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Village Squire, 1978-04, Page 47MUSIC Guelph Spring Festival celebrates Johnson's 100th bir thday Say the Festival in these parts and most people will think you mean the Stratford Festival. Some might think you meant the Blyth Summer Festival. But one of the most famous festivals is the annual Guelph Spring Festival. The Festival is sponsored each spring by The Edward Johnson Music Foundation and while all the arts are involved, the biggest part of the festival is devoted to music. That's natural enough considering the man the Festival celebrates. This year is a special year at the Guelph Spring Festival. The Festival this year will celebrate the birth 100 years ago of Edward Johnson. Johnson was born in Guelph on Aug. 22, 1878 the son of the owner of the King Edward Hotel who owned a grain business on the side. His father James Evans Johnson also played clarinet in the Guelph Orchestra with often performed for theatrical attractions that came to town. Edward began singing at church functions as a boy soprano and after his voice changed. continued in the choir as a tenor. He learned to play the flute and joined his father in the orchestra and while at Central Collegiate Institute in Guelph was captain of the football and hockey teams. It .: as .•: hile he was still at school that the first big development toward a future career in music came about. When a soloist for a concert in London became ill he was called in as a replacement. He sang "The Holy City" and "The lost Chord" and so impressed one of the other soloists. a singer from New York. that she urged him to go to New York to try to make a professional career. He went on to enroll at the University of Toronto but then reconsidered and in 1900 moved to New York to take singing lessons, paid for by money earned in spare jobs. It wasn't easy but after gaining a foothold in 1902 as an understudy and through singing for churches (including in Hebrew in a synagogue on Saturdays and in English in a Baptist church on Sundays) he established a reputation for himself. By 1907 he was so well known as a sacred singer that he was hired to sing in Sir Edward Elgar's "The Apostles" which the composer conducted in New York. He knew now that he wanted to be an opera singer, however and that to do that he had Gisel Depkat performs with the Orford String Quartet at the Guelph Spring Festi.al, April 30. togo to Europe to training. To raise enough money he landed a part in a Broadway show and was a hit. He was so determined to study for the opera, however, that he turned down an offer of $800 a week to go with the show when the New York engagement finished and the show went on tour. Instead he joined a tour with the Boston Orchestra of English versions of operas such as Aida and The Flying Dutchman. He sailed for Europe in 1909 and was able. mostly from the money he had made in his hit Broadway show, to study for three years. An Anglo-Saxon name was considered a hinderance for an opera singer in those days so he changed his name to Educardo di Giovanni when he commenced his operatic career in Italy in 1912, He married in Europe and established himself well there. The Chicago Opera Company sought him and in 1919 he joined the company, where he stayed until he joined the famous Metropolitan Opera Company in New York in 1922. His career at the Met could only be termed an outstanding success as he headlined the company year after year. In 1935 he was catapulted into a new role as general manager of the Met after the sudden death of the present manager. He held the position for the next 15 years and saw 1800 performances of 71 different operas. Throughout his long careers abroad, Johnson kept his Canadian citizenship and his interest in his homeland. In 1945 while still at the Met, he became chairman of the board of directors of the Royal Conservat- ory of Music at the University of Toronto and after his retirement in 1950 devoted his energy and enthusiasm to helping organize its opera school. He died on April 20, 1959, fittingly enough after having collapsed while attending the opening of a ballet in Guelph. In its obituary the New York Times said he was a man who "is assured of a place in musical history on both sides of the United States -Canada border. The 1978 Festival will open with a Gala Musical Tribute on April 28 to Mr. Johnson featuring Met tenor Jan Peerce who credits Mr. Johnson with Launching his career. Other musical events at the Festival will be: Schubertiad, evenings featuring the music of Schubert; Douglas Haas on organ and John Tickner on Trumpet; The Chamber Players of Toronto with Gisela Depkat, cello; the premier of the new dramatic opera Psycho Red by Charles Wilson and Eugene Benson; Browning, soprano/Dorsey, oboe/Shannon, piano; P.D.Q. Bach and the London Sinfonia; The Meistersingers; and the Montreal Sym- phony. Theatre goers will be able to see A Party with Comden and Green; The Cabbage - town kids, a new children's play by Pat Patterson and Dodi Robb and Irene Worth performing an evening on Shakespeare. Patrons of dance will be able to see two performances by Les Grand Ballets Canadiens. For full details see Around Town. VILLAGE SQUIRE/APRIL 1978. PG. 45.