The Terry Head Memorial Scholarship
Please help us to foster the next generation of handbell leaders in Ontario!
$6,747.55 raised as of the end of Feb. 2024!
Thank you all who have donated!
To donate to the fund, click here or scroll to the form at the bottom of this page.
For information on applying for the fund, click here, or scroll down.
Terry Head was the Vice President of the Ontario Guild of English Handbell Ringers in 2019, and a Director from 2016 to 2019. Terry was active in the handbell community as a director, conductor, clinician, educator, and performer. Tragically on the night of November 18, 2019, a leading light in the handbell world was taken from us. Terry was a thoughtful, caring, authentic, faithful person who is dearly missed. He was loved and respected wherever he played his song. This memorial fund is dedicated to his memory.
Links:
Tributes to Terry
Below are a number of tributes that have been sent in to honour Terry.
The Fauré Requiem
On Sunday, November 15, 2020 the one year anniversary of Terry's tragic death was remembered in the Service at First-St. Andrew's United. The FSA Chamber Choir and Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Erich L. Knapp, performed the Fauré Requiem. It was a beautiful musical remembrance in Terry's memory.
Fauré Requiem Honouring Terry Head
Another Carol of the Bells
for Terry Head, in memoriam
All the notes of our distress
tempered and alloyed, to press
their ancient clamour on the ear
with all that would insist on fear,
and all our sorrows, settle in
to listen, when the bells begin.
Somehow in their light-hearted sound
lifted for a roundelay
cares fall, released, each time bells play.
Then memory glides past random tears
alive with what remains most dear
rebuilt inside us, from the air
that clappers striking send like prayer
to soften our forgetful pace
calling us once again to grace.
We’d lost touch. Then bells play
and reassert our rise from clay.
What’s in their notes? I scarcely know
how to tell what carols show
rising on their pulsing air
to work where we most need repair,
but music bearing into sound
such rounded joy as brass has bound
inside its gathered mouths, can sing:
Look, start again at everything
you feel still matters. For the rest?
Understand you did your best.
Who’s to say you failed to raise
whatever deal you had with praise?
Oh here is praise, so roundly held
within a gloved and ringing hand
not clenched to battle for decay
but deftly to enhance the day!
So recollect that all is well
ring out the circle of your bell
too often mute inside your chest
and let your sounded note give test
to what you hold so secret there.
God dreams for you. Your jewel’s rare.
Remember, and be reassured:
intentions from the heart are pure.
Now rest your thoughts, and help chimes play
the words we all forget to say,
and see your doubts revoke at last
insistent wintry inner blasts –
among green hills and blooming dells
swung forth by players of the bells.
Jewish National Fund
Terry touched many lives both directly and indirectly. The Chernick family from London, Ontario is one of those who were touched indirectly.
Through the music world, Beryl and Noam Chernick have become good friends with Bruce and Jan Richardson, who were both dear friends of Terry’s. On several occasions they went to listen to the First St. Andrew’s Strings conducted by Bruce, including events where they heard Terry play the organ, and had an opportunity to meet him.
As a comfort to their friends, Beryl and Noam planted a tree in Israel in Terry’s memory through a donation to the Jewish National Fund.
The Terry Head Memorial Scholarship
Application and Donation Information
How to Apply for the Scholarship
Value
- The Memorial Scholarship will distribute awards based on the number of applicants and the prospective impact on the OGEHR community.
Purpose
- The Memorial Scholarship will be used to award opportunities for handbell musicians to pursue the ideals that Terry held throughout his life.
- The award(s) may be used for any payment, fee, lessons, training or other related cost to further an individual’s knowledge as a director, conductor, clinician, educator, or performer.
Process
- Each applicant to the fund should indicate how he/she would like to spend the funds awarded.
- The deadline for submitting applications is March 15th annually. Applications received after this date will not be considered, and the applicant will need to reapply. Applications should be submitted to the Bursary & Scholarship Committee c/o OGEHR Treasurer, treasurer@ogehr.ca.
- The Board-appointed Bursary & Scholarship Committee will review all applications and make recommendations at the April Board meeting.
- More than one person can receive a scholarship from the fund in a given year.
- Applicants will be evaluated on the merits of their proposal, rather than competing against each other.
- The fund will be awarded annually, however, it will be officially presented at the biannual Festival to all the successful applicants.
- The Guild will transfer the approved amount to the successful applicant(s) by cheque.