Out and About

Ries named honourary member

By Lori Larsen

Augustana professor and director of Music Ardelle Ries was named an honourary member of the Kodály Society of Canada in acknowledgment of her outstanding service to music education in Canada.

Ardelle is a strong advocate of the role music plays in all facets of life, specifically in education, and has shown her dedication to the craft both through her work at University of Alberta Augustana Campus and through her commitment outside of the college.

“I am so honoured to have been recognized by the Kodály Society of Canada and am deeply grateful to my teachers, colleagues, choristers, students, family, and friends who have helped me along my lifelong pedagogical journey over the last 36 years,” remarked Ardelle.

Jody Stark, assistant professor of music education at the University of Manitoba and current president of the Kodály Society of Canada, conferred this honour upon professor Ries at the Kodály Society annual general meeting last summer.

“From time to time, our association honours someone who has made a marked impact in the Canadian Kodály community. It is my great privilege today to confer an honourary membership on our beloved professor Ardelle Ries,” said Stark.

Ries studied conducting at the University of Alberta, where she completed her Doctor of Music degree and holds an advanced musicianship diploma from the Zoltán Kodály Pedagogical Institute in Kecskemét, Hungary, where she has also served as a faculty member. While in Hungary, Ardelle also taught at the Kodály Conservatory.

The Kodály Society of Canada is a vibrant national service organization that has provided professional learning support for music educators across Canada for nearly 50 years.

“Ever since I began teaching, I have been deeply influenced and inspired by the philosophies of Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist and music educator, Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967),” said Ardelle.

“His philosophy that all people have musical ability, music education should be universal and begin at

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a young age and that all music education should be based on singing, speaks to the depths of my soul.”

Along with her roles as professor and music director at Augustana, she is also the Augustana choral conductor, president of the Alberta Choral Association, advisor to the Alberta Kodály Association and a director of the Kodály Society of Canada.

“Committed to Kodály’s ideas, my career has been dedicated to music education, music advocacy, and the development of professional learning opportunities for others.”

In 2017, Ardelle chaired the International Kodály Symposium on behalf of the Kodály Society of Canada and the Alberta Kodály Association. The Symposium brought a world of music to the residents of Camrose and area and was so successful that it was able to infuse funds into both the Alberta Kodály Association and Kodály Society of Canada.

Continued on page 14

New local book launches Alberta series

By Murray Green

The Battle River Writing Centre has released Arts that Flow as Stories from Our Landscape: Alberta that includes many local artists.

This is the first book in a three-part series. It features Alberta artists who submitted paintings, and then authors described or wrote about what was in the rendering as stories and poems. Jane Ross of Camrose County was the editor and leader of the project.

“Back in 2015, Darryl Bereziuk from Alberta Archeology Survey asked if members of the Battle River Writing Centre would consider writing responses to the visual artworks commissioned by the Alberta Heritage Art Series. After considerable thought, the writers agreed to take the project on,” said Jane. “This book is like a reflection of writing meditation. Each writer seemed to have an intuitive connection to a specific art piece.”

The result is a beautiful hardcover book that is an anthology of Alberta artists and Battle River writers. The book is a project of Battle River Writing Centre and the Association for Life-Wide Living (ALL) of Alberta, in cooperation with Alberta Culture, Archeology Government of Alberta Survey and the Government of Alberta, Historic Resources Management Branch Alberta Culture and Tourism.

“I was very honoured to have my work included in this beautiful book. My work is based on the Fort McMurray and Slave Lake fires. The idea that fire can be constructive and serve a purpose was my idea and a part of Native history,” said Cathie Bartlett, a writer featured in the book. She wrote Cultural Burning after the wild fires of Alberta. “I researched the use of fire in Aboriginal history and then it was easier for me to write.”

Each participating writer chose a poster showing a work of art, researched the subject and wrote a poem or piece of prose or, in one case, a song, conveying his or her response to the artwork.

“For me, it was the first collaboration I have done. I put a poem to a painting and I had a hard time figuring out what to do at first, but in the end, I was very happy with the way it turned out. It makes you feel that what you are doing has some value,” said Battle River writer Lenard Calon of Heisler, who wrote Sun’s Up. “We were very fortunate to write about artwork that was very good.”

The artwork topics include Lives on Pots (ancient pottery), Writing on Stone (preserving the past), Mazama Falls (volcanic eruptions), Trapper’s Cabin (early building), and Cultural Burning (Alberta on fire).

Quotations from earlier and contemporary writers are interspersed throughout the anthology on richly coloured pages.

“I’m new in the creative writing world, and as I wrote my response, I found out it was a poem, which was my first forte into writing poetry. It was a big surprise for me that it was actually published. It was humbling that you can work with a group of people and receive the support you need,” said fellow Battle River writer Janet Enns, who wrote Ice Fishing. “When I saw the picture, it really grabbed me. The picture spoke to me and was about fishing up north. I just started writing to reflect what I saw in my life, looking through a ice fishing hole.”

The exercise in writing about someone else’s vision created a whole new second vision or view.

“The painting artists were commissioned back in 2012 during a water ceremony. In 2015, Jane was contacted to write a response to the pictures that were painted. Then the painters and writers were joined by submitting them for the book,” added Janet.

The book features 18 pairs of artists and authors. Although the artists are from across Alberta, the majority of writers are from the Battle River Writing Centre.

Other local writers include Vivianne Tremblay Grue of Camrose, Diana Zinter of Halkirk/Gadsby, Jane and Jack Ross of Camrose County, Niel Parker of Camrose, Lori Feldberg of Wetaskiwin, Russell Schnell of Castor, Colleen McGinnis of Wetaskiwin, Rosemary Griebel of Castor, Isabel Didriksen of Gwynne and Irene Hewitt, former of Camrose.

To order a copy of the book, email source21@telus.net or phone 780-781-2487.

FLOWING ARTS

Murray Green, Camrose Booster

Battle River Writing Centre writers Lenard Calon, left, Cathie Bartlett and Janet Enns show the newly completed book Arts that Flow as Stories from Our Landscape: Alberta to which each of them contributed. The book is the first of a three-part series.

Ries recognized with honourary membership

Continued from Page 13

Ries has also served on the board of the International Kodály Society, and has taught the musicianship and conducting components of Kodály teacher education programs at Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta, a program that she helped to start. Ardelle has been an inspiring role model of Kodály philosophy and pedagogy for students and colleagues across the country.

Ardelle has been the recipient of numerous awards for her dedication to music education in the province of Alberta. She has been recognized by Choir Alberta, the Alberta Kodály Association, the U of A Augustana Campus Faculty, the Alberta Council of Disability Services, the Association for LifeWide Living of Alberta and the Camrose Association for Community Living.

“One of my favourite quotes of Zoltán Kodály reads (and this quote is deeply meaningful now in the age of COVID-19), ‘While singing in itself is good, the real reward comes to those who sing, who feel, and think with others. This is what harmony means. We must look forward to the time when all people in all lands are brought together through singing and when there is universal harmony.’”

Ardelle offers her passion for music to the entire community of Camrose and area, as well as through initiatives such as the SingAble Choir.

But it is Ardelle’s pure joy for all things music that endears her with not only her students and colleagues, but so many people in the community who have benefitted from her effort to share the gift of music.

Ardelle Ries