A GIFT OF MUSIC: THE JOURNEY (Farewell Concert)
Saturday, May 23, 2015 – Bingemans Ballroom, Kitchener
Artistic Director/Conductor, Dr. Alfred Kunz
Master of Ceremonies, Dr. Michael W. Higgins
Music Alive Choral Organization
Nith Valley Singers
Additional Singers from the German Canadian Choir Association
Concert Pianist, Jeanette Bauman
Guest Pianist, Krystyna Higgins
Millennium Instrumental Ensemble
Piper Soloist, Nigel Moore
Rinceoiri Celtica Irish Dancers
James Joyce Quartet: Ken Chamberland, Peter Hawrylenko, Christian Bellsmith, Brad Lawrence
Vocal Soloists: Ken Chamberland, Christian Bellsmith, Barbara McKellar, Christina Mancini
In the words of Dr. Michael W. Higgins,
Maestro Kunz, Herr Dr. Kunz, Alfred, The Music Man. Admittedly, Alfred Kunz is neither Robert Preston nor Matthew Broderick, but he is no less the Music Man. Arguably, much more so. His life is a life lived in and for music.
The gift of music is never without context nor mission. The context for Alfred Kunz is German-Canadian, it is rural and yet urban, choral and yet instrumental, bach-suffused and yet contemporary-sensitive, traditional and yet also avant-garde. Vintage Kunz.
Tonight’s farewell concert cum tribute is a way of entering – our way of entering – the imaginative legacy of a composer, choral conductor, arranger, and music coach whose contribution to Canadian choral music is now firmly established – Wilfrid Laurier University’s Faculty of Music will house the archives – and whose contribution to the KW area, including bustling Luxembourg of course, is now storied.
Kunz Compositions performed:
– Wonder of Wonders
– Invention No. III – The Journey
– Amazing Grace
– Busy Fiddles
– Three James Joyce Songs
– Shall I Compare Thee
Closing words by Dr. Michael Higgins:
From Neudorf, Saskatchewan to Toronto, to Kitchener Waterloo, to Hamilton, to Mainz, Darmstadt, Bilthoven, to Sylt – and then back to Kitchener Waterloo, over 60 years of musical service to the community – spiced with royal openings, inauguarations, installations, concerts big and small, music performed nationally and internationally. Quite the Record. In a word or two: worth remembering.
“Remember my words, remember my voice,
Remember my thoughts, remember my choice.
Remember by touch, remember my goal,
Remember my dream, and remember my soul.”
