UWO - Hooding of Tomson Highway

June 1993

260TH CONVOCATION, The UNIVERSITY of WESTERN ONTARIO
Wednesday, June 9, 1993 

CONFERRING OF THE HONORARY DEGREE
Dr. J. Reaney, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Arts,
will present the citation and request the Chancellor to confer the degree
Doctor of Letter, honoris causa, upon:

TOMSON HIGHWAY
who will be hooded by Professor Emerita D. Bratuz, Faculty of Music

Tomson Highway was one of the most brilliant students in my Piano Literature Class during the 1970s. It delighted me to present him at Convocation with the score of his own finale to the D minor Fantasia by Mozart, which had been one of my Piano Literature assignments, and which I had saved because of its excellence. Tomson was the only one among the students who understood the presence of the dance in the music of Bartók

These Convocation pictures were shown on Večerni Gost/Evening Guest, a prime-time program on Slovenian Television in Ljubljana , where distinguished Slovenians living abroad are interviewed. Aleksander Čolnik conducted the interview in which I described and illustrated with images ‘the life of a music professor and pianist in Canada.’ Čolnik showed a special interest in the accomplishments of former student Tomson Highway, asking for details of his life as a Cree, and of his award winning plays.

After the publication of his book Kiss of the Fur Queen in 1998, during a visit to Western Tomson autographed a copy for Aleksander Čolnik which I was happy to deliver in Ljubljana.