T
wo mainstays of the Salmon Arm music scene were given much-deserved recognition on the weekend.
Tom Brighouse and Jim Johnston received awards from the BC Choral Federation – Brighouse the Herbert Kent Award for long-term participation in choirs and choral singing, and Johnston, the Joyce O. Maguire Award for outstanding, long-term service as a choral accompanist.
The two were nominated by Stephen Plant, current BCCF North Okanagan rep, who in a letter of nomination described Brighouse as Salmon Arm’s Mr. Music for more than 50 years.
“Known for his quick wit and his unflappable cool, Tom is also admired for his infectious passion for music-making, which has touched many lives in the community,” wrote Plant.
With his usual wit, Brighouse describes his musical roots in Lancashire, England where a red-haired lady taught him piano for two years until she died.
The village postmaster, a Welshman with very large hands, took over for another couple of years.
“When I was about 10, my parents were the only members of the local church choir,” he says. “My sisters pumped the organ, while I played, until I was about 13.”
Brighouse played a string bass at University of Liverpool, sang, met his wife Elsie, graduated and came to Canada in 1956.
A most disagreeable surprise upon arrival was that nobody in Salmon Arm seemed to sing, says the man who became a much-loved educator.
“The first sing-along we had was around his dad’s piano,” says Brighouse of his longtime acquaintance with fellow honoree Johnston and his parents. “Clara invited us over to the house and we sang around the piano.”
Shocked by the lack of community song, Brighouse asked South Canoe School students, who had sung in the past year.
“One kid put up his hands and said ‘I did,’” he says. “When I asked him where, he said ‘at your cottage, around a campfire.’”
Brighouse’s community song-building began with a school group dubbed Culture Block, for students who did not want to play in the band.
“We had a girls choir and only once a male voice choir. For one whole season, we sang beer-drinking songs… It was a step forward as most boys didn’t want to sing at all,” he says, noting the choir ended when the high school split into a junior and senior high. “I never had auditions, never kicked anyone out. To sing badly is better than listening to your iPod.”
Brighouse continues to thrive in a world of song, He is a member of the The Men’s Chorus, Monashee Chamber Choir, Northern Lights and Shuswap Singers, which he started 50 years ago.
Calling himself “Rent a Bass Incorporated,” Brighouse adds he is sometimes asked to sing at other venues and appeared eight times as an accompanist to students participating in last week’s Shuswap Music Festival.
He lauds the school board’s decision to maintain an excellent music program and notes many of the retired teachers continue to make music in the community.
“All that money spent in schools has flowered into all these groups,” he says, noting his particular appreciation of Johnston’s skill as an arranger and accompanist.
And the admiration is mutual.
“He was instrumental in my first rock ’n’ roll band,” Johnston recalls. “He allowed us to crank out the music.”
While he is indeed well-known for both his years as a School District #83 music teacher and the number of appearances he makes with a variety of musical groups, Johnston is not so well-known for the thing that gives him the most pleasure.
“Probably the most musical satisfaction I get is not so much playing, it’s arranging, writing out the music for other people to play,” he says. “You adapt the music to suit the group.You hear it and you’re happy with it and you can say, ‘there, that worked.’”
Johnston’s engagement in music, he says, began with the piano and was the result of a decision made for him by his parents when he was five or six years old.
“I think my dad might have had more to do with it, he would probably have been a good musician if he had the chance,” says Johnston.
Johnston earned his Grade 10 from the Royal Conservatory of Music, at which time he enrolled in UBC’s music program. His teaching career began in Silver Creek in 1980, was followed less than a year later by a 10-year stint at SAS, and culminated in a very happy 17 years with junior high students.
“Junior kids are discovering what they’re capable of and it’s exciting to be a part of that,” he says, describing himself as being typical of a music teacher, playing on the side. “I like collecting money for something I like to do, although volunteer things are important too, and I think I’ve done my share of them over the years.”
Johnston says he plays with such a variety of groups and for different functions that he rarely plays just for himself.
“If I play it’s to learn it,” he says. “It’s my responsibility to be able to play this piece to hold up my end of the bargain. There’s great satisfaction and enjoyment in doing that – like taking on any challenge.”
As well as complying with numerous accompaniment requests, Johnston plays with the Serious Dogs, a Kamloops bar band, and plays with and makes arrangements for Vernon’s Mark Rose Big Band, Dixie North, the Shuswap String Orchestra, and the Roberts Johnston Quartet.
“I’m happily busy,” he says, remembering Saturday night’s award presentation when the list of his music involvement was read out.
“I thought, ‘of course, that’s what a musician would do, you would play with as many groups as you could, and as much different music as you could.’”
From Mozart, to rock ’n’ roll, to jazz and country, Johnston loves to play it all – as long as it sounds authentic.