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| CONTACT
Steven
Capaldo
Music Education:
capaldo@uvic.ca
Catharine
McLeod
External Relations:
cmcleod@uvic.ca
Don
Bergland
Art Education:
bergland@uvic.ca
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The
following speeches were delivered by Dr. Budd Hall,
Don Wright, and David Turpin at the Naming Ceremony
held at the University of Victoria. |
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| NAMING
CEREMONY REMARKS - DR. BUDD HALL |
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Don
Wright Naming Ceremony Remarks
Dr. Budd Hall
Read
the telegram from David Foster
Over
the past 25 years and after a career which has
become a legend in Canadian music and broadcasting
history, Don Wright has been carrying out a
campaign to turn up the volume on music education
for the young people of Canada. Dr. Wright has
provided scholarships for music education students
in many universities across Canada. Additionally,
he has provided each of Canada’s music
education programmes with copies of the full
volume set of his pioneering work in: choral
music, arrangements for the adolescent voice,
band arrangements, and radio advertising jingles.
We are delighted as well that Priscilla Wright,
one of Canada’s truly remarkable vocalists
and the daughter of Donald and Lillian Wright,
is able to be with us today. For those of you
with an interest in contemporary Canadian music,
I should point out that the lovely young female
voice heard harmonizing on many of the radio
jingles that Don is so famous for, is in fact
none other than Priscilla Wright herself. As
a child, Priscilla appeared on The Ed Sullivan
Show and she also performed several concerts
with the legendary Elvis Presley. Her current
CD, The Singer and The Song, has been received
with critical acclaim.
In providing such outstanding leadership for
the place of music in our lives, Dr. Wright
has truly earned the accolades of all of us
as Canada’s very own Music Man. Dr. Wright,
your family coat of arms contains the words
“Be Worthy”. You Sir have done your
family proud.
Dr. Wright’s commitment to music education
has been an important factor in the current
national reawakening to the importance of music
in our schools and in our communities. The many
recipients of the Don Wright Scholarships at
the University of Victoria, and elsewhere, have
played key roles as parents, teachers, educational
leaders, and community leaders in the efforts
to protect and expand the place of music and
the arts in our schools and in our communities.
Dr. Wright, your remarkably generous gift of
$1million to music education at the Faculty
of Education of the University of Victoria,
comes at an auspicious time. At a time when
costs for university education are rising, your
gift makes provisions for scholarships so that
outstanding students who wish to make a lifetime
commitment to music are able to do so. In addition,
your gift will allow the Faculty of Education
to support, in perpetuity, a music festival
which unites young musicians from schools across
North America to share in the joy and inspiration
of performing together. Your gift will allow
University of Victoria music education students
to participate in selected national and international
invitational music events to which we have been
invited in the past but have many times been
unable to accept because of a lack of funds.
And importantly your gift Dr. Wright, inspires
us in our goal of being the number one music
education programme in the entire nation and
one of the best in the world.
Your gift, and, if I could speak frankly, your
deep, joyful, contagious and loving personal
inspiration to each of us who have had the opportunity
to meet you and get to know you over the past
years, sends a song out to Victoria, to Vancouver
Island, to British Columbia, to Canada, and
to the world that learning, harmony, community
and peace are inextricably linked to the music
in our lives.
As a way of sharing the inspiration of your
lifetimes experience with all those present
today, we will be giving a gift to each person
of a scroll containing the inspiring words which
you offered to our University of Victoria graduating
class at the convocation ceremony in November
2001.
We are both honoured and humbled by your gift…and
we pledge to you that we will make sure that
our music education programme remains completely
in tune both today and for the years to come.
Budd
L. Hall, Dean of Education, University of Victoria
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| NAMING
CEREMONY SPEECH - DON WRIGHT |
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Don Wright Speech
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Faculty of Education, University of Victoria,
Mr. President, Mr. Chair, Mr. Chancellor and old
friend, Budd Hall. I am overwhelmed by the event
today…what a joy….and here I am, a
1908 model, now resplendent with a 2004 UVic tie!
For my speech I would like to give you four quick
pictures which tell the story of UVic and Don
Wright.
Picture number one is twenty-five years ago, in
1979, when Lillian and I came out and set up the
two permanent music scholarships, vocal and instrumental.
Two old friends were on the staff then, Margery
Vaughan and Frank Churchley, and Ian Bradley was
the Dean of Music. A very happy, wonderful occasion
- THE BEGINNING!
Picture number two is 1982. Lillian and I came
out again to bring the twenty volume thesaurus
50 Years of Music with Don Wright, where you can
listen to a tape and then go to the correct volume
and see the whole score, and usually a commentary
on why I did it that way! That’s education!
Again, a wonderful time, and on page 3, from the
March 5th edition of The Ring was a half page
of me with the thesaurus, in a classroom, where
I explained it.
Picture number three, Convocation. Saturday, November
24, 2001, University Centre, Farquhar Auditorium.
All graduations on the back of the stage, on stage
the academia, huge audience, every seat packed
with people, celebrating. UVic made me an Honorary
Doctor of Education! Somehow, so soon after my
big operation, I made it to the lectern and, inspired
by that vibrating audience, I made a darn good
speech!!! What an ovation! Some of you were there
and remember….!
Picture number four, today, June 29, 2004. The
unveiling of the new music education wing to bear
my name, in perpetuity. Again, I am overwhelmed
and proud, and very thankful because I will be
a part of the parades of students and teachers
each year coming in, learning and teaching, then
coming out to bring their music to the world!
Strings, reeds, brass, big bands, guitars, percussion,
voices, solo, big choirs, little choirs, duets
- all making music come alive, off the paper and
into the very heart and soul of all who experience
it. As the years go on, all in perpetuity….
Of course there’s a song…..Till the
end of time, long as stars are in the blue…till
the wells run dry…till each mountain disappears…till
the end of time Music….us….together!!
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| NAMING
CEREMONY SPEECH - DAVID TURPIN, UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT |
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Don
Wright Music Wing – Naming Ceremony
29 June 2004
David H. Turpin, PhD, FRSC
President and Vice-Chancellor
Thank you, Eric.
On behalf of the University of Victoria community
– the Board of Governors, students, faculty
and staff – I would like to extend our
deepest gratitude to Dr. Don Wright for his
generous support of our University.
I am pleased to welcome each of you to this
naming ceremony – this gathering provides
us with the opportunity to honour and thank
Don in person.
Don – your generosity is very much appreciated;
what you are doing for our music education students,
and for our future students, is truly magnificent.
Gifts like this allow us to continue to grow
and expand our horizons so we can continue to
achieve excellence in all that we do.
At UVic, we are committed to the arts, music
and education. We are also committed to linking
with our community.
Let me share some examples.
Last month, the McKinnon Gymnasium was transformed
into a Strings Concert Hall as 700 high school
students joined together for a concert.
And every year our music education students
organize the University of Victoria Bandfest
which brings together 3500 students from 45
middle school and high school concert bands
from across Canada and the United States.
We are currently in the midst of the Performing
Arts of BC Festival. For the last 5 days, the
festival has been on our campus with scheduled
competitions, workshops and performances in
music, speech arts, and musical theatre. Over
600 promising young artists from all corners
of the province have made our campus their home
for the past week while they share their talents
and celebrate their accomplishments.
In July of this year, we will be hosting the
National Youth Orchestra for their Annual Summer
Training Session.
Yet another example of the
University’s role in national music and
the arts will be seen in 2006, when The Faculty
of Education and the School of Music co-host
the most prestigious choral gathering in the
country - Choral Podium 2006.
The University of Victoria has a long tradition
of providing an exceptional education to our
students and developing tomorrow’s talents.
We are particularly proud of the close partnership
between the Faculty of Education and the Faculty
of Fine Arts which makes such excellence possible.
The dedication of the Don Wright Music Education
Wing honours our commitment to music and to
music education, and it recognizes Dr. Don Wrights’
kindness and generosity.
So, Don, I wish to extend to you my most sincere
thanks and the thanks of the entire University
community.
Your leadership and vision will serve to inspire
generations of students and faculty at the University
of Victoria.
Don – through your vision and commitment,
you have made a tremendous contribution to our
community – and for that we are truly
grateful.
Thank you, Don.
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