The Hugh D. McKellar Fund
Hugh D. McKellar grew up in southwestern Lambton County. He studied piano, and had a lengthy career teaching and working in libraries in Toronto secondary schools. Mr. McKellar had an avid interest in church music and hymns.
Having long planned bequests to the institutions significant in his life, Mr. McKellar saw in the Ontario Arts Foundation an opportunity to act while living, and arranged for a series of awards to begin during his lifetime.
As a way of providing ongoing support to capable young persons, Mr. McKellar established the Hugh D. McKellar Fund to provide financial support to the Lambton County Music Festival as well as St. Michael’s Choir School.
The Hugh D. McKellar Fund provides annual gifts to the next generation of music lovers, and does so in a way very meaningful to Mr. McKellar.
One of the most important features of the rigorous musical training that the St. Michael’s Choir School choristers receive is the experiential educational performance piece that comes with the Annual Spring Tour. The boys and their teachers spend every day for two weeks giving concerts and performances around the province, or the country, or the globe. Sadly, some choristers do not go ‘on tour’ and are left behind because their family finances cannot afford them this important part of their education. The support from the Hugh D. McKellar Fund has allowed some of these talented, dedicated but financially challenged boys to experience the capstone piece of their education where all the classroom learning is consolidated through the Annual Spring Tour.
The Lambton County Music Festival is an independent music festival that brings together talented local school bands, musicians, singers and choirs in south-west Ontario, providing music lovers with two weeks of free musical entertainment. It is the longest-running independently organized music festival in Canada whose objective is to feature the many often-overlooked yet highly skilled musicians who live in the local community in a competitive event. The Hugh D. McKellar Fund provides two annual scholarships to the Lambton County Music Festival for the Flossie M. McKellar Scholarship and the Hugh D. McKellar Scholarship.