Ellis' education in music remembered

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

Kings County Register

A former Acadia University dean of music, Vernon A. Ellis of Wolfville, died Nov. 11 in hospital in Kentville.

The native of Port Maitland was a long-time professor who devoted his life to the teaching of music, piano in particular.

Fellow music educator Kaye Pottie paid tribute to Ellis. After graduating from Acadia, he taught in Middleton, she said, where he developed a music program that was the foundation for one of the finest programs in Nova Scotia.

Ellis was one of founders of the Nova Scotia Music Educators’ Association. He was a pioneer in developing music curriculum and providing leadership. While on sabbatical, he went to Hungary and searched out the best teachers using the Kodaly method of teaching music in schools. Then, Pottie said, he convinced Paul Murray to bring two of the finest teachers from Hungary to teach teachers during summer school.

Ellis was a professor of music education at Dalhousie University, then moved to Acadia, where he established a summer study program in the Kodaly method. Students came from all over Canada to participate. The International Kodaly Association later held a symposium in Wolfville and Pottie and Ellis were co-chairs.

As personal friends of Helen Creighton, the pair began to cull her rich collection of traditional folk songs, selecting 90. Their 1992 book, Folksongs of the Maritimes, was the result. “He truly believed that an education in music would give his students a fuller, richer life and they would be better people because of their life filled with music. He actually taught life skills through music,” said Pottie.