Alfred Kunz
May 26, 1929 – January 15, 2019
This is one of those times when words fail, when our senses are stunned and all our energies are channeled into trying to make sense of the loss we feel… BUT REMEMBER, “WHEN ALL WORDS FAIL, STILL MUSIC SPEAKS”. One thing can never be taken away… the memories of that special person with whom we were privileged to walk for a while, who graced us with a spirit like no other…
On Tuesday, January 15, 2019 at approximately 11:15 p.m., our beloved music man, Dr. Alfred Leopold Kunz, passed away into the arms of his Creator who gave him life and his gift of music. We wish to acknowledge all of Alfie’s family in Canada, Europe and the USA.
Born May 26, 1929 to Johann and Caroline Kunz, beloved Husband of Dana Kunz, Sisters – Leopoldine Wancar (Stefan), Margaret Eilender (Ernie), Brothers – Ralph Kunz (Gertrude), Artur Kunz (Gertraud), Children – Karl Kunz (Beth), Anna Ashley (Don), Karin Stegemann (David), Christian Bellsmith (Kelly), Grandchildren – James Kunz (Sarah), Catherine Bounajm (Fares), Peter Geitner (Julie), Teagan, Avery and Carys Stegemann, Lucas and Abby Bellsmith, Great-grandchildren – Lena Geitner, Stephanie and Julie Kunz, Natalie and Sophie Boumajm, Nephews – Paul and Peter Eilender, Mike, Steve, Andy, Joshua and Matthew Kunz, Ruediger, Nico and Johannes Kunz, Nieces – Dina Wancar, Crystal Kunz and last but not least all the members of his Music Family who brought him so much joy..
Our dear husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle and teacher lived his life with passion and would ask us to remember the words of Mary Frye, “DO NOT STAND AT MY GRAVE AND WEEP. I AM NOT THERE. I DO NOT SLEEP. I AM A THOUSAND WINDS THAT BLOW. I AM THE DIAMOND GLINTS ON SNOW. I AM THE SUNLIGHT ON RIPENED GRAIN. I AM THE GENTLE AUTUMN RAIN. WHEN YOU AWAKEN IN THE MORNING’S HUSH, I AM THE SWIFT UPLIFTING RUSH OF QUIET BIRDS IN CIRCLED FLIGHT. I AM THE SOFT STARS THAT SHINE AT NIGHT. DO NOT STAND AT MY GRAVE AND CRY; I AM NOT THERE. I DID NOT DIE.”
A Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday, February 3, 2019 at Benton Street Baptist Church (90 Benton St., Kitchener, ON N2G 3H4) at 2:30 p.m. A reception will follow in the church hall. In lieu of flowers, Alfred has requested donations to a music-related charity of your choice.
Please visit www.henrywalser.com for Alfred’s memorial.
For more information about Alfred Kunz visit the kunzmusic website
LIFETIMES: Alfred Kunz, 89, lived a life of music
Alfred Kunz of New Hamburg; Born: May 26, 1929, in Neudorf, Sask; Died: Jan. 15, 2019, of congestive heart failure
By Valerie Hill Special to the Record, Waterloo Region Record January 20, 2019
NEW HAMBURG — During his final days, confined to a hospital bed, his breath rapid and shallow, composer, music teacher and choral conductor, Alfred Kunz, battled his growing incapacity, just as he had been doing for the past two years.
When his heart was failing and doctors warned him to rest Alf walked his dog, aptly named “Mozart,” mowed the lawn, even rode his bike. Tell him “no” and he usually did the opposite. When his skin inflamed into an itchy rash, Alf ignored it and sat at his computer day after day writing music.
But following a medical appointment in late November, Alf was sent directly to hospital. In pain and unable to walk, his singular wish was to return to his New Hamburg home and complete his final concerto. It was a wish that could never be realized and he knew it, understood that his life was coming to an end.
“I’m not afraid of dying,” Alf told me from his hospital bed, having agreed to be interviewed for a Lifetimes feature knowing he would never see the published piece.
Alf was only concerned about leaving any music in his head unwritten.
“I have this other orchestral work in me,” he said. “My whole life has been composing.
“I always had to compose, the music is in me.”
Alf and I spoke frequently when he was artistic director for the Millenium Choir and regularly selling out concerts. I was always struck by his wit as much as his talent. Alf was truly interested in what you thought and it was clear, he was driven by a deep seated need to write music, to engage audiences. Then there was that irrepressible goofy side.
At Christmas, Alf would ask concert goers to wear a red tuque and scarf then stand up and belt out carols during the singalong. Alf, always dapper, usually sported embroidered shirts, embellished with a gold necklace.
At one concert, everyone was asked to bring a flashlight and cover the light in coloured cellophane which when lit in a darkened auditorium, was quite magical.
His concerts featured all genres of music. Alf was not a music snob.
Born May 26, 1929 one of three kids in a rural German enclave in Saskatchewan, Alf grew up in a place of tradition, a place where everyone would gather to play instruments and sing folk songs. His mother sang, his father played flute. Alf loved music but a musical career was out of the question.
“I had to leave school in Grade 8. My father sent me to work,” he said.
By then, the family had moved to Kitchener. Alf’s father, legally blind, had been unable to work so it was up to Alf and his mother to support the family.
“It was a great honour,” he said.
Honour, perhaps, but it also meant his future prospects were limited to labour jobs, not suited to a man who was so cerebral, so filled with music.
As a working boy, Alf used some of his money to pay for music lessons on the sly, knowing his father would not approve.
At 20, he moved to Toronto to study music at the Royal Conservatory while working as a lifeguard and taxi driver. By 1955 Alf returned to Kitchener and began forming orchestras and choirs as well as teaching. He next started writing musical scores.
In 1964, Alf was awarded a scholarship to study music in Germany for a year. Upon returning to Canada he was named principal of a Burlington music teachers’ academy, until the place closed two years later.
Back in Kitchener, Alf was appointed the University of Waterloo’s music director, part-time at first then full-time from 1969 to 1979.
Alf’s skills as an orchestra and choral conductor as well as a composer were widely recognized and he was commissioned to write the music, direct a 500-voice chorus and an orchestra at the opening night of the new Centre in the Square in 1980.
Longtime friends, musicians Diane and Dave Battler, commissioned a guitar concerto from Alf though he didn’t play guitar.
“The minute I started to work with him, I recognized his genius,” said Dave. “His music was different than anything I’d heard before.”
Alf, he said, knew how to please audiences and that’s how he composed his music, never letting his ego entwine in the scores he created.
Diane met Alf when she was a teen and admitted, she was unsure what to make of him. “He was quite different,” she said. “His sense of humour was off the wall, at the same time his music was brilliant, you were in awe of him.”
This brilliance eventually led to Alf being conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Waterloo in 2001. The university referred to him as “A national treasure in the field of composition and choral conducting.”
Michael Higgins, former president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo’s St. Jerome’s University, had nominated Alf and broke the news by handing Alf the convocation program with his name listed as an honorary doctorate recipient.
“I said ‘Michael, you’ve got to be kidding,’” Alf recalled. “I thought ‘this can’t be true.’”
Michael, who had commissioned choral works from Alf, told a Record reporter that Alf was “a composer of stunning versatility, as even a cursory glance at his collected works would indicate.”
Successful in music yes but the same was not true in his personal life, at least until he met chorister, Dana Bellsmith. Alf had previously been married and had three children.
Alf said “I’ve been fortunate to have found a loving family: I did have music and I did have Dana.”
They moved in together in 1979 and married in 1994. Dana’s son, Christian Bellsmith, was about five and didn’t have a close relationship with his own father. Alf stepped in, guiding the boy, making sure they shared everything as a family: cross country skiing, motorcycling and Kung Fu. Fitness fanatic Alf achieved his black belt at age 50.
Dana said “he taught us a lot: to have self-confidence, to be more aware of our surroundings.”
Christian said their relationship was not always smooth. Alf was stubborn and, at times, fierce about his opinions but he always encouraged his stepson in music.
“That was our big connection: music,” said Christian. “I think he saw some natural tendencies and tried to nurture that.”
Oddly, there was not a lot of music playing in the house as that would have been too distracting for Alf, whose brain was always full of his own tunes. Christian did become a professional musical theatre performer.
Dana said “Alf was very proud of him, he went to see all his productions.”
In 2013, after 48 years, Alf retired as conductor of the Concordia Club Choir and in May 2015 he stepped down as founding artistic director of the 90-voice Millennium Choir which consisted of Nith Valley Singers and Music Alive.
This full retirement stuff didn’t suit him. Alf without a choral group was like a plant without sunshine.
He explained at the time “When I see a blank manuscript page, I want to fill it. When I see a poem, I hear the music. It’s an innate thing so I’m not really retiring, I’m too busy for that.”
He did form another choir, in Forest Heights, and though they were mostly beginners, Alf was strict and made demands of the singers. Music was to be taken seriously, especially the music he wrote or arranged.
In 2017 when his heart condition turned serious, Alf had to give it up though he continued composing, until the day he ended up in hospital, the day the music stopped.
There will be public celebration of Alf’s life, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2:30 p.m., Benton St. Baptist Church, 90 Benton St., Kitchener. Come prepared for a singalong because that was Alf’s style.