This award was announced at the 2025 Annual General Meeting of the Ontario Music Festivals Association. This is the citation presented at the time of the award.

Today, I have the pleasure of submitting Donald Clark’s name as a candidate for the 2025 Ontario Music Festivals Association Volunteer of the Year Award.

Donald Clark has been involved with the Kiwanis Music Festival in London since he was a child through singing, trumpet playing, teaching, conducting and more recently volunteering. Don was raised in a musical household and early on became a brass musician playing trumpet in the London Youth Orchestra and the A.B. Lucas Secondary School Concert Band. He regularly played in the Kiwanis Music Festival of London in the school band as well as entering as a solo musician. Don followed in the footsteps of his father and elder brother earning a BMus. at Western University and a BEd. at Althouse College. Following graduation, he taught music at several London elementary schools and then moved to several secondary school music departments and served as the Music Department Head at A.B. Lucas Secondary School for 19 years. Don conducted the intermediate and senior concert bands, performing four concerts per year. He took bands to national and international competitions in Montreal, Ottawa and Chicago, as well as other locations in North America. In addition to the band concerts, he directed several school musicals at A.B. Lucas SS. His bands were regular award winning participants in the Kiwanis Music Festival of London.

Don was nominated for the Award of Distinction from the Thames Valley District School Board which celebrates the outstanding contributions of teachers based upon the Board’s Vision, Mission, and Values. Don was also awarded the Bishop Townshend Award for Teachers supported jointly by the Anglican Diocese of Huron, the Thames Valley District School Board and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. The criteria for selection of the recipient of the Townshend Award are derived from Bishop Townshend’s philosophy of education. He believed that students must receive education in intellectual, physical, spiritual and social realms if they are to live a more abundant life. The educator who helps the student develop in such a rounded fashion would also demonstrate excellence in the areas of physical, social, intellectual and spiritual development.

Don has also been an active musician in the community with the London Concert Band and the Elmwood Avenue Presbyterian Church Choir. He has played in several brass quintets. He conducted the jazz band “Swing Shift”. For many years he conducted the “Broadway with a Twist” music review, the annual public concert to raise money for “Arts for All Kids”, a free music education program operating in London since 1988 under the umbrella of the London and Area Food Bank. 

On September 1, 2010 Don joined the Board of Directors of the Kiwanis Music Festival of London Inc. taking the lead in hiring adjudicators. He has selected a highly qualified panel of adjudicators. Local music teachers highly value the quality of the adjudicators’ comments that lead to significant improvement in their student’s performances. The Board often hears comments from the adjudicators about what a pleasure it is to participate in the London Festival because everything works so well. Don is very hands on and supportive of adjudicators meeting every one personally and remaining a telephone call away for any concerns that they might have. Over the years he has met many adjudicators at the airport or train station at all hours and driven them to their hotel. Don always prepares and mails a package of information to each adjudicator containing their timetable, program and necessary rules and scholarship instructions. He guides them with the Provincial Finals recommendation forms. The adjudicators are very pleased with the accommodation provided for them during their stay in London. Don is very fiscally responsible in his hiring of adjudicators as their fees and per diems are one of the largest expenses for the festival.

In addition to his work with the adjudicators, Don has been very active in music selection and scheduling for bands, jazz bands, choirs, orchestras, brass and woodwinds while on the Board and also prior to joining the Board. He has served as a Hall Manager during the festival and even filled in as a band adjudicator at times when an adjudicator had an unexpected emergency problem. He also volunteered from his home during Covid doing scheduling tasks on Google Drive and matching entrants with their videos and music, so all could be emailed to adjudicators for adjudication.

There is no doubt that Don Clark will continue to nurture musicians in his home; his father, Alex Clark, was a highly regarded Music Consultant for the Elgin County School Board and a church organist. His brother, Scott Clark, was also a highly regarded school music teacher in London. Lorraine Clark, Don’s wife, is a church organist. His daughter, Katy Clark, DMA, is a professional musician, a soprano member of the Elora Singers and a university and college level voice teacher. Last year he became a very proud grandfather to a granddaughter.

For many reasons, I am pleased and proud to put forward the nomination of Donald Clark as a winner of the 2025 OMFA Volunteer of the Year Award.

The award was unanimously approved by all music festival representatives present.

Charlotte Cleland
Kiwanis Music Festival of London