As tears trickled down Joanna Drummond’s face, the audience in the Arden Theatre strained to hear her words.
The Sidney, B.C. transplant, a long-time potter of St. Albert’s arts community, had just picked up the Lifetime Achievement Award during the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts Gala this past Friday.
“I’m just so moved. I’m just so choked,” she said wiping tears away with a shaky hand. “I’m really so touched. I’m just blown away. I love St. Albert so much. It’s all about excellence. And you don’t realize what it all means until you leave it.”
Although Drummond was the most emotional recipient, City of St. Albert pottery instructor Diane Gwilliam, who nabbed an award for Excellence in Arts Teaching, appeared stunned as she walked to the podium. The following day she told the Gazette, “I was shaking so hard, I didn’t think I could make to the end of the row. It was so surreal.”
St. Albert Children’s Theatre actor Steven Angove collected the Youth Artist Award and singer/songwriter Robert Mulder won the Emerging Artist Award. Mulder, now a first-year student at Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts, was unable to attend and his father, Philip, accepted the award for him.
In addition to artistic merit, the gala also recognized support for the arts. Visual artist Lewis Lavoie received the Arts Promotion Award and Tim Hortons was recognized for Sustained Support of the Arts.
The effervescent Bridget Ryan as master of ceremonies — actually more of a court jester — kept the two-hour plus event on a light note with witty, unscripted one-liners and personal anecdotes of her tenure with the St. Albert Children’s Theatre.
The night was also studded with St. Albert luminaries as performers — individuals dedicated to striving for distinction. Dancer Andrew Murdock, now based in New York, used his long, supple frame to give a mesmerizing performance of full-body expression in Plume, an excerpt for choreographer Azure Barton’s Busk.
And Tenor Power satirized opera and utterly charmed the audience with their clownish version of Peppino Turco’s Funiculi, Funicula and Gioachino Rossini’s Cat Duet.
The 28-member Mission Hill Brass took the stage by storm displaying their versatility in a range from the spiritual Holy Ground to The Empire Strikes Back: The Imperial March. It was their time to shine, and mostly they did, until conductor Dan Skepple Jr. put in two promotional plugs for the band — something that could have been left for a different showcase.
Perhaps the only disappointment was that jazz drummer Sandro Dominelli along with Mike Lent (bass) and Dave Babcock (saxophone) played only one tune before dashing off for a second gig that night.
For more information visit www.celebratethearts.ca.
