Willingdon Church
4812 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby, B.C., 10:00 am Friday, August 1st, 2003.Here is a list of the music numbers played at the funeral.
There was a half hour of music from 9.30 to 10.00 am.
[The order of the tunes may have varied slightly but all were played.]Starting at 9.30 A.M.
Band will perform quiet and appropriate music
Prelude
"Nearer My God to Thee" performed by Band
and Lament by Piper
Reading and Introduction
Scripture and Prayer
"Denton Park" performed by Band
Obituary
Eulogies (Ken's sons and grandson)
"Amazing Grace" Performed by piper, and band
Meditation
"Lost Chord" performed by Band, Soloist, Brian Bolam
Prayer
Postlude
"Deep Harmony" and "Semper Fidelis" performed by Band
with thanks to Judy Bolam and Norm Mullins
Ken conducting "Semper Fidelis", July 27, 1998Photo credit: Marilyn Laird
Ken conducting the Rehearsal - July 13, 2003Photo credit: Doug Johnson
SOTVEDT _ Kenneth Henry Adair. Born April 28, 1937 in Wells, B.C., passed away peacefully July 28, 2003, surrounded by family. Survived by wife Karen, mother Anne, step-daughter Heather (at home), sons David, Christopher and Kevin (Anne) and their mother Wendy, brother Jim, grandchildren Thomas, Katharyn, Taryn and Kyle, 8 step-sons and 12 ++ step-grandchildren.Ken was a life-long educator, graduate of U.B.C. and Western Washington University, and devoted 38 years as a teacher and principal mainly to the Delta School District. Along with his dedication to family and career, his guiding passion was music.
Ken joined the Kitsilano Boys Band when he was 13 years old, and a few days before his passing conducted the band at their 75th anniversary concert. Ken was also conductor of the Vancouver Firefighters Band for more than 30 years, and was a well-known figure in the Lower Mainland band scene.
His other abiding passions were antique cars (dreaming about) and fishing which he enjoyed even to the day of his passing when he caught and released four fish on the Skagit River (pictures available for skeptics). In his life he cast a wide net as a teacher, musician and friend.
We will celebrate Ken's life at Willingdon Church, 4812 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby, B.C., 10:00 am Friday, August 1st. Reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Ken Sotvedt Memorial Music Scholarship (Delta School District), c/o Delta School District #37, 4585 Harvest Drive, Delta, B.C., V4K5B4
Gone Fishin'
Globe and Mail article, January 5, 2004,thanks to David Sotvedt:
KENNETH HENRY ADAIR SOTVEDT
By David Sotvedt
Monday, January 5, 2004 - Page A14
Husband, father, grandfather, educator, conductor. Born April 28, 1937, in Wells, B.C. Died July 28, in Surrey, B.C., of heart failure, aged 66. There is no way I could ever match Dad's musical prowess. But he was successful at sharing his passion for music. When I was a child, he got me to try out trombone, clarinet, guitar and piano. Only the piano stuck, as did my passion for that instrument; on the others, I couldn't play a note to save my life. Dad, on the other hand, was adept at clarinet, trumpet, bass drum, piano. I suspect he could successfully fake it on several others, as well.
His innate musical ability deepened when, at the tender age of 13, he joined the Kitsilano Boys Band under the austere and disciplined leadership of its founder, Arthur Delamont ("Mr. D"). Dad loved the Kits Boys Band, and the friendships he developed there. He went to England with the band twice, in 1953 and 1958, in the days before regularly scheduled international airline service. These trips lasted for many months. Leaving Vancouver, the band would journey by train across Canada, making frequent stops to perform in small communities and raise funds for the trip. Finally they'd board a ship in Montreal for the long voyage to Southampton. The band usually practised somewhere in the depths of the stern.
Dad recalled how sometimes the seas were so rough, one moment he would only see clear grey skies through the portholes (and hear the loud thumping of the spinning propellers as they breached the sea's surface) -- and, the next moment, the view would be from under the churning grey waters of the unforgiving North Atlantic. Contending with such horrific weather during Mr. D's mandatory band practices, all the while struggling to convince one's stomach not to re-introduce that day's lunch, was an experience Dad never forgot.
I don't remember Dad boasting about his musical talents. But if we were interested in going to one of his concerts, great -- be it playing at the B.C. Lions' half-time shows at Vancouver's Empire Stadium in the 1970s, watching the band march along Hastings Street in the Pacific National Exhibition parade every August, or conducting the Vancouver Firefighters Band at the city's cenotaph in Victory Square every Nov. 11, i n sombre remembrance of those who lost their lives in too many wars.
Professionally, Dad was a devoted teacher and then elementary school principal for nearly 40 years, primarily in the sprawling Vancouver suburb of Delta. In Delta's southernmost corner is the community of Tsawwassen, where Mom and Dad settled in the early 1960s and where my two brothers and I grew up.
All three of us saw Dad in his professional environment -- his office was just down the hall from where his sons attended class. "Mr. Sotvedt" would usually announce his imminent arrival into a classroom (an experience which I, for one, anticipated with a sense of impending doom) by blowing his nose so loudly it could be heard on the other side of town.
The last time I saw Dad was a week before his passing, when he conducted the Kitsilano Boys Band at its 75th anniversary reunion concert. It was a beautiful, warm summer's evening. The band members joked with each other and delighted in the boisterous applause from a cheerful, appreciative audience. I could tell Dad was in his element, proud of the band with which he was so long associated, and perhaps secretly loving the fact that the audience truly enjoyed the music he conducted. He was sharing one of his great passions -- a fitting end to a life too short, but one well and truly lived.
David Sotvedt is the eldest son of Kenneth Henry Adair Sotvedt.
Ken's Thoughts on Delamont vs. John Philip Sousa |