Article content Katherine Fraser stands with one of her students after they received an award at a Kiwanis festival event, in this undated photo. CONTRIBUTED ContributedArticle contentDuring her teen years, Katherine was a violinist with the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra and played percussion with the Sydney Academy band. She was also in a recorder band, which Margaret said performed at some community events.Article contentAfter graduating from Sydney Academy, Katherine attended Mount Allison University in Sackville and earned her bachelor of music in piano performance.Article contentWhen she graduated in 1985, Katherine returned to her family home in Sydney and started teaching piano.Article contentThe pride of Katherine’s career was her students, according to Margaret.Article content“She was most proud of the accomplishments of her students. She worked very hard with them,” said Margaret.Article contentOne former student shared as a comment on Katherine’s online obituary how her teacher would send her theory worksheets with self-addressed envelopes (with postage) for her to return the practice work. Margaret laughs as she talks about it.Article contentArticle content“Katherine couldn’t be prouder of her students if they were her own children,” she said.Article contentWhile teaching piano, Katherine also became organist and choir director for three churches in Westmount and Point Edward. When they amalgamated, she became the organist and choir director at Christ Church of the King in Sydney.Article content Katherine Fraser as a toddler at her family’s piano in their Sydney home. Born in 1960, Katherine took an early interest in the piano and her mother, Rosemary, taught her to play. CONTRIBUTED ContributedArticle contentLESSONS WITH CONNECTIONArticle contentKatherine taught the Royal Conservatory of Music program, which has yearly exams for the students to move up levels.Article contentLeBlanc laughs as she talks about Katherine’s dislike of her longer nails, which interfered with her piano playing, or how she didn’t practice her arpeggios enough.Article contentShe also remembers Katherine’s melodious voice, which LeBlanc said made it sound like she sang everything.Article content“Every time I saw her it brought me so much joy,” she said.Article contentAnd she remembers how Katherine would be at Malcolm Munroe Junior High School (now middle school) to pick her and her sister up; there to take them to practice for their upcoming Royal Conservatory exams.Article contentArticle content“Three to five days she’d pick us up in her VW Rabbit from school and take her back to her place, so we’d be ready for those exams,” LeBlanc said.Article content“She just had this profound dedication to us and you knew it was that she cared more than, it wasn’t just about the music, it was also about us.”Article contentSomedays, LeBlanc said Katherine would tell her to play her arpeggios (where the notes of a chord are played individually instead of together), then stop to talk.Article content“Sometimes we’d play piano and sometimes she’d just stop and say, ‘ This is going on, now, what do you think of this?’ And it might not be about local things but global issues. We’d talk about the news, we’d talk about all sorts of different things,” LeBlanc said.Article content“Sometimes, she’d say, ‘Now what’s going on with you?’ She just cared that deeply.”Article contentAlong with teaching the Royal Conservatory of Music program, Katherine became an examiner for them, travelling across Canada to do so.
Cape Breton music teacher impacted generations of students
