By Marion Haggart
When Attila Glatz and Susan Alberghini first researched the subject of a festival of the arts for Huntsville, they inquired about the possibility of any input from local musicians.
Experience told them that such inclusion would go a long way to getting townspeople on side.
This wasn’t just good psychology, but would nurture and give exposure to emerging young performers. The chance for musicians to experience public performance as often as possible is a must on the upward path to acquiring ‘cool’ stage presence and accumulating recognition at whatever level.
Mid-Week Music, the series initiated in 1989 by the Muskoka Musical Arts Society in Trinity United Church, was conceived as a means to provide half-hour interludes of comfortable listening once a week in the dark days of winter. It was for working people on their lunch breaks, for house-bound young mothers needing a change of scene, for physically and developmentally challenged adults in the community, for anyone, in fact, who “wanted in.”
The emphasis was then, and still is, to provided something inclusive and also give local musicians that extra boost that only public performance can bestow. Occasionally, when opportunities to present outstanding performers from further afield become available, the definition of “local” had to be tweaked a bit but, basically, the original concept is still what underpins the noon-hour, free interludes now known as Music at Noon, presented every weekday for two weeks in early July as part of the Huntsville Festival of the Arts.
(Photo by Jon Snelson)
KEY PLAYER: Marion Haggart co-ordinates the popular Music at Noon concerts, which take place weekdays for two weeks in July at Trinity United Church.
Adopted by the festival in 1993, Music at Noon has become popular, established programming which offers a high standard of excellence, pleasing variety and, perhaps most importantly, accessibility, all thanks to local people we know or at least recognize.
A regular audience member recently volunteered the comment, “It makes me feel really proud, as a resident, that so much good entertainment is presented by local people.”
All that’s needed to confirm the value of these free mini-concerts is to scan faces as supporters file out of the church. During the often-humid weather and crowded sidewalks of downtown Huntsville in July, people are refreshed by the respite, however brief, of relaxed music-making in the middle of a stressful day, and can be seen with broad smiles and enthusiastic chatter as they rejoin the bustling throngs of Main Street.
From way back, Muskoka has produced an astonishing heritage of talent, people who have contributed significantly to the accumulation of musical resources and opportunities. Initiatives, many spawned in pre-festival days and now assimilated into the bigger picture, which include the Muskoka District Band, the Muskoka Big Band, the Trillium Jazz groups, the Huntsville Community Choir, the Huntsville Youth Choir and the Larks, to name a few, all give residents the chance to “do their thing” in creative, recreational activities.
More recent developments are the establishment in 1992 of the Huntsville Suzuki School, which ensures local training of the highest order for string players, the initiation in 2003 of the community band, and the recent formation of the Muskoka Saxophone Society, each of which offers invaluable stimulus.
No mention has been made of individual movers and shakers, influential in initiating and leading the above groups, people who not only have the necessary performing skills and training, but also the ability to make things happen. Without their enthusiasm and drive, the story might be different. Sometimes, it’s simply the arrival of newcomers wanting to contribute and join in the community who volunteer their experience and suddenly inspire new ventures. To cite individual names isn’t necessary. We know these innovators and the activities they’ve nurtured over the years.
The point of this commentary is to illustrate that a vibrant cultural scene along with an on-going assurance of future growth depends on both leadership and an abundance of talent. In Muskoka we have them “in spades.” Long may it be so.
