Western News: January 14, 2020
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4 Tuesday <strong>January</strong> <strong>14</strong> <strong>2020</strong><br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
WESTERN NEWS<br />
<strong>News</strong><br />
‘It was a lovely surprise’<br />
• From page 1<br />
It tops off a successful year<br />
for the 81-year-old, who was<br />
made a life member of the New<br />
Zealand Institute of Registered<br />
Music Teachers and was selected<br />
to be an Associate of the Royal<br />
Academy of Music last year.<br />
Like many dedicated to<br />
serving their community, Mrs<br />
Stott was left “very surprised” to<br />
receive the award.<br />
“It is not anything I ever expected<br />
to happen. It was a lovely<br />
surprise,” she said.<br />
Mrs Stott’s passion for teaching<br />
and playing the piano began<br />
in high school when she began<br />
helping her own piano teacher<br />
with teaching.<br />
“I have just enjoyed it really,”<br />
she said.<br />
As well as taking private lessons,<br />
she taught music at Canterbury<br />
University for 20 years.<br />
When she reached her 80s,<br />
many asked her why she was still<br />
teaching.<br />
“As long as I could do it well,<br />
why would I stop. The children<br />
who came to my home were so<br />
interesting and lovely,” Mrs Stott<br />
said.<br />
It was only in March last year<br />
she retired, due to health issues –<br />
and has been visited by many of<br />
her students since.<br />
CHERISHED: Rosemary Stott<br />
was known as a natural at<br />
playing the piano, from when<br />
she first began learning at the<br />
age of five.<br />
Some of Mrs Stott’s most successful<br />
students have included<br />
Tony Chen Lin, who performed<br />
with Michael Houstoun and<br />
the Christchurch Symphony<br />
Orchestra at the opening of the<br />
Christchurch Town Hall.<br />
But as well building a busy<br />
music teaching career, Mrs Stott<br />
also became a well-known performer<br />
and composer.<br />
For many years a national<br />
artist for Radio New Zealand. In<br />
2001 she began performing with<br />
her piano trio, Tresoli.<br />
Following the February 22,<br />
2011, earthquake Mrs Stott<br />
helped save the Clef Club,<br />
now known as Music Alive<br />
which provides performance<br />
opportunities for amateur<br />
musicians.<br />
She was also one of the first<br />
New Zealanders to be appointed<br />
as an international examiner<br />
for the Associated Board of the<br />
Royal Schools of Music in London<br />
in 1991.<br />
“It is quite demanding. You do<br />
need incredible concentration,”<br />
she said.<br />
On her first tour as an examiner<br />
in Hong Kong and Macao,<br />
she recalled assessing 1000<br />
candidates over 12 weeks.<br />
“The adults get more nervous<br />
than the children. I did have an<br />
experience in Hong Kong. A<br />
woman came in and she was so<br />
nervous she couldn’t get past the<br />
first few notes,” Mrs Stott said.<br />
She said while the candidate<br />
“scraped through by the skin of<br />
her teeth” she was pleased she<br />
encouraged her to get through.<br />
Inspiring children<br />
• By Georgia O’Connor-Harding<br />
WHEN DAVID Denton first<br />
started up an event aimed at<br />
inspiring children to pursue<br />
fishing – he never thought it<br />
would grow to the success it is<br />
today.<br />
In the 1980s he had been<br />
tasked by a group of influential<br />
New Zealanders including<br />
former Prime Minister Sir Jack<br />
Marshall and long-distance runner<br />
Murray Halberg to set up<br />
an event aimed to get families<br />
outdoors.<br />
Upon receiving the phone call,<br />
the Yaldhurst resident went on<br />
to establish Take a Kid Fishing<br />
– an annual family fishing event<br />
which initially attracted several<br />
hundred people on its first day<br />
in 1988.<br />
Years of dedication to outdoor<br />
recreation and supporting youth<br />
has seen Mr Denton recognised<br />
with a Queen’s Service Medal.<br />
He said it<br />
was “very<br />
special” to<br />
receive the<br />
honour and it<br />
“came out of<br />
the blue.”<br />
More than 20 years on, the<br />
Take a Kid Fishing event has<br />
grown to attract 6000 people<br />
– which aims to teach children<br />
‘The patience and<br />
discipline (of fishing) is a<br />
great education for young<br />
people’<br />
– David Denton<br />
LIFE OF FISHING: David<br />
Denton has received a<br />
Queen’s Service Medal for<br />
inspiring children to learn the<br />
art of fishing. <br />
the full process of fishing from<br />
catching, to cleaning, filleting<br />
and cooking a fish.<br />
“That patience and discipline<br />
(of fishing) is a great education<br />
for young people.”<br />
Mr Denton<br />
said the idea for<br />
the fishing event<br />
started when<br />
United States<br />
President Ronald Reagan was<br />
looking for ways to get children<br />
involved in an outdoor experience.<br />
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