In Memoriam

Their artistic voices may be gone but their vision and talent lives on in our community.

Watch: In Memoriam 2019-2023

2023

David Farmer

1933-2023

Performing Arts

Joel MacMeekin

1984-2023

Elizabeth Mitchell

1946-2023

Heritage

Evan Morton

1941-2023

Heritage

Peter C. Newman

1929-2023

Literary

Pere Solmes

1950-2023

Music

Suzanne Pasternak

1951-2023

“Suzanne was a singer, songwriter, performing and recording artist, author, producer, storyteller, lecturer, folklorist, marine historian, writer and documentary filmmaker. She spent over 33 years collecting oral histories in the field, filming and photo documenting her subjects with a focus on eastern Ontario and the various islands in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

Suzanne’s work led her to create historically-based folk operas, musicals, plays, three books, two documentaries and two albums and also has a lecture series.Her best-known folk opera, Minerva, is a dramatic and true cross border story weaving a tale of a young 17-year-old ship’s cook from 1878 whose name was Minerva McCrimmon.

She also wrote a book (plus audio book) about another cross border tale called The Story of the 1917 Halifax Explosion and the Boston Tree. A copy has been donated to every library in Boston by the esteemed A.C. Ratshesky Foundation.”

2022