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Michelle Bruce: medal for music

Meritorious Service
bruce
Michelle Bruce receives her medal from David Johnston, Governor General of Canada.

On June 23, Sunshine Coast musician Michelle Bruce was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal by His Excellency, the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, in a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. 

The description of her achievement in the official program reads: “A champion of traditional Celtic music and of modern Canadian composers, Michelle Bruce is a dynamic force on the West Coast music scene. Through the Coast String Fiddlers and the Sunshine Coast Community Orchestra, as well as through many smaller ensembles, she has shared the joy of music with West Coast performers young and old for over 20 years.”

Bruce is thrilled with this recognition. “I have to thank my family and the community – this community really supports the arts,” she told Coast Reporter.

And there is one more person to thank for the nomination. In 2003 the late Eve Smart of Gibsons recommended Bruce for the Order of Canada. Smart is best known these days as the benefactress of the Gibsons Public Art Gallery, though she also played violin in the Community Orchestra. She knew how much Bruce had contributed in the 1990s towards the founding of the orchestra (along with Tom Kershaw) and to the founding and development of the Coast String Fiddlers. Letters went back and forth to Ottawa regarding the application, but nothing was confirmed. Smart persevered in acquiring references and support from others in the musical community to the point that an official dossier was begun on Bruce, recommending an alternate honour, the Meritorious Service Medal for civilians.

But by that time it was 2004 and Bruce was nowhere to be found; she had moved to Quesnel unaware of the nomination. She returned to the Coast in 2010, but did not find out about the award correspondence until after Smart had passed away. Finally, through a serendipitous connection between the Sunshine Coast Community Foundation and Rideau Hall, Bruce was located and told she had earned her medal. The news came in enough time that Bruce’s entire musical family – husband, adult children and mother – all travelled to Ottawa for the ceremony.

The Governor General was a very nice man, Bruce said, and found something to say to each of the 36 medal recipients. “I love Fiddler on the Roof – it’s my favourite,” he told her.

The highlight of the event for Bruce was hearing an ensemble called the Orkidstra play at the reception. The group is a musical social development program for children aged five to 18 living in under-served areas of Ottawa, and Bruce discovered that a former Coast student of hers, violist Erin Macdonald, was their teacher.

“They play with such passion, so dynamically,” said Bruce.

Currently Bruce is back with the Coast String Fiddlers – the latest generation – as a teacher, and now that her grandchildren are in the group, her commitment is stronger than ever. She will also be Concert Master for the orchestra when it resumes in the fall. It would have made Eve Smart happy to know that her efforts were not in vain.