A full house of the musical community, friends and family of Sechelt resident Thomas Gordon Kershaw turned out last Saturday to honour the musician who passed away Nov. 26, 2004. The memorial concert was exactly as Tom would have wanted it, said wife Ann Kershaw of the man who "lived and breathed classical music."
Kershaw was the founding conductor of the S.C. Community Orchestra and resident conductor for many years. He went on to create the Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997 and was music director of the Coast Classics. At the concert, master of ceremonies Allan Crane said the orchestra, some members of which played for the memorial Enigma Variations by Sir Edward Elgar, "must be regarded as Kershaw's best legacy to the Sunshine Coast."
Crane recalled Kershaw's favourite music: Schubert's Impromptu Op. 90, No. 3, which was performed evocatively by Tom Kellough. Soprano Jo Hammond and mezzo-soprano Shelley Dillon sung a selection from Cats as a reminder of the many SPCA fundraising concerts Kershaw organized. "Tom was a perfectionist," said Dillon. "Always drawing the best from the other musicians."
Kershaw did not teach music but he acted as a mentor for other amateur musicians on the Coast. Teenager Neal Andrews played Beethoven's Piano Sonata No 8, known as the Pathetique, with marvellous vibrancy. Crane said Kershaw had always wanted to learn the cello but did not accomplish that feat. At the concert, cellist Nicholas Simons performed another Elgar piece in tribute, the Salut d'Amour. Kershaw was born in England and studied medicine at the University of Sheffield, earning a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. After serving in the R.A.F as a medical officer, he taught in England before emigrating to Canada in 1963. His lifetime love of classical music included years spent on the board of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. Tom and Ann retired to the Sunshine Coast in 1991.
