It’s gotta be sweet music for one dean to start the year by.
Don Wright Faculty of Music dean Betty Anne Younker was recently named London Music Scene Personality of the Year for 2013, according to James Reaney, London Free Press entertainment columnist and reporter. Reaney cited Younker’s work on the Western’s new music building and her personal efforts connecting campus and community as reasons for honouring her.
Reaney wrote of Younker, in part,:
… Younker has made embracing London a part of her Wright ethos. She’s helming a $25-million tune-up of the faculty’s Talbot College and music building. The project will transform the 1972-era music building to meet current codes and other requirements. Faculty fundraising is covering about $5 million of the cost, with Western paying for the rest.
Younker, along with former deans Robert Wood and Jeffrey Stokes and London architect John Nicholson of Nicholson Sheffield Architects, worked on the project’s design and consulted widely.
Younker’s personal touch has had her host a gathering for London choral conductors, which had longtime allies in the community feasting as one for perhaps the first time. …
Younker joins a list of previous London music personalities of the year including Alain Trudel, Orchestra London music director and Western Music faculty professor; Caribou, a 2011 Juno winner; Lara St. John, violinist; Shad, rap artist; and singer-songwriter Meaghan Smith.