Bornoff School of Music and Associated Arts

Bornoff School of Music and Associated Arts

Bornoff School of Music and Associated Arts. Founded in Winnipeg by George Bornoff. It opened on Bannatyne Ave on 1 Sep 1937, offering instruction in violin, piano, clarinet, voice, theory, sculpture, fine arts, and public speaking. The staff during the early years included Bornoff, principal and head of the violin department; Leonard Dunelyk, Stanley Kolt, and John Konrad, violin; Mary Baron Bornoff, Gordon Kushner, and Frans Niermeier, piano and theory; W.H. Anderson, Doris Mills Lewis, John McTaggart,and Gladys Whitehead, voice; Stephen Krawetz, violin and theory; and Hugh Bancroft, organ and theory.

The school offered both a general and a graded course of study, the latter for those who exhibited distinct ability. Students in the graded stream underwent rigorous training and were examined by the principal monthly. There were also piano classes for preschool children and adult 'Music hobbyists'. The initial student enrolment of 70 expanded in the 1940s to over 600. In-house recording facilities were provided, school orchestras and choirs were formed, and senior students were encouraged to give recitals in the school's own small concert hall. Annual concerts, in auditoriums about the city, were open to the public. In 1938 a day school was established under Clive von Cardinal, so that both academic and musical training could be offered on the premises, and in 1941 this school came under the official supervision of the Manitoba Dept of Education. The day school did not survive into the 1950s.

Donna Grescoe, Anne Pomer James, Gerald Stanick, and Mary Morrison are among the school's many noted alumni. George Bornoff remained as director until 1947. The school was operated 1947-9 by Bernard Stanick (father of Gerald), and was taken over in 1949 by John Konrad, who renamed it the Konrad Conservatory of Music in 1950. This school closed shortly after Konrad's death in 1962.