Established in 2026 by an anonymous donor, this endowed fund honours the many special people whose passion and talent have enriched the Kamloops music scene over the years. Annual distributions from the fund provide awards through the Kamloops Festival of the Performing Arts. These awards honour the musicians named below and help their passion for music live on through future generations of performers.

Edna Dewar (1927-2017)

Edna Dewar was the loving wife of Dr. James Dewar, a Kamloops physician.  Both Edna and Jim were key supporters of the Kamloops music community in the 1970s-2000s.  Edna took up the cello when she was in her ‘40s and later played with the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra as well as participating in local chamber groups.

Dulcie Brown (March 12,1919 – March 20, 2008)

Dulcie Brown was born in Caversham, England, but was well-known in the Kamloops musical community from the 1970s until her death.  Dulcie was a cellist, a founding member of the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, and a key player in the then-vibrant chamber music community in Kamloops. 

A gentle, caring person, who trained and worked as a missionary for many years, Dulcie’s bright, ready smile and kindness warmed every room she entered.  Together with her dear friend, Barbara Pacey, they brightened up not only many musical evenings, but also the lives of street workers, to whom they brought cookies, comfort, and love.

Barbara Pacey

Barbara Pacey was a violinist who came to Kamloops in the 1970s.  Together with her good friend, cellist, Dulcie Brown, she was a familiar face in the Kamloops chamber music scene and a founding member of the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra. 

Lore Dominik (1928-2015)

Lore was born in her beloved home town of Rummelsburg, Pomerania, Germany on December 10, 1928, and spent, as she described it, “a happy, trouble-free childhood, filled with a love of nature, books, art, and especially a great love of music.” In post-war Berlin, Lore enjoyed the rich cultural life around her while employed in such diverse trades as carriage building, hand weaving and secretarial work. Her passion for learning, which she maintained throughout her life, found an outlet in night school, where she completed her interrupted education and where she met her future husband, Reinhold, whom she married in 1954. In 1956 she and Reinhold emigrated to Canada, finally settling in Kamloops. Lore was a great music lover and music maker. As a girl she played the accordion and the recorder. Later in Berlin she studied piano and sang in choirs. In Kamloops she sang with the Bel Canto choir. In the late 1960s she took up the cello, joining the dedicated contingent of Kamloops musicians who commuted bi-weekly to the Okanagan to play with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra. She was a founding member of the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, with which she played for many years.

Victoria Sebastian Kereluk

Victoria Sebastian Kereluk was the catalyst for reviving live music in Kamloops in the 1960’s and ’70s.

She moved to Kamloops and began teaching violin, as well as inspiring adult learners like Lore Dominik, Edna Dewar, and Maureen Merzisen to take up instruments in their 40’s, thus launching a rich local chamber music community that endured for several decades. Through her contacts with the Purcell String Quartet in Vancouver, she initiated a summer strings workshop that later grew into today’s KISSM (Kamloops Interior Summer School of Music).

Vicci had an accomplished musical career as a violinist and soloist and as a teacher of violin, piano and theory. Beginning at the very early age of four, and encouraged by her parents, she studied with Leonard Danyluk of Transcona and then at the Bornoff School of Music in Winnipeg, where she was awarded a scholarship.

Later, as a professional, she joined the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra at its inception. She also played with the Winnipeg Chamber Music Club and the Winnipeg CBC Orchestra. Upon winning two scholarships in 1950, she moved to Chicago to study at the Chicago Musical College under Hans Basserman.

After marrying Bill Kereluk while in Chicago, they made many moves following both of their career paths—to Seattle, Vancouver, Slocan, Lumby, Kamloops, Calgary and then Victoria, where she last taught at the Craigdarroch Castle Conservatory.

She proudly instructed violin master classes at the Banff School of Fine Arts and participated in workshops at the Okanagan Summer School of the Arts during summers while living in the Interior of B.C. During this time, she was concertmistress of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra. She also formed the Baroque string ensemble The Chaconne Strings, the Kamloops Youth Orchestra and the Okanagan Symphony Trio.

In later years, she moved to Calgary, where she was concertmaster of both the Calgary Civic Symphony and the Concert Arts Ensemble and served on the faculty of the Mount Royal College Conservatory of Music. In Victoria, in addition to teaching at Craigdarroch Castle, she played with the Victoria Symphony, founded the Re-Starters for older adults and was involved with the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra.

Arthur Lewis (1926 – 2014)

Art Lewis taught band at McArthur Park Junior Secondary in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. He was also the founding conductor of the Bel Canto Choir and a prolific composer. Known for his wry sense of humour, he was a familiar figure at concerts, both as a performer and as a supportive audience member.