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Violet Grant States, Jan. 7, 1923 - Jan. 4, 2022
A Verduner born and raised, Violet Grant States was a trailblazer who led a life of service despite the racism of the time. Violet studied piano as a child and hoped to become a music teacher, winning admittance to McGill's Macdonald College.
Her path was blocked by the college dean who asserted that parents would not allow their children to study under a woman of colour. She withdrew from the college but soon won a scholarship to the Conservatoire de musique. She graduated and began teaching music!
In 1940, she attended a recital on Mount Royal by the Montreal Women's Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of conductor Ethel Stark. Young Violet was determined to join the orchestra. Curveball, the MWSO already had a pianist. So Violet took up the clarinet.
She joined the orchestra in 1943 at the age of 20. The MWSO was the first professional Canadian ensemble to play Carnegie Hall and Violet Grant had the distinction of being the first woman of colour to perform in a Canadian symphony. She remained a member until 1965.
That experience was transformative for Violet, giving her confidence to pursue her educational goals. She earned degrees in Arts and Education at a by then more enlightened McGill University in 1968, becoming a public school educator.
Which brings us back to Verdun. Violet taught music in English schools for many years. Remarkably, she also helped Verdun Elementary kids open their first bank accounts, imparting early lessons on saving and money management to hundreds of children.
Though she attended Union United Church, was married there to Roy States in 1958 and played organ and led the church choir for several years, Violet became a Bahá'i in 1961 and remained an active member of that faith community.
Violet Grant States was named a Grande Verdunoise and a Bâtisseuse de la Cité in 2017, in recognition of her life's work. though she was by then too frail to take part in the event. She died at the beginning of 2022, just a few days shy of her 99th birthday.
She was by all accounts an exceptional woman, one not discouraged by those who said "No." She touched thousands, whether by teaching music, leading choir, helping kids save their pennies or by being the lone Black role model in a classroom or orchestra seat.
I hope that one day Montreal honours her by naming a street after this Grande Verdunoise and Bâtisseuse de le Cité, Violet Grant States.
- Mary Lamey
Epilogue:
In the fall of 2019, a digital exhibit celebrating the historic Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra was installed in a public space at Place des Arts. Mrs. States, in a wheelchair, was able to visit and see the projected images of herself and the other orchestra members while hearing some of the pieces they played back in the 40s.
The story of the orchestra is told in a 2015 book titled From Kitchen to Carnegie Hall, by Maria Noriega Rashwal.
The Winter Hymn Project, Week 2
And is it ever winter! From snow storms to frigid days when the cold enters every fibre of our beings. It is achingly beautiful, the play of the moonlight on the clear palette of snow at dawn, to the sounds of trees yawning and cracking in the forest…
This week’s hymns come to us from our community of friends both close by and far away.
Dorothy Brown: MV 169 When Hands Reach Out Beyond Divides
Ronee and I always liked this one, both for the music and the words.
*Ronee was a church member, then a choir member too, sitting next to Dorothy as part of the all-female tenor section! She moved to Ottawa a year and a half ago – stripped of a proper send-off by Covid, though I still have plans to get her back for a Sunday this spring.
Linda Young: VU 664 What a Friend We Have in Jesus
We joined Southwest United on Woodland first in 1993 when we moved from Montreal East. Have always been associated with a United Church.
Our grandchildren were baptized at the Church on Woodland.
The Church has always been a center of my life. It represents Peace, Love among family and community. Thank you for using my song. It means a lot to me.
Sandra Thompson: MV 215 Peace Be With You
I would love for you to include this hymn that I love from the old Voices United, ‘I the Lord of Sea and Sky’ please, and if possible, my other favourite ‘Peace be with you, peace forever.’ Thank you ------- and to the congregation for not forgetting about me and especially keeping me in prayer. Miss all of you!
*I promised Sandra that we’d sing I the Lord of Sea and Sky again soon, but since we sang it last Sunday, we’d wait a few weeks!
Beryl and Angie Barraclough: VU 352 I Danced in the Morning
Some of my Mom's greatest stories were about dancing during the Blitz when the bombs were falling. She and her friends would all head to the Palace to dance. In honor of that memory, you played it at her funeral in February 2010. I'm sure she would have loved it.
The Winter Hymn Project: Week 1
The call went out for favourite hymns with a few words attached and we have our hymns for January 16!
Doug Hastie: VU 585 Jesus Bids Us Shine
One of my favourite hymns is “Jesus bids us shine.” I remember first singing it when I was 4 or 5 years old in the beginners’ department of Sunday School in the basement of the old First Presbyterian Church at 501 5th Ave. I say old because this was before the extension and new church was built. That hymn has been one of my favourites ever since. The hymn had actions to go with the singing but I have long forgotten them. Mabel Paul was the superintendent, Evelyn Gray was the pianist and Betty Shearer was my teacher.
Aline Sorel & Steve Scales: MV 157 I Am a Child of God
(Aline) We sang this together often, in happy times but in sad times too. I don’t know if it had a deeper meaning for us, it was that we sang it together. That’s what makes it such a memory for me.
Linda Dixon: VU 69 Away in a Manger
For me, this is what Christmas is all about. It just makes me feel good. I’ve loved it ever since I was a little girl in Sunday School at Chalmers United.
Bob Dixon: VU 509 I, the Lord of Sea and Sky
(Linda) This was sung at the service when Bob was licensed as a Lay Leader nearly 20 years ago. That meant so much to him. The hymn was new to us, and I remember Bob telling me before the service, “Wait till you hear this hymn, you’re going to love it”! I did, and it became one of Bob’s favourites.
Winter Playlist I
A hearty soup is simmering on the stove, the chores are done, and a light snow is falling to a steady soft rhythm outside…and my mind is turned to the first edition of our music for a winter’s journey. As I wrote in last week’s newsletter, I’d like to offer a weekly playlist of music, an eclectic mix for our eclectic times.
Playing, as I write…
Franz Schubert – Winterreise* (1827)
Literally, ‘Winter Journey,’ this is a collection of 24 songs written when Schubert was thirty years old and just a year before he died. He composed his song cycle to the poems written by Wilhelm Muller and published just a few years before. This early recording is a classic: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s voice is sublime, and Gerald Moore’s sensitive piano playing fits him like a soft, understanding glove. The whole cycle lasts for over an hour, so dip in and out as you wish, or simply gaze out the window as the snow falls gently to the ground and let your thoughts wander as they wish…
Titles of the poems are below.
Arvo Pärt – Spiegel im Spiegel Mirrors in the mirror (1978)
Some people love Pärt’s often dark, always introspective music, and others are not so fond. I am definitely of the former. Pärt is from Estonia and still composing. For cello and piano.
Just close your eyes…
Antonio Vivaldi – Winter (1720)
From The Four Seasons, the fourth of Vivaldi’s eternally popular collection of four concertos for solo violin and chamber orchestra. If Pärt is a very minimalist composer, Vivaldi is most definitely not. Enjoy!
Have a fine week, everyone, and till next week.
Sarah
Schubert - Winterreise
1. Good Night
2. The Weathervane
3. Frozen Tears
4. Frozen
5. The Linden Tree
6. Flood
7. On The Stream
8. Backward Glance
9. Will o’ the Wisp
10. Rest
11. Dream of Spring
12. Loneliness
13. The Post
14. The Gray Head
15. The Crow
16. The Last Hope
17. In the Village
18. The Stormy Morning
19. Deception
20. The Signpost
21. The Inn
22. Have Courage
23. The Sun Dogs
24. The Hurdy-Gurdy Man
Raise Your Voice! The winter hymn project
Yes, we’re home again, so it’s time to be a little creative…
Music project #1
I’m inviting ALL present and past parishioners or anyone connected in any way to SouthWest to send me your favourite hymn and at least one sentence explaining why. All hymns, carols, psalms from Voices United or More Voices are candidates. And if you have another suggestion not included in either of those books, I’ll do my absolute best to find it.
I’ll do a little research about each one, and together we’re going to choose our Sunday hymns.
Linda Dixon! I know you read the newsletter, and SouthWest wouldn’t be SouthWest without you and Bob, so I’m expecting to hear from you!
SouthWest regulars (me included): it’s time to reach out to people we haven’t heard from in a while, and please! Hymns are the pretext!
The service for this Sunday is in the can (so to speak) so this will get rolling for the week after, January 16. And it will roll right on back into ‘in-person worship,’ whenever that may be.
Music project #2
I’m going to get back to something I did for Holy Week during the first lockdown, and that is to put together a music playlist with added commentary. Whether this will be part of the newsletter or in a separate email, I’m not yet certain. Next week though, for sure!
Let’s be a community in song. Draw the circle wide!
If music be the food of love, play on…
Sarah
An Intimate "Candlelight"
Come celebrate Christmas with us - in spirit, song and friendship.
You can sit back in your comfortable pew and enjoy the beautiful voices of some of our favourite soloists singing some of our favourite music…as you sip your cup of hot chocolate…
We’re calling it “bring your own mug.” You bring your favourite mug to the church and we’ll fill it with tea or hot chocolate before you get settled in for the service.
And when the lights dim just enough to make the candles in the church cast a warmer glow, the story-teller in our midst will rise to read us a story, a favourite story written by one of the greatest writers we have known.
I’m looking forward to that very, very much.
Come with a photograph if you’d like; we’ll have a table ready for photographs of those we’ll be missing for Christmas, friends and family who have passed, or who are just too far away to be with us at this time.
And - there will be a table with decoration fixings for children to make Christmas ornaments. Perhaps to hang in the Christmas tree outside? We’ll be turning the lights on outside before the service, with the possibility of stopping to warm your hands as you enjoy the sight.
Join us, please do.
Love, peace, harmony and goodwill,
by candlelight.
Sarah
Candlelight/ Chantons Noel, Sunday December 19th at 4pm at SouthWest United Church.
Congratulations, Jenna!
Jenna Dennison is the new official bagpiper at Ogilvy’s.
When the venerable Ste-Catherine Street retailer was bought up by Holt-Renfrew in 2017, the traditional noon-time piper was dropped in favour of a more “contemporary” image. However, it seems that Holt’s may have underestimated the public’s appetite for brogues, bags and blowsticks.
Last week, under a steady rainfall - “proper Scottish weather,” according to Dennison - the tradition returned, with a modern twist. Dennison will be the first female piper Ogilvy’s has ever had, and instead of the dark green tartan associated with Ogilvy, she will be sporting a kilt that showcases the bright pink associated with Holt Renfrew.
The piper will not perform every day, but will be called upon for “special events” at the store. Hopefully this means Jenna will still have time to visit occasionally and play for us at SouthWest.
Read more: CTV news Montreal Gazette
Visit Jenna’s own website here.
Jenna and her ‘pipes were part of our Remembrance service last Sunday, and also joined us for Orange Shirt Day at the end of September.