April 2024 Newsletter 68
April 2024 Newsletter 68 Read More »
In Memoriam
In Memoriam: Barbara Gory
Barbara Gory (shown left) passed away on Monday, December 4, 2023, at the age of 95.
Working with Elizabeth Newton (centre), and Esther McNeil (right), Barbara Gory established the WMCT Foundation in 2000.
Bringing to the WMCT her skills as one of the earliest women in Canada to be certified as a chartered accountant, Barbara guided the process of securing the Foundation’s charter and charitable status. She served as its first Secretary-Treasurer, was Vice-President 2004-2007 and a director at large until 2010. The Foundation has grown to be able to support the operation of the Club, and to fund several annual scholarships at the University of Toronto and Royal Conservatory of Music, and the flagship Career Development Award of $25,000 every three years. She was also a longstanding member of the Club and offered astute advice as a member of its committees and board. Barbara Gory was a member of the Legacy Circle.
In Memoriam: Barbara Gory Read More »
In Memoriam: Dagmar Stafl
Hodonin, Czechoslovakia July 28, 1926 – Toronto, November 14, 2022
In News & Notes 54, Bonnie O’Dacre profiled her remarkable biography, from a happy childhood in Czechoslovakia, through refugee status in Canada, to university degrees and a rewarding career and family life. The title of her autobiography is the sum of her possessions when she escaped Soviet Czechoslovakia in 1949. Dagmar joined the WMCT in 1990 – her old friend Esther McNeil would soon become President. By 1992, according to Counterpoint to a City, the Club’s “financial affairs were getting to be too complex for a person without extensive financial and investment experience to manage…. In 1992 the position of secretary-treasurer was changed to treasurer,” and Dagmar Stafl, who had retired as Chief Economist of the Ontario Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations, took over this job and set a new professional standard of fiscal responsibility for the WMCT.
In Memoriam: Dagmar Stafl Read More »
In Memoriam: Marlene Preiss
A long-time member, former board member, concert sponsor, and staunch supporter of the WMCT, Marlene Preiss passed away on Saturday, October 15, 2022, in her 84th year, at the home of her sister, Wilma Preiss Boughtflower, in Woodstock, Ontario. Marlene had been living there since the start of the covid pandemic in March 2020.
After successful careers with the Institute of Canadian Bankers and the York Region Board of Education, Marlene focused her attention to the pursuit of retirement excellence, travelling widely as a passionate patron of classical music. She was the voice of the Club as supreme chair of the Telephone Committee for many years. Marlene also supported the Toronto Wagner Society, the Canadian Opera Company, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Ballet of Canada, the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, Aldeburgh Connection, Toronto Summer Music Festival, and the Toronto Blue Jays.
There will be a Celebration of Life in Toronto from 1-4 pm on Friday, November 4, 2022, at the HotHouse Restaurant, 35 Church Street, Toronto. Condolences may be forwarded through www.cremationandcelebrations.com
In Memoriam: Marlene Preiss Read More »
In Memoriam: Danuta Buczynski († October 26, 2021)
Danuta was an outstanding patron of the arts. As President of the WMCT from 2001-2004, she led us during a period of remarkable growth in membership numbers, while overseeing four seasons of wonderful concert giving. As an active member for years before that, she had initiated the Tuning Your Mind series of pre-concert lectures in partnership with the Faculty of Music at the U of T. Later she chaired the planning for the special events and activities celebrating the 110th anniversary season.
In 2019 she received the Lieutenant-Governor’s Distinguished Service Award for her even more extensive volunteer work for the Royal Ontario Museum. Watch the ROM tribute video.
Born in France in 1937 and raised in Poland, she met Walter Buczynski in Warsaw in 1960. He was a Canadian composition student, there on grants from the Polish state, and she was working for the government in handling foreign visitors. They raised their family in midtown Toronto while he taught at the Faculty of Music, U of T, and she proudly and generously served her new country. Photo from the Funeral Home obituary.
In Memoriam: Danuta Buczynski († October 26, 2021) Read More »
In Memoriam: Victor Feldbrill
Conductor Victor Feldbrill died on June 17, 2020, aged 96. He was a great friend of the WMCT, an honorary advisor, and several times a juror for the Career Development Award. In May 2013 he was guest speaker at a Club Lunch. For News & Notes no. 48, then president Annette Sanger interviewed Maestro Feldbrill and summarized his talk.
WMCT member John Beckwith remembers: “Victor and I were fellow music students in Toronto seventy years ago. He was noted as a champion of Canadian composers and I can testify to that: he conducted the premiere of my first orchestral composition around 1950 and some time in the early 2000s he conducted the premiere of what is likely to be my last, with several other titles in between. He was a versatile and technically brilliant musician and in his long career he participated decisively in the development of the Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Toronto symphony orchestras, the University of Toronto student orchestra, and an orchestra of retiree professionals which he formed during his own retirement – this in addition to numerous guest appearances, notably during his extensive stay in Japan in the 1980s. I will remember him fondly and with much admiration.”
Prof. Robin Elliott, organizer of WMCT’s pre-concert lectures, “Tuning Your Mind,” has posted a full obituary on his website of the Institute for Music in Canada.
His illustrious career has also been noted on these websites:
In Memoriam: Victor Feldbrill Read More »
In Memoriam: Emmy Homburger
The Women’s Musical Club of Toronto and its Foundation mourn the death on December 11, 2019 of one of its Great Women.
President from the 108th to 110th seasons, member and supporter for many years, Emmy made major contributions of time and talent to the festivities of the centennial celebrations of 1997-98, which included the first Career Development Award, and the gala concert whose financial success resulted in the establishment of the Foundation.
Our condolences go to the family, already grieving the loss of Emmy’s husband Walter earlier this year.
A Memorial Reception will be held at Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Friday, 20 December, 2019, 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM
2019-12-13
In Memoriam: Emmy Homburger Read More »
Celebration of Life: Walter Homburger
Walter Homburger, who died on July 25, at the age of 95, was a Patron of the WMCT, and an Honorary Advisor to the WMCT Foundation. He assisted his wife Emmy, a former president of the Club, in coordinating the Centennial Celebration Concert, whose financial success resulted in the establishment of the Foundation. The WMCT and Foundation community join in sending Emmy, and her family, our deepest sincere condolences.
Mr Homburger’s first years in Canada (1940-41) were spent in internment camps in Quebec and New Brunswick, together with other European Jewish refugees who later made unprecedented contributions to Canadian life. Musicians in this group included musicologist Helmut Blume, violinist Hymn Bress, historian Helmut Kallmann, CBC producer Franz Kraemer, and pianist (often heard at the WMCT) John Newmark.
He began his professions, of brilliant orchestra manager, consultant, impresario and artist manager, by borrowing enough money to bring Lotte Lehmann for three lieder recitals in Eaton Auditorium in January 1947. He promoted a succession of extraordinary artists (including Glenn Gould, Victor Braun, and Jan Rubes), and his term as managing director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (1962-1987) set new standards. He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1984.
In 1993 he came out of retirement to manage the developing career of WMCT Career Development Award winner James Ehnes. In 1999 to mark his 75th birthday Ehnes and Yo Yo Ma performed a recital at Roy Thomson Hall. He was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2002 and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2010.
For further obituary notices see:
2019 10 20
Celebration of Life: Walter Homburger Read More »
In Memoriam: Peter Longworth
Pianist and teach Peter Longworth has died at the early age of 54. Peter graced the WMCT stage five times, beginning with the Duke Piano Trio in the 102nd season, and most recently in 2016 during the 119th season, with James Sommerville, horn, and Scott St. John, violin.
John Terauds and Norman Lebrecht have written heartfelt tributes to his contributions to Toronto musical life.
Further appreciations by colleagues, students and friends at Ludwig van Toronto.
2018 06 26
In Memoriam: Peter Longworth Read More »