Some things about
people, I'll probably never find online, no matter how hard I look..
Maybe a thing's too personal to just plop down to an unknown
audience, or it's just not something that one thinks would be
immediately interesting to readers. But I've got to say, asking
Howard Dyck my first question, “when and where were you born” led
to an answer that I found, quite frankly, really awesome. He told me
the story of a man, who at age 105, became the oldest person ever to
become an Order of Canada Member, Mr Cornelius Wiebe, who passed away
July 12th, 1999. Mr. Wiebe was known throughout his
province as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba but more
so as a doctor who over the course of 53 years delivered over 6000
babies, including Howard Dyck, and even the son of Howard. I find
that humorous, and amazing. Imagine, being indicted into the Order of
Canada only one year after the man who delivered you as a newborn
baby was. I guess you could say Howard has had an interesting life
from the start. These two men, at this point, are to this day the
only “Winklerites” to become Order of Canada Members.
His investment to the
Order of Canada was a complete surprise. It came around the time he
was working as a radio host on CBC Radio for the shows Choral
Concert and Saturday
Afternoon at the Opera. Howard
was told that Rideau Hall, the House of the Governor General of
Canada, had called earlier that day for him. Adrienne
Clarkson had just recently become the 26th
Governor General of Canada and as always, Howard had applied
to the office to give her the distinction of Honorary Patron of the
Kitchener-Waterloo Philharmonic Choir, so he assumed that this was
them calling him back to say that they had approved. A cut and dry
procedure by now for Howard. As he was leaving the office for the
night, he decided to call them. They were happy he did, as they
thought “he didn't want the Order of Canada by that point”. He
was thoroughly confused, and asked what they meant. Apparently, there
was a little bit of a communication error. A letter was mailed to him
by the office a few weeks earlier, informing him of his investment.
But, it was sent to his former address. Howard almost missed his
distinction from a simply mail slip-up. Needless to say, he was
ecstatic when told, and right away told the people he could
(immediate family only). His wife was informed, his children
informed, and of course his mother. When the news became public to
the rest of Canada, Howard was on a concert tour in Salzburg,
Austria. Those with him and himself had quite the party to celebrate,
but he told me (to my laughter) that it was the Order of Canada after
party that apparently is the fun one, telling me “if you become an
Order of Canada Member Cody, don't miss the party”. But how did he
get to the distinction? It all started on his family farm, November
1942, when he was born.
Howard was born in a
Mennonite community by the small town of Winkler, Manitoba. The
distinction of being from a Mennonite community would be that music
was brought into the world of Howard from a very young age. As far
back as he can remember, singing and music were important in the
community and to his family. He can recall singing in the church
choir, being in a barbershop quartet in high school, and learning the
piano and violin there as well. These developed into playing violin
in the high school orchestra and being the orchestral piano player.
From his few times conducting though, he knew it was what he wanted
to do, so after his undergraduate degrees in Canada for Liberal Arts
and Music he went to some of the best places to learn how to conduct
like the best of them, therefore, Germany. Here he learned choral,
orchestral and opera conducting and all the separate skill sets for
each.
The thing with keeping
these condensed is, there are times when I have to skip ahead a fair
bit in years. Previously, I had mentioned how work on CBC and with
the Kitchener-Waterloo Philharmonic led to the Order of Canada. Some
of the things he enjoyed the most with this group was the Good Friday
performance that Howard annually conducted until just recently with
them. The mood of the performance gives Howard feelings that he can't
explain, but it sticks out to him regardless. It was some work he did
a few years after the Order of Canada Membership though that I found
personally to show his character the most. This was he work with what
he named Consort Caritatis. An example, in my opinion, of how
context can make a performance so different. Consort Caritatis
means, when translated in the
most simple way by Howard for myself, is “charity concert”, which
is really what it is. The idea was formed in 1994, the idea of using
all the amazing voices and musicians in Canada for charity. Together
with colleagues, a group was formed and recordings made. In the first
year they ended up selling over 20000 recordings of their work
(Handel's Messiah), which is considered a huge number in the fields
of classical music. The first year the money went to the Mennonite
Central Committee Charity and Habitat for Humanity. From there they
made money for such organizations as the International Campaign to
End the Use of Land Mines and the AIDS Project in Africa. All the
money went to charity, it was proven to be a very successful idea,
and has continued ever since. Over a quarter of a million dollars has
been raised in the 19 years since it was formed.
One
moment struck me as the highlight of the organization. It was a day
of euphoria for many in North America, Boxing Day sales and discounts
abound, December 26th,
2004. Across the world, a tsunami from the Indian Ocean would strike
the nations of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, killing an
estimated 280000 people. Right away, Howard knew Consort
Caritatis had to help. He
approached the members of the board for Consort,
the Board of Directors for the Centre and The Square and anyone else
he could. They all agreed to a show where everything from performers
time to newspaper advertisements would be donated, the show would be
free, in the hopes of raising as much money as possible for tsunami
aid. An arrangement was made, and a few weeks later a performance
conducted. The idea of helping these countries reached a level of
success that Howard never expected. The show raised $75000, but that
wouldn't be the grand total from the event. The government enacted a
policy saying that when certain respectable organizations donated for
relief, the Canadian government would match it, so in total, the show
raised a total of $150000. In one night, from one idea. One that
still makes Howard proud to have been a part of to this day.
I've
never used the term before, but Howard Dyck is nothing but a
gentleman and a scholar in my eyes. He gave chances to some musicians
when they were starting out when others didn't. These students would
soon become household names to certain crowds, including Ben Heppner
who powerfully sang the Olympic Hymn at the 2010 games and Measha
Brueggergosman who I first saw as a judge for Canada's Got Talent,
but now have heard beautifully sing online.
Finishing
this article up, I asked Howard how China was treating him and his
wife. He told me how he's loving it, and how he's “up to his
eyeballs in Chinese music he's never encountered before! It's all
very exciting and keeping (him) busy!”. From part of this
conversation, I had the pleasure to learn that the ties between
Howard and I were not over, and we would be meeting again relatively
soon, this time, to do with my hometown
as opposed to his. With that, anyone reading this from small town
Ingersoll, Ontario, consider this story a bit of a teaser into the
insights of an extraordinary man.
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