Wednesday Morning Musicale

Wednesday Morning Musicale

Wednesday Morning Musicale. A Winnipeg concert-giving club, organized in 1933 by Eva Clare, who became its first president. After 75 years of continuous operation, the Musicale presented its final concert in 2008. Its home platforms were, successively, the Fort Garry Hotel for the first seven years, the Music and Arts Building until the late 1940s, the T. Eaton Company's Assembly Hall, and, after 1979, the Muriel Richardson Auditorium (Winnipeg Art Gallery). The Wednesday Morning Musicale offered premieres of works by Lorne Betts, Chester Duncan, S.C. Eckhardt-Gramatté, Leslie Mann, Bernard Naylor, and Barbara Pentland, all natives or one-time residents of Manitoba. Proceeds from performances of such chamber operas as Britten's Let's Make an Opera and Noye's Fludde, Mozart's The Impresario, Pergolesi's La Serva padrona, Sullivan's Cox and Box, and several by Menotti contributed to a scholarship fund for young Manitoba musicians. Scholarships were awarded annually through the sponsorship of the WMM and the Winnipeg Foundation. Scholarship winners who went on to international careers in music include Valdine Anderson, Tracy Dahl, Douglas Finch, Dierdre Irons, Chantal Kreviazuk, David Moroz and Keri-Lynn Wilson. After the late 1980s five concerts were presented each season, featuring mainly scholarship winners. A sixth concert was held at a local church during the Christmas season and featured youth choirs and instrumental ensembles. In 1988, the Wednesday Morning Musicale was honoured by the Government of Manitoba with the Prix Manitoba Award for the Arts in the category of Distinguished Service in a Volunteer Organization.