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The Dr. Paul E. Tamblyn Music Educator Award is a perpetual endowment within the Sing Canada Harmony Scholarship Fund seeded by the bequest of Ontario barbershopper, the late Dr Paul E. Tamblyn. Tamblynâs lifetime passion for excellence in training for choral and barbershop leaders and directors lives on through his gift and the fund continues to grow as family and friends make additional donations to the endowment in his name.
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The Dr. Paul E. Tamblyn Music Educator Award honours a choral director who has made a significant impact on the development, promotion and improvement of choral directing and performance in Canada.Â
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Anne Downton began singing barbershop in the year 2000, at the age of 13, when she joined Westcoast Harmony Chorus, a Sweet Adelines chorus in Surrey, B.C., alongside her mother. With no singing experience but with boundless enthusiasm to learn, she soaked up everything musical that came her way.
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In 2005 (age 18), she accepted the challenge of joining Westcoastâs directing team and became a co-director. At the Canadian Maple Leaf Region 26 competition in 2010, the chorus, co-directed by Anne and Joey Minshall (now Sweet Adelines Master Music Arranger), achieved a score of over 600, giving Anne the status of Master Director and making her the youngest master director in the Sweet Adelines organization. The next year, 2011, she stepped into the role of Frontline Director and has remained there ever since.
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Anne Downtonâs commitment to the barbershop art form and its continued wide appeal is evident in every part of her musical life. This is especially true of what she has done during the pandemic, beginning immediately in March 2020 when singing together became impossible. Over the past two years, because so many choruses have been struggling, she headed up a Sweet Adelines task force to create a tool for directors to help them plan and lead effective virtual rehearsals. For Westcoast, she led weekly virtual rehearsals when provincial guidelines prohibited meeting in person. During this time, the chorus produced, in house, two virtual performances that garnered wide internet exposure (âO Canadaâ and âGo the Distanceâ). When provincial guidelines were finally relaxed, Anne spearheaded what came to be known in the chorus as Return-to-Live, a meticulously charted return to safe, in-person rehearsing. Anne never backs away from a challenge, never lets an opportunity pass to improve her own skills and those of the singers she is directing or coaching. She deserves the widest recognition for her accomplishments and engagement.
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