoying the festival\u2019s \u201cConcert of the Stars\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Spearheaded by Alana Nuedling, Carol Gibson and Kyung-a Lee, and supported by the Huntsville Festival of the Arts, it would have been fashioned after the Kiwanis Festival.<\/p>\n

Now my mind is exploding with memories!<\/p>\n

In 1953, the first Huntsville and District Music Festival was presented at Huntsville High School, with at least nine subsequent ones to follow annually in the spring, each greater and more exciting than the last. Thanks to the efforts of the Huntsville Music Club, including such members as Allan Miller, Bruce Werry, Dorothy Peacock, Jean Rogers, Muriel Briggs (my mother), Nadine (Ysaye) Mosbaugh, Norma Young, and Wilfred Brown, this festival was always a tremendous success and a musical highlight for participants, families, and teachers.<\/p>\n

Participants entered from throughout Muskoka and Parry Sound in a wide variety of categories: piano solos, duets, trios; singing solos, duets, trios, choirs; instrumental solos, and band. It was always a time of great excitement and butterflies in the stomach\u2014to perform in front of a large audience and to receive adjudication by such talented musicians and educators as Boris Berlin, John Dewdney, G. Roy Fenwick, Richard Johnston, Charles Peaker and Eldon Brethour, all in good-natured competition. On a special evening to follow, many participants were privileged to perform at the \u201cStars of the Festival\u201d concert, some to receive scholarship awards from generous donors.<\/p>\n

\"Some

Some early festival winners (Courtesy of Mary Mosbaugh Spence-Thomas)<\/p><\/div>\n

All this reminds me of some of the stellar teachers in our own town.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bruce Werry was the first vocal teacher I remember. He visited all the classrooms at Huntsville Public School. He entered my friend Susan Kellock and me in the festival when we were in grade one, something we did every year from grade one until grade eight as I remember. We were coached by the finest! We had so much fun practising together, each day on the way to and from school, taking turns singing the soprano and alto part.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wilfred Brown entered the scene in the middle grades. My most vivid memory was of him, in his very soft-spoken gentle and humorous way, coaching his daughter Sandra, Susan Kellock, and me in singing trios. We received some top-notch adjudication from Mr. Eldon Brethour, a well-known music educator in Toronto.<\/p>\n\n\t\t