{"id":7841,"date":"2014-08-20T12:19:53","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T16:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7841"},"modified":"2014-09-17T16:21:10","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T20:21:10","slug":"the-many-enchanted-evenings-of-bud-and-stella-switzer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/the-many-enchanted-evenings-of-bud-and-stella-switzer\/","title":{"rendered":"The many Enchanted Evenings of Bud and Stella Switzer"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf music be the food of love, play on,\u201d are words Orsino lived by in Shakespeare\u2019s Twelfth Night; but while it might be a philosophy shared by Aurora\u2019s Bud and Stella Switzer, the music of Rogers and Hammerstein have presented them with a veritable smorgasbord.<\/p>\n

For decades, the long-time sweethearts have been united by a love of dance and music, and it is this love that they have been working diligently to share with Aurorans through their work with the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre. <\/p>\n

Bud and Stella are active members of Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre\u2019s \u201cEvergreen Choir\u201d, which is gearing up for another season next month on Wednesday, September 10. Lead by Dr. Richard Heinzle, the choir is active in the community well beyond the confines of the Seniors\u2019 Centre itself, boasting over 40 members. <\/p>\n

\u201cBud used to say that we should join a choir but we were always busy,\u201d explains Stella. \u201cWhen we came up to Aurora and he wasn\u2019t working anymore, by accident we ran into a member of the Seniors\u2019 Centre and he mentioned the choir.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that, there was no turning back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to sing around the house \u2013 no words, just humming,\u201d says Bud.<\/p>\n

Adds Stella: \u201cHe would sing for sound and I always sang for words.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, there you have it \u2013 a dynamic, complementary combination!<\/p>\n

Bud got his first taste of singing as a child growing up in Hamilton, primarily through choirs at school and church. At that point he was a boy soprano. After moving to Toronto, he continued singing at church but, in his words, \u201cnever anything special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI always liked to sing,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I was a kid, I would sit on the verandah and I found I could imitate a fellow called Bobby Breen. When Hallowe\u2019en came along, in order to get candy, I had to sing for the neighbours!\u201d<\/p>\n

Singing, however, ultimately had to take a back seat. After graduating high school, his parents split, and he had to start making money to support his mother and two brothers. After finding a job working in shipping and receiving in warehousing, he was looking for a way to blow off some steam, when he eventually spotted his cousins dancing a jitterbug at a party. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I would love to do that,\u201d says Bud. \u201cI went to a dance school and enrolled as a student. At one point, they had dance competitions and I figured I would pick the best dancer in the school and I latched onto Stella!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBud went to Arthur Murray\u2019s in Hamilton and then he came to Toronto and joined Arthur Murray there,\u201d continues Stella. \u201cI was working for the CNR in Toronto and used to pass Arthur Murray\u2019s every day. I had a girlfriend who used to take me out dancing, which I hated, so I eventually went into Arthur Murray\u2019s and that\u2019s where we met.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the intervening decades, Stella and Bud have become a solid unit, encouraging each other along their respective creative paths, whether it has been dancing, singing, or painting. Together, they became medal dancing students, dancing teachers, and eventually North American champions throughout the Arthur Murray network. He also takes particular pride in the fact Stella was able to go back to school in her 60s, earning her Masters Degree in French. <\/p>\n

While Stella continues to dance, a spine injury has led to Bud largely hanging up his dancing shoes. From there, he has zeroed back in on his love of singing, taking part in Chartwell\u2019s Senior Stars competition on a whim, eventually placing third from across Canada in a performance of what has become his signature song \u201cSome Enchanted Evening\u201d from South Pacific. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith singing, I get satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment,\u201d says Bud. \u201cWhen someone comes over and says you did well, or a song gets a standing ovation, that is a real thrill and that can sort of turn you on!\u201d <\/p>\n

And this feeling has spilled over into the Evergreen Choir.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Seniors\u2019 Centre has been a real blessing to us,\u201d he says. \u201cWe moved here from Scarborough and we weren\u2019t too happy with our situation there. When we moved up here, we didn\u2019t know anyone. My daughter eventually moved up here about five minutes away, had two children, so now we babysit the two grandchildren, the two dogs, and we feel a part of the whole community. The choir is fun, but many of the songs are songs we have never heard before and are a real challenge to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you would like to take up the challenge, the Evergreen Choir meets Wednesday, September 10 beginning at 1.45 p.m. at the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre. Membership is $20 for Aurora residents and $25 for non-residents. For more information, call 905-726-4767. Bud Switzer\u2019s artwork is currently on display in the Skylight Gallery at Aurora Town Hall through August 29, alongside fellow Seniors\u2019 Centre members Marlene Ash and Ron Lorenz.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf music be the food of love, play on,\u201d are words Orsino lived by in Shakespeare\u2019s Twelfth Night; but while it might be a philosophy shared by Aurora\u2019s Bud and Stella Switzer, the music of Rogers and Hammerstein have presented them with a veritable smorgasbord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/2014-08-21-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-22t","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 20:16:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}