UNews - John Wort Hannam

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Alumni Association inducts six into Alumni Honour Society

trevor.kenney — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:14:09 +0000

From passionate songwriters to dedicated educators and more, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Alumni Association (ULAA) is pleased to induct six new members into the Alumni Honour Society.

“Our six inductees this year represent a wide range of skills but they are united in that they are all passionate about their roles and have all made an immeasurable difference in their communities,” says Matthew McHugh, Chair of the ULAA Recognition Committee. “We’re proud of their accomplishments and how they have built off their U of L educations and given back to their communities in such substantial ways.”

Introduced in honour of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s 35th Anniversary in 2002, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Alumni Association established the Alumni Honour Society to recognize the achievements of a select group of alumni each year. The individuals honoured serve as role models through success in their vocation, outstanding community service or superior accomplishment in their avocation.

Like those before them, the 2018 inductees are outstanding examples of U of L alumni. Each of the individuals used the knowledge they gained at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ to achieve their personal and professional goals, and through these achievements has left a lasting impact on the people, organizations and communities with which they are involved.

The group will be inducted into the Alumni Honour Society and celebrated at Let There Be Light Night, on Friday, October 12, 2018.

2018 Alumni Honour Society Inductees

Trevor Clark |BMgt ’99

Trevor Clark has built a career helping others by providing compassionate leadership in emergency situations. After graduating from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge with a Bachelor of Management in International Management, he went on to complete his Master of Arts in International Conflict Analysis. He now works for the United Nations leading humanitarian and development responses in some of the most fragile countries on the planet. He is well-respected as an exceptional program manager with the ability to bring teams together to provide sound resolutions for both individuals and the organizations they serve.

Dinah Davis | BSc ’02

Bringing education, passion and enthusiasm to all she does, Dinah Davis is recognized as a leader in the field of Information Technology. After graduating from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, she continued her education by completing a Master of Mathematics Degree in Cryptography, the practice of secure digital communication. She is currently the Vice-President of Research and Development at Arctic Wolf Networks, a cybersecurity start-up. In addition to her professional responsibilities, she is a passionate advocate for young women in technology-related fields and founded codelikeagirl.io to actively empower women to become leaders in the industry. Davis is an inspirational mentor, an exceptional role model to women worldwide, and a strong advocate for gender equality.

John Wort Hannam | BA/BEd ’96

Recognized internationally for his melodies and moving lyrics, John Wort Hannam is an award-winning singer/songwriter based in Lethbridge. His music is deeply rooted in the people, images and landscapes of southern Alberta. Frequently called upon to perform at community events and fundraisers, he lends his talent and support to various charitable and social causes. In 2017, his song Let It Shine On was commissioned to celebrate the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s 50th anniversary.

Kristina Larkin | BA/BEd ’12

Kristina Larkin is passionate about education and community involvement. She is an active volunteer and community organizer, and currently supports over 400 immigrant and refugee children and youth through her role as Manager of Youth Settlement Services at Lethbridge Family Services. Larkin is committed to using her education to affect change in her community and has been involved with many organizations, including the Westminster Neighbourhood Association, the Rotary Club of Lethbridge Urban Spirits, Womanspace Resource Centre, and the Lethbridge Public Interest Research Group. Larkin is recognized as a role model with the ability to empower individuals through community education, igniting a spark for social justice unlike any other.

Dale Ptycia | BASc (BA) ’85

Dale Ptycia was the first of his family to pursue post-secondary education and credits his time at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge as the foundation to his success in the business of sport. Centering around his deep love for hockey, Dale began his career with Hockey Canada as a coach and instructor. Over his 30 years with the organization, he has excelled and evolved from Program Manager to the Senior Manager of Licensing and Merchandising. Ptycia maintains a strong commitment to giving back to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ that enabled him to align his career with his passion.

Shanda Webber (née Venier) | BA ’05

Shanda Webber (née Venier) has become a role model in the Indigenous community for both her research and volunteer work. As a student, she was an advocate for increasing access and enhancing resources to assist First Nations, Métis and Inuit students build connections, encouraging success among her peers. Professionally, her work focuses on assisting prospective students transition to the post-secondary environment as well as, developing and enhancing academic and cultural support services for Indigenous learners. She is currently the Manager of Recruitment and Indigenous Services at Lethbridge College.

Highway 3 Trio to headline 50th anniversary edition of Calgary Alumni & Friends Concert

trevor.kenney — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 23:12:42 +0000

A special year marks a change to a very special event for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge as the Calgary Alumni & Friends Concert will feature a night of inspiring songs and stories from three remarkable southern Alberta-based songwriters.

“This is our 50th anniversary year, and we have been putting a unique spin on each of our annual events to mark the occasion,” says U of L President and Vice-chancellor Dr. Mike Mahon. “Our annual dinner has always been very well received and we thought we’d enhance it this year by bringing our 50th anniversary festivities to Calgary in the form of a concert.”

The Calgary Alumni & Friends Concert will feature the Highway 3 Trio, a collection of extraordinary musicians that includes John Wort Hannam (BA/BEd ’96), Leeroy Stagger and Dave McCann. Tickets, priced at $75 each, are now on sale for the Thursday, March 16, 2017 event at Theatre Junction Grand in Calgary.

Juno nominated John Wort Hannam combines a narrative story-telling style with a great voice and a wry wit, while Leeroy Stagger performs alt-country inspired rock with a voice of ferocious intensity, and Dave McCann’s music is Americana-edged rock and roll tangled with the continuous trail of broken strings, headlights and a hell of a lot of laughter.

“We’re very proud to call John Wort Hannam an alumnus and are thrilled with the 50th anniversary song he created for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ,” says Mahon of the original composition, Let It Shine On. “With both Leeroy Stagger and Dave McCann by his side, it promises to be a really fun evening and a great opportunity to celebrate the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s 50th anniversary while reconnecting with fellow alumni and friends.”

Wort Hannam said the song, which he will perform at the event, speaks to his own experience at the U of L as well as the broader themes of education, dreams and finding identity.

“They were definitely years that defined who I am today,” Wort Hannam says of his time at the U of L. “This whole song I brought in some of my personal experiences at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ but I also tried to think of the concept of university as a whole.”

The Calgary alumni and friends event began as a dinner in 2010 with the goal of bringing alumni together in fellowship and offering attendees an engaging speaker who reflects the values and goals of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. Past speakers have included Mike Babcock, Marc-André Bernier, Margaret Atwood, Chris Hadfield and Rick Mercer.

Tickets for this year’s special anniversary Calgary Alumni & Friends Concert are available at: http://blogs.ulethbridge.ca/50-years/event/calgary-alumni-and-friends-concert/.

Shining a light on the lyrics to Let It Shine On

caroline.zentner — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 20:52:10 +0000

Part labour of love and part trial by fire, alumnus John Wort Hannam (BA/BEd ’96) worked intensely to pull and tease words and melody together until Let It Shine On was born. The song, was debuted on Friday, Jan. 13 as the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge kicked off its 50th anniversary at Founders’ Day Weekend. The song is available for download and all proceeds support student scholarships.

We caught up with Wort Hannam for a discussion about the inspiration behind his impactful verses. Lyrically, the song is about dreams, both the kind that are put out into the light and shared with others and the kind that hibernate until the conditions are right. In the first stanza, Wort Hannam talks about his own dormant dream:

I had a dream deep in slumber

Tucked away in my heart

There it lay dry as tinder

Wanting for only a spark

But this hallowed ground where we are found

Set it alight, I felt it ignite

The chorus of Let It Shine On brings in a focus on light, a reflection of the U of L’s motto Fiat Lux, or let there be light. His lyrics also point to the power of illumination in bringing dreams to life:

I’ve seen the northern lights on the Prairies

A billion stars in the heavens above

But the brightest light is one we can’t see

It’s the light dreams are made of

Let it shine on

The second verse of the song speaks to the idea of creating community through sharing stories. A university is well suited to the task as it brings together people from all over the world, each of them with a personal and a cultural story. Wort Hannam addresses the need to listen and share in equal parts as ways to help build an inclusive community.

Tell me your tales, I’ll share you my stories

Let’s teach each other our songs

I’ll take the hand of all before me

And we’ll sing along

Soon we’ll discover, we need each other

Can’t do this alone, not on our own

The bridge in Let It Shine On returns to the theme of dreams of the past, specifically those that were held by some stalwart community members who believed that Lethbridge should be home to a university, despite opposition both provincially and locally. Later, the bridge section of the song pivots away from the past and looks to dreams of the future.

Let’s raise a glass to the dreams of the past

Plans that were laid and arguments made

Cries of dissent and times of content

Times of unrest, lines of protest

But let’s turn a new page. Let’s start a new age

With ideas of faith and ideas of reason

Voices of truth and voices of treason

Songs for peace and songs for freedom

The power of hope and the power of dreaming

And the power of love and the power of believing

Let them all be heard. Let them all be heard.

The final chorus harkens back to the themes of light and dreams, but with a special addition.

I’ve seen the northern lights on the Prairies

A billion stars in the heavens above

But the brightest light is one we can’t see

It’s the light dreams are made of

It’s the light inside you and I

It’s the light between you and I

Let it shine on, let it shine on.

Work is play to Chris Morris

caroline.zentner — Wed, 17 Aug 2016 21:26:17 +0000

While many people groan at the thought of going to work, Chris Morris (BFA ‘07) gets excited at the prospect and can’t wait to get out the door.

“I always say I’ve gotten a full-time job in my hobby,” says Morris. “I’ve always had an odd, odd passion for audio electronics.”

As the technical specialist in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Music Department, Morris maintains Studio One, the state-of-the-art recording studio on campus with all of its specialized equipment. For most of the year, his skills are invaluable to students in the Digital Audio Arts program but this summer one of his projects is to record the U of L’s 50th anniversary song written by John Wort Hannam.

Chris Morris, at right, and John Wort Hannam work at the recording console in Studio One.

Even someone who’s not a musician will notice the quality of sound when they enter Studio One. The studio was built so that surfaces aren’t parallel, eliminating the likelihood of standing waves and other sound anomalies. The room is constructed so that sound diffuses throughout the space.

“If you look around, everything is angles and curves,” says Morris.

Studio One features a 48-channel, large format recording console. The studio is equipped for 64 inputs and 64 outputs of analog audio with unlimited tracks in the digital realm. When Wort Hannam and his fellow musicians recently recorded Let It Shine On, Morris set up a dozen microphones for the drums, three for the guitar, three for the bass, and tracked the rhythm section together live.

“These individuals had never played the song together until they walked into this room. John had obviously sent them the demo so they had an idea of what they were going to do,” says Morris. “It all came down to us getting into one room, we listened to the demo again and talked about what we wanted to do. Then we put them in the rooms and let them jam it out for a bit to get a feeling for it and we went from there.”

While the drummer played in the main capture room, the bass player was in another isolation booth and Wort Hannam played guitar and sang in the hallway. These ‘scratch vocals’ won’t be used in the final cut; Wort Hannam will return to the studio to do the final vocals at a later date. Morris and Wort Hannam are also considering adding other instruments, maybe a dobro, slide guitar, piano or accordion. In total, he’ll have about 24 tracks to work with for the whole song. Once the tracks have been laid down, Morris edits each one before he starts the mixing process.

“It’s all about training your ear, that’s probably the most important part of the Digital Audio Arts program,” he says. “This program is tied to our traditional music program where students learn musicianship skills and music theory. It gives them a vocabulary to be able to work with musicians and it trains their ears to know what to listen for.”

At the end of the process, Morris will have a mixed song in a digital file that he’ll send off to Dave Horrocks at Infinite Wave in Calgary for mastering.

“Mastering engineers are supposed to have the golden ears, people who know exactly what they’re listening for. They have high-end, reference quality equipment and the ability to tweak the final product for distribution,” he says.

Although audio electronics was a longtime interest — he took his father’s reel-to-reel apart at age 10 — Morris left his home in Fort McMurray after graduating from high school to study management at the U of L. After one semester, he realized the program was not a good fit and he switched to New Media where he focused on web development and design.

“In New Media, my very first class was a Music 1000 course with Dr. Rolf Boon. He offhandedly mentioned they were going to build a recording studio,” says Morris.

Interest piqued, he asked if he could be involved and Boon signed him up to help with Studio Two, formerly called the Audio Research Lab. His passion for audio electronics once again came to the fore.

After graduating, Morris worked in freelance web design for two years until he was hired at the U of L to help with the startup of the Digital Audio Arts program. When the studio was being built, Morris acted as a liaison between the Music Department, the acoustician and architects.

“I designed the technical end of this room, choosing the equipment and the console, all of our outboard gear, how it works together and is wired together. The architects and acousticians came up with this beautiful space to work with. Ever since then, it’s basically been managing our labs, our studios and everything that goes along with it,” he says.

Morris met his wife, Kelly, who works in the Fine Arts Department, on campus when they were both first-year students at the U of L. He proposed to her on campus and now they work a floor away from each other. They’re definitely a U of L family.

“I love this place,” he says.

Wort Hannam eager to help ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ celebrate anniversary through song

trevor.kenney — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 19:15:47 +0000

For John Wort Hannam (BA/BEd ’96), writing a song for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s 50th anniversary is a process not unlike that of a miner panning for gold. He’s been sifting through the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Archives, looking at photos and reading old issues of The Meliorist. Words or phrases may strike him and he stores these nuggets, as he calls them, in the back of his mind where they percolate, bubble and simmer until the day Wort Hannam sits down to write.

“My songs sort of stew inside my head a long time and when I get to the process of actually getting out a pen and a piece of paper, a lot of my thoughts are quite formed,” he says. “Getting them down is making a record of something that I’ve created in my head. Then the word wrangling starts. At that point, the melody starts to come.”

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ chose John Wort Hannam to write the anniversary song not only because he’s an alumnus; he’s also a consummate storyteller and accomplished songwriter who can put the soul into a lyric.

The U of L, with the help of a donation from Terry Whitehead (BA ’94), commissioned Wort Hannam to write a song for its golden anniversary.

“I knew John from my time on campus and thought he was the perfect choice — I love his music.” says Whitehead. “I can’t think of anyone better suited to bring the spirit of our ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ to words and music.”

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ chose Wort Hannam not only because he’s an alumnus; he’s also a consummate storyteller and accomplished songwriter who can put the soul into a song.

“I was thrilled, I jumped on it; there was no hesitation,” he says. “I feel the job in front of me is to create a type of a song that really captures why the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is a special place for people who have been there and experienced the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.”

Wort Hannam already has some nuggets stored away, but they’re not something he’s willing to share. However, he does say a few things about what the song won’t be, starting with it won’t be a chronological history of the U of L.

“I guarantee that I won’t say the word ‘Lethbridge’ in the song. And I won’t say ‘50.’ And the word ‘university’ will not be in the song because it’s more about trying to capture how we grow and become illuminated,” he says.

And as for what the song will be about, Wort Hannam offers only a teaser.

“The song will certainly rotate around the whole Fiat Lux motto because obviously there are so many visual things to play with when we’re talking about light. Light represents everything from enlightenment to hope. There are so many attributes you can play with as a songwriter with the theme of light,” he says.

Once the song has been finished, Wort Hannam will record it in the U of L’s digital audio arts studio, says Dr. Ed Jurkowski, dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts. It will debut in 2017 and a video documentary about the creation of the song is also in the works.

“We’ve also talked about transcribing it for different media, maybe having a choral arrangement of the song, maybe a wind orchestra, maybe a small chamber orchestra version as well. But that will depend on the song itself,” says Jurkowski.

As an alumnus, Wort Hannam can identify with the ability of a university to enlighten. His first foray into post-secondary education didn’t go well. His high school study habit, which consisted of cramming the night before an exam, didn’t work at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and he was “booted out” after his first year. He then attended what was then Mount Royal College to learn some study skills and raise his GPA. In his class on contemporary native issues, one of the assigned readings was a paper by Dr. Leroy Little Bear (BASc (BA) ’72, LLD ’04).

“I found the paper really intriguing. I’ve always been interested in different cultures and I thought ‘If I’m going to learn about another culture, why not learn about a culture that originated in this land and predated European culture?” says Wort Hannam.

It wasn’t until he came to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge that he was ready to be a student. He met his future wife (Jennifer Burke, MSc ’06) in his first semester and joined the cross-country running team and the track team.

“They were definitely years that defined who I am today,” he says.

After graduating, Wort Hannam taught on the Blood Reserve for five-and-a-half years. At the time, he wasn’t writing songs or playing music and he didn’t own a guitar. All he had was a little dream about writing songs and performing them. Many people laughed when he quit his teaching job to write songs, except his parents, who “didn’t even blink” at his abrupt career change. They had left the United Kingdom for a fresh start in Canada when Wort Hannam was eight years old. As a result of watching them craft a new life for themselves and their family, Wort Hannam says he’s never been scared to try something new.

“I made myself a promise. I said ‘I’m going to sit downstairs and I’m literally going to spend my day learning the guitar and trying to write songs. At the end of whatever UI (Unemployment Insurance) gave me, 32 or 38 weeks, if I have enough songs together I’ll record them somehow,’” he says.

He had a stack of songs by the time his employment insurance benefits ran out, and, with the help of a grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, he made a record. Things took off from there. He taught upgrading courses part-time and started playing a bit, until he eventually stopped teaching altogether and played a lot.

Now, at age 47 and the father of a four-year-old son, Wort Hannam has cut back from being on tour 250 days of the year to being on tour for about 70. While he has no regrets, he does admit to missing the freedom to write songs whenever the inspiration strikes him.

And that could mean audiences, near and far, have something extra special to look forward to in the future when all those nuggets he’s been storing over the last few years find their way into songs.

UNews - John Wort Hannam

��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Alumni Association inducts six into Alumni Honour Society

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