Jacquie Dancyger Arnold began her piano studies in Toronto when she was 4. She was introduced to the piano by her father, who soon realized she needed a teacher. She eventually received a scholarship to study with the renowned teacher Mona Bates. Jacquie gave her first solo recital at the age of 7 and began teaching at the age of 11. She received over 50 awards and medals and four scholarships by the time she was 16. After receiving her ARCT, Jacquie decided to start a career as a high-school music teacher at George S. Henry Academy in North York. There she taught and conducted numerous chamber groups, symphony orchestras and choirs. In 1999, she retired as the Head of Music. Jacquie is well known to the Orillia area as both soloist and teacher. She has been a part of a number of musical groups over the past 16 years. Memorable performances include Rhapsody in Blue with both the Orillia Wind Ensemble and the Huronia Symphony, numerous performances with the Stan Passfield Quintet and a two-piano concert with Doreen Uren Simmons. Jacquie was also accompanied by the Orillia Silver Band in a performance of Liszt’s Hungarian Fantasie and the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto. Jacquie lives in Orillia where she teaches piano and theory privately and, along with her husband Ross Arnold, plays percussion in the Orillia Wind Ensemble.

Blair Bailey, our MC for today’s concert, is well known to Orillia and area audiences as a concert performer and music educator. Since returning  to his home town of Orillia after attaining his Bachelor of Music and Masters of Music degrees from the Universi- ty of Toronto, Blair has been the organist and choir director here at St. Paul’s United Church since 1984. He has been the principal accompanist of the Cellar Singers from 1985 to 2020 and often appeared with them and many other vocal and instrumental ensembles performing on the piano, pipe organ and harpsichord in concerts throughout Simcoe County and Muskoka.

Gail Spencer is a retired English teacher who winters in Bracebridge and summers on Lake Temagami. She was born and grew up in Orillia, where she learned to play flute in what was, in the 1960s, a very recently introduced instrumental music option. This has been a huge gift throughout her life. In 2008, her partner Harold Keevil gave her an alto flute. Shortly afterwards, she and her mother attended a Proms concert by the Orillia Wind Ensemble and, with Harold’s encouragement and the opportunity to play the flute made real by the band, a whole new world opened up. It has been a very steep learning curve, she says, and all those dusty notes on the page have been a challenge, but it’s never too late.