www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday November 24, 2007 - 3 Music adds colour to every day life for Janet Jones By Karen Alton SPECIAL TO OAKVILLE BEAVER T MICHAEL IVANIN / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER FOUNDATIONS: Founding Oakville Symphony Orchestra (OSO) member Janet Jones, who has 40 years of service with the organization, thanks the orchestra and its fans for their support. here is always good news and bad news. Life is often like that. This is not the first time Oakville's Janet Jones has retired from the Board of the Oakville Symphony Orchestra (OSO). When she did so a few years ago, Maestro Roberto de Clara, was so sorry to see her go that he offered to hire her as his personal advisor. "We had such a history together," said de Clara in a telephone interview, "of bouncing ideas around. She is so in tune with the community, she understands people, and she is an amazing facilitator." De Clara says he knew that offering money was not the way to get Jones back, after all she has been a career volunteer in Oakville for 40 years -- with her church and the Red Cross primarily, as well as the OSO -- and the truth is he could not afford to pay her what she was worth, so they settled on the nominal fee of $1 a year. He laughed. Talk about a sweetheart deal. Now, he says, as Jones retires from the board for the second time, he is fully prepared to double his offer. She's that good? Again the chuckle. "The fact is," he says, "You can't put a price on her counsel." But Jones, 72, mother of four and grandmother of 12, has more than the maestro's ear. She is known and revered in the greater orchestral community, as was apparent at a recent OSO concert on the stage of the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts to commemorate its 40th season. Along with three other charter members -- Jean Grieve (cello), Paul Lancaster (oboe), Sandy Bainbridge (French horn) Jones, a violinist, was feted with bouquets of flowers and words of admiration. With the theatre full of patrons Don Pangman, incoming OSO chair, took the opportunity to remind everyone that the orchestra had recently estab- lished an endowment fund under the umbrella of the Community Foundation of Oakville (CFO). Pangman also announced the generous donation of $25,000 by Gordon Jones, Janet's husband, to kick off a new fund to be called the "Janet Jones Young Artist Fund" with proceeds directed to the Young Artist Program in the orchestra. Interviewed in the comfort of her home, Jones was feeling "pleased." "Gordon and I had been talking about this for some time, as my health has not been good. We wanted to do something permanent for the orchestra, something that would go on in perpetuity." She has a special fondness for the Young Artist Program, she said, which was established 11 years ago during her tenure as chair of the OSO board. It provides a bursary of $1,500 to three or four young musicians who then play in the orchestra for a year. They audition for these prestigious opportunities. "That's how I learned," she explained. "When I was a teen in Ottawa I was invited by my teacher to play in a small, adult amateur orchestra called the Ottawa Chamber Players." The Ottawa Chamber Players was largely composed of senior civil servants, she said, and some diplomats. She still has a vivid memory of former prominent Liberal cabinet minister in the 1960s and '70s Mitchell Sharp who played the violin. As she recalled, the cellist in the ensemble was the wife of the British High Commissioner and the first rehearsal Jones attended was at her home. "I turned up at the door with my cheap little violin in a cardboard case," Jones said, "and got seated next to Mr. Sharp. I didn't know the rules at that young age and every time I failed to turn the music quickly enough he would scowl at me." See OSO page 4 · Wood & Vinyl Shutters, Supplied & Installed · High Quality at Affordable Prices · Customer Satisfaction Guaranteed · Serving Oakville with Shop at Home Service Authorized Vinylbilt Dealer www.shuttersetc.ca Shop at Home Service FREE