Monday, December 18, 2017
I was very saddened to hear of William Canady's passing. Many years ago (1971 I believe) he recorded a production of the WVU Children's Opera program, hauling a lot of equipment to old Eisland Hall. There had been a lot of snow that day, so getting the equipment there on that hillside of a drive must have been a struggle. He gave me a cassette tape and many years later, I realized that it had been actually recorded in stereo. It was very high quality. In 2016, I sent it to the WVU Regional and History Collection with scores and other materials from the late Mark Flint, who wrote the music and score. It's now preserved there in a collection honoring Flint. I included notes about the tape and howt Dr. Canady did this as a favor for Margaret Lorince, director of the children's opera program at WVU. He then made many copies for the young performers at no charge. Years later, I reconnected with Mrs. Canady and recalled the tape. I hope I thanked him enough for what he did. I was only 19 at the time and probably not able to appreciate all the work and effort that went into this recording. Not to mention he made free copies for everyone. I've kept a copy of it, and shared it with some of the performers (who are 50 and 60 somethings today). My thoughts are with Mrs. Canady. She was always kind and gracious to me as well.
