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HONORARY PATRONS
Ruth Watson
Henderson
 Ruth Watson Henderson has an international reputation as
one of Canada’s leading composers and as an admired pianist and
organist.
Known especially as a composer of choral works, she has done much to
promote the artistry of children through her wealth of compositions for
treble voices, using the expertise gleaned over 25 years as accompanist
of the Toronto Children’s Chorus under Jean Ashworth Bartle. She has at
the same time written a wide spectrum of works for adult choirs - an
activity started while she was accompanist of the Festival Singers
under Dr. Elmer Iseler.
Her works are acclaimed, performed and recorded worldwide. Such
well-known choirs as ORIANA Women's Choir, the Elmer Iseler Singers,
the Toronto Children’s Chorus, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the Elora
Festival Singers, and the Ontario Youth Choir regularly perform them.
Her pieces are often featured as the title track on recordings, such as
My Heart Soars (TCC), Come, Ye
Makers of Song (TCC), The Last Straw
(Amabile Boys Choirs) and When Music Sounds (ORIANA
Singers).
Ruth Watson Henderson is in constant demand to write commissioned works
for acclaimed choirs, special church celebrations, and festivals in
Canada and the United States. Recently commissioned works include the
highly acclaimed From Darkness to Light, a cantata for choir,
chamber orchestra, organ and soloists, commissioned by the American
Guild of Organists national convention in 2002; a setting of the
Magnificat for SATB choir and organ, for the Mount Royal Kantorei of
Calgary, Alberta; and The Voice of Niagara, a choral work
with orchestra for Chorus Niagara’s 40th anniversary in 2003. She was
the featured composer in residence at the Children in Harmony Festival
in Walt Disney World, Florida, in May, 2003 and has been commissioned
by the Bach Elgar Choir of Hamilton, combined with the Hamilton
Children’s Chorus to compose a work for the choirs.
Recognized for her lifetime of service to music, Ruth has been paid
many great tributes by the musical community. She was honoured with an
honorary Fellowship in the Royal Canadian College of Organists (FRCCO-
2003). She was awarded the National Choral Award for Outstanding Choral
Composition (1992) for Voices of Earth, and the Distinguished
Service Award by the Ontario Choral Federation (1996). In honour of her
60th and then her 70th birthdays, numerous choral organizations
preformed her compositions including the ORIANA Women's Choir, the
Elmer Iseler Singers, the Toronto Children’s Chorus and the Amadeus
Choir of Toronto. She is often invited to accompany concerts devoted
solely to her works, as was the case in 2000 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Currently the music director at Kingsway Lampton United Church in
Toronto, and in regular demand to accompany many fine ensembles, Ruth
is a member of SOCAN, the Canadian Music Centre, the Canadian League of
Composers and the Association of Canadian Women Composers.
Linda
Lundström
 Linda Lundström was born in a small mining town
called Red Lake in northwestern Ontario, Canada. At seventeen she and
her family moved to Winnipeg and at nineteen, she left to study Fashion
Design at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. She then won a Fashion
Canada scholarship and spent a year apprenticing in Europe. In 1974,
with a $10,000 loan from her parents she formed her company, Linda
Lundström Inc. in a two-bedroom apartment in Toronto. It was hard
work. Financing was difficult. Fabric suppliers and banks refused
credit privileges without a personal guarantor.
In her tenth year of business, Linda visited Japan and saw the return
of the ancient kimono to the fashion scene. This led Linda to wonder
what would be as Canadian as the kimono is Japanese. Her musings
inspired her to design the LAPARKA, a modern interpretation of the
traditional Inuit parka. It also led Linda into collaborations with
Native artists and, with the creation of products with a deeper
meaning, her identity as a designer, and the heart and soul of her
company, was born.
By 1997 Linda Lundström Inc. sales had grown to over $12 million.
In 1999 the company executed their fourth move, this time to a 60,000
square foot, state-of-the-art facility employing 150 people. Linda was
designing six women's collections a year. Her clothing was being sold
in over 500 independent boutiques across Canada and the United States
and there were four Linda Lundström flagship stores in Ontario.
After twenty-five successful years on the Canadian fashion scene, the
eroding global economy, combined with a decline in sales and increased
expenses, took its toll on the company. However, Linda stuck with it
and designed numerous collections each year as well as introducing a
new SPA line of robes, wraps and spa industry amenities. But, in 2008,
the economy again provided business challenges. Eleventh Floor Apparel
Limited purchased the rights to the Canadian designer’s name, the
assets, and the Linda Lundstrom manufacturing plant in Toronto. Linda
became chief creative officer focusing on designing seasonal
collections.
Veronica
Tennant, C.C.
 As prima ballerina with
The National Ballet of Canada for 25 years, Veronica Tennant won hearts
and accolades as a dancer of extraordinary versatility and dramatic
power. She earned accolades in every major classical role as well
as having several ballets choreographed for her. She danced
on stages across North America, Europe and Japan, with the greatest
male dancers of our time, including Rudolf Nureyev, and Mikhail
Baryshnikov. Her farewell performance was in 1989: A Passion for Dance: Celebrating the Tennant Magic. Among
her several CBC Television dance performances, two with Tennant in the
title role - Cinderella, and The Sleeping Beauty with
Rudolf Nureyev - won Emmy Awards.
Lauded as a Canadian icon and
role-model; Veronica Tennant is now an established, and
award-winning director/producer and writer of television, garnering
several international awards including the prestigious
International Emmy Award for CBC’s Karen Kain: Dancing In the Moment.
With synchronicity, she received this consummate television award on
the exact night of the tenth anniversary of her farewell performance
with the National Ballet.
Forming Veronica Tennant Productions
in 1998, her next programs as independent filmmaker
included; The Dancers’ Story: The National Ballet at 50
(Gemini Nomination - Best Direction) and Trio, (Gemini
Award - Best Photography in a Variety, Comedy
or Performing Arts Program) and (Gemini Nomination – Best
Editing; and Northern Light – Visions and Dreams shot
in Iqaluit, Winnipeg and Toronto ((Gemini Nomination – Best Sound).
Expanding her involvement in theatre
and film, Veronica Tennant has choreographed and served as an associate
director for Tarragon Theatre, Canadian Stage and The Stratford
Festival. She was a member of the Shaw Festival in the lead role
of Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town. In 1997 she
toured across Canada, performing with the late Timothy Findley in the
title role of The Piano Man’s Daughter & Others – a
memorable hybrid dubbed “literary vaudeville,” and received a
Gemini Nomination for her performance in the Rhombus Media Film, Satie
and Suzanne. A gifted communicator, she has also built an
extensive reputation as narrator, actor, broadcaster, and
lecturer.
Fully committed to catalyzing the
most vibrant artistic talent in Canada - established and
emerging - performers, writers, musicians, choreographers,
cinematographers, from a diverse spectrum - in 2003 she directed
and produced ; a pairing of SWANS, a short
film homage to Evelyn Hart and Rex Harrington with cellists
Amanda Forsyth and Shauna Rolston and actor Brent Carver. Veronica
conceived and directed Shadow Pleasures (2004), a cinematic
interpretation of the evocative poetry of celebrated author, Michael
Ondaatje. Shadow Pleasures was broadcast - on CBC’s
Opening Night, and was nominated for a Rockie Award at the Banff
Television Festival. The Cinnamon Peeler, a short from Shadow
Pleasures which Tennant also choreographed, enjoyed a
theatrical release in Canada before Robert Altman’s The Company,
and was selected for screening at the World-wide Short Film Festival.
CBC Television has profiled her extensively over the decades, and
celebrated her achievements in 2001, with the broadcast, LIFE
& TIMES of Veronica Tennant: Renaissance Woman.
The recipient of
four honorary doctorates, Veronica Tennant has written two books for
young people. She is Canada’s National Ambassador for
UNICEF which accorded her the 1999 Danny Kaye Award, and she was
inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2001. In 2004, Veronica Tennant
was extensively honoured for her lifetime achievements as a major
contributor to Canada’s arts and culture in the wide spectrum. The
Canada Council named her the recipient of the Walter Carsen Prize for
Excellence in the Performing Arts. Chosen by The Banff Centre as their
Outstanding Alumnae Nominee in Alberta’s Provincial Awards for
Excellence, she was awarded the prestigious Governor General’s
Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 1975, she was the
first dancer to be appointed to the Order of Canada as Officer. She was
promoted in 2004 to Companion, the country’s highest honour.
Eleanor Daley
 Eleanor Daley received her Bachelor of Music Degree in
Organ Performance from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and
holds diplomas in both organ and piano from the Royal Conservatory of
Music in Toronto and Trinity College in England. She has been the
Director of Music at Fairlawn Heights United Church in Toronto since
1982.
As a freelance accompanist, Eleanor has worked with numerous choirs,
including the Toronto Children’s Chorus, the Canadian Children’s Opera
Chorus, the Bach Children’s Chorus, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and
the Elmer Iseler Singers. She has been the accompanist for the Amadeus
Choir under Lydia Adams’ direction since 1991, and for the Bach
Children's Chorus, conducted by Linda Beaupré, since 1995.
Commissioned works include Mother, Son, Spirit for the
Amadeus Choir in 1996; Trinitas, a work for solo organ
commissioned by the Lawrence Park Community Church in 1998 and Requiem,
commissioned by Jake Neely for the Elmer Iseler Singers. She has
also composed works for the Toronto Children's Chorus and the Victoria
Scholars. Ms. Daley's Requiem was awarded the National
Choral Award for Outstanding Choral Composition of the Year in 1994 by
the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors (ACCC). In November,
2000, the choirs of Fairlawn Heights United Church released a CD,
"Canticle of the Spirit", featuring 23 of Eleanor's works. In
2004, Eleanor's "Rose Trilogy", commissioned by ORIANA Women's
Choir, received the ACCC Award for Outstanding Choral Work of the year.
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