Music has flowed through all aspects of Catherine Brown’s life.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we sat down with Brown, 71, long-time volunteer and music teacher with the Simcoe County District School Board.
Q: How long have you lived in Collingwood?
A: My whole life. I lived in Edmonton for a couple of years, and Base Borden for a year because my first husband was stationed there. But even then, I drove from Borden to teach in Collingwood.
I was born just outside of Collingwood near Nottawa.
I went to Nottawa Elementary School and Collingwood Collegiate Institute (CCI) in the 1960s.
Then, I went to teacher’s college. Thirteen of us from from CCI applied, and all 13 of us got in. All 13 of us got jobs in Collingwood. That was in 1967. That was the year Cameron Street School was built, so I was a new teacher starting in a brand new school. It was wonderful.
Q: Did you always know you wanted to be a teacher?
A: Yes. Right from the time I was four or five. I played school. I taught Sunday School in Nottawa. I always wanted to teach.
In those days, you were either a teacher, a nurse, or a secretary if you went on for higher education.
I was a teacher for 33 years.
Q: And you were a music teacher?
A: Yes. I started out in a Grade 4 class, teaching my own music in the classroom. The teacher next door heard me doing music with my class and he said, “Would you switch? I’ll do your phys. ed. and you do my music?” So I did, even though I loved phys. ed.
By Christmas, I was doing music for four teachers.
I did that for two years at Cameron. Then I went out west. I followed a boyfriend there and started to teach in Edmonton. I taught French and phys. ed.
For the French, they didn’t even give me a test to see if I could do it. I just said I was from Ontario and I took a French university course. It was a huge step for me to do that.
I married there and my husband was transferred back to Ontario. I had called from Edmonton to Collingwood in 1971. I knew the principal at the old Admiral School.
I called and asked for a job. That’s what you did in those days. He said the music teacher for Grade 8 was leaving at Christmas and asked if I would start in January, which was when we were moving.
I also taught in Duntroon for nine and a half years. I did the whole school for music. I also did work with First Presbyterian Church doing music for teens.
I started my family: my daughter Martha and son James.
Later, I separated from my husband. Then I met my current husband, Jonathan. We married in 1983. We had a daughter, Sarah.
I transferred into Collingwood to work at Connaught Public School. After a while there, other schools also wanted (a music program). So the superintendent at the time (suggested) I do music at all four Collingwood schools. So that’s what I did.
I retired in 2000.
Q: What have you done since then to keep busy?
A: In 1987, the choir director at the church quit. The people in charge came to me and asked me to be the choir director until they could get somebody else.
I ended up the choir director for 23 years. (laughs)
After that, I thought, what am I going to do now? I wanted to use my music in a different way.
When my daughter was 20 and in university, she had her thyroid removed. While she was at that hospital, there was a harpist who would come regularly and play in the halls, just soft music. It was very soothing to my daughter, who is also a musician.
So I thought, what if I could do music at the hospital?
I presented it to the hospital and they said they had never done anything like that before.
So I went online and I found five hospitals in Ontario that were using music therapy, and I presented it to my friend who was the chaplain at the hospital at the time, and he presented it to them.
They said, let’s give it a go.
I’m not a music therapist, but I use music as therapy.
This is my 10th year doing it.
Q: How does it work?
A: I take a bag in with a binder of music, and now I take my iPad, and I work with the chaplain as a regular volunteer and find out who might benefit from me going in to cheer them up or sing to them. Sometimes I just go from room to room and introduce myself.
I don’t assume everybody’s going to want a song, but I rarely have anybody say no.
I ask them what kind of music they like, and I just open my binder and will sing two or three songs to them.
I’ll look at them (to figure out) when they were born, add 20 onto that. I try to figure out what they were dancing to then. In what part of their life would music be the most important? I try to choose songs from that era. I like ’60s music, and ’70s. I do that twice a week.
It’s very rewarding.
Q: What do patients say they get out of it, and what do you get out of it?
A: For some people, they don’t get visitors. It’s surprising how many people don’t get visitors. So, I can be someone who can come in to just spend some time with them.
Music seems to transcend everything. It brings back memories for people. Some will sing along with me. It’s a happy feeling.
The science proves it can keep people calm before a scan or surgery, and it can calm them down after that. It reduces stress. It’s very good for them.
For me, it’s using a gift I have, I think. I don’t cook, sew or clean my house. Somebody else does that. (laughs) It’s a different way to use my music to help people. That gives me great satisfaction.
It’s wonderful when doctors ask me if I can go to a certain room.
When the new hospice opened (Campbell House), somebody there knew me and they asked if I’d be willing to come in to sing to clients there.
I’ve been there since it opened, I go once a week.
I have a keyboard there I can roll into their rooms. I had 13 years of lessons on the piano, so the piano is my instrument.
It’s just so rewarding to spend time with a person in their last days. There have been classical musicians there and we’ve played duets together, even though they weren’t feeling so well.
Q: You were a recipient of the Order of Collingwood. Can you tell me a little bit about that and your volunteer work?
A: I was doing a senior’s choir, called Outreach Singers, and I did that for 18 years.
We got music together and I took them around to nursing homes and sang.
I didn’t need to get (the Order of Collingwood), but it was wonderful. I think the choir too, to know they were part of that.
I also go into people’s private homes to do music with them.
In 2017, my church asked if I would do pastoral care work for 20 hours per week. I looked at all the members we had at different retirement homes that would appreciate a visitor on a regular basis and forming a team to help with visiting. We bring the church to them. I now have 41 people on the team. It’s quite the program. I’m really enjoying it.
Q: What’s your favourite song?
A: It depends on the genre, but I’m going to have James Taylor’s You’ve Got a Friend played at my funeral. It’s in my funeral details.
Our minister sounds just like James Taylor.
The lyrics are, “I’ll be there/You’ve got a friend/Anytime, I’ll be there.”
That’s sort of my philosophy.
Q: What does the future hold for you?
A: I spend a lot of time with my grandchildren, going to hockey games, ball games and band concerts. Two of them are 16, one is 14 and one is 13. This is the time during their teenage years (I want to spend with them), although it’s harder and harder as they get older to get them together.
I love doing workshops to help people get programs started in their churches.
I was one of the initiators of the Street Piano initiative. In 2011 we went to New Zealand, and my husband and I stayed in a little town. When we were walking around the town there was this woman underneath a covered barn playing the piano. Music draws me. She had a funny little hat on and red curly hair. I’ll never forget her. She asked me to play something.
I played my father’s favourite song which was The Tennessee Waltz. After I left, I thought it would be great to have pianos in Collingwood.
In the fall, I was walking in Nottawa, and it was early, about 6 a.m. I came around a corner and there was a big upright piano sitting on the side of the road with a sign on it that said ‘Free.’
I looked around and realized that since it was 6 a.m., I better not play it too loudly because people were still in bed. I put the soft pedal on and started to play.
The next morning I decided to go after 9 a.m. so I could just really play. Jim Kinnear lived just up the street and he happened to drive up the street in his truck while I was playing the piano. We got together for a coffee after and talked about the possibilities. It was sort of my idea and his ingenuity, and we approached the town. It’s been pretty successful. It’s been a hit.
I’m going to keep going and doing something for others for as long as I can. I encourage everybody to find their passion. What is it you love to do?
It helps that person and it helps our town to be a better place too.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every Saturday. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
