Tributes to Wallace

January 22, 2002

It is with great sadness that I inform our DYO community of the passing of Wallace Leung, a long time friend of the Delta Youth Orchestra. Wallace joined the orchestra as a young violin student and rose through the ranks of all of its divisions. He later returned to do the same thing as a conductor, starting with the Junior Division and working through to become Music Director in 1995. Wallace passed away Friday January 18, 2002 as a result of complications from viral encephalitis in New York City. Wallace was 33 years old.

Wallace was a dear friend and a great man who shaped the lives of many. His convictions were strong and his beliefs were unshakable. Wallace never compromised on his ideals or his search for perfection. He expected all of us to be as impassioned about Music as much as he was. He will be missed by a generation of musicians across this country that he both inspired as a conductor and nurtured with his care and guidance. One very bright light has been turned to darkness much too soon.

I will be putting together a special place on this website to honour a man who gave practically his whole life to the service of the Delta Youth Orchestra, both as a student violinist, a conductor and as the organization's Music Director. I invite all of you in the DYO community who knew and worked with Wallace, or played in a group under Wallace's direction to participate in this. Several of the conductors and staff of the DYO from past and present have also decided to start a Memorial Scholarship Fund in his honour. I am sure there will be more details of that in the coming weeks.

If you would like to pass on your private thoughts, feelings and reflections, please feel free to pass those on to me.

What a shock Monday to learn of Wallace's death. We remember Wallace from his years with the Delta Youth Orchestra and with the Delta Community Music School. At D. C. M. S. faculty concerts, Wallace always played his violin with a fire that excited all listeners. When our son, David, joined the orchestra at the pre-junior level, we learned that Wallace, then Music Director and Conductor of the senior orchestra had been a part of the D. Y. O. ever since joining it as a junior player, himself. We remember the strong loyalty the senior orchestra players showed for Wallace. Many remained with the D. Y. O. so long as to stretch the definition of 'youth,' then followed him from the D. Y. O. to his other orchestras. Our family has missed Wallace since his departure from the D. Y. O. a year and a half ago.

Wallace did not work directly with our David and David only played under Wallace's baton when all the D. Y. O. orchestras gathered together to play as a mass orchestra. Yet Wallace knew David by name and David knew Wallace enough to admire him. In David's second year with the junior orchestra, while at the D. Y. O. season start retreat, David, then ten years old, asked Wallace to listen to a violin piece he had made up on his own. Wallace took the time to give David's piece a good listen and shared his responses to the piece with David. Our son will likely always remember those few moments when the 'Great Man' took interest in his own music. While attending a musical play at Richmond's Gateway Theatre, where Wallace conducted the theatre orchestra, David took the intermission to go down to the orchestra pit to say, "Hello," and Wallace showed real delight in David's interest, conversing freely with our son. That is just the kind of person and musician Wallace Leung was.

I first met Wallace when he was 10 years old - when he came to me for violin lessons. He was a bright, sensitive young lad and had a lot of charm, which he quite unabashedly used when he explained to me that his mean old soccer coach made him practice so much that he didn't have time to practice the violin, and especially not the scales. And, if truth be told, there were many lessons when I thought that soccer might be a much better occupation for him. But Wallace was always persistent... and he was always a leader. Whether in the Junior section of the Delta Youth Orchestra, or playing in the intermediate section of the same orchestra, i could always count on him to play an important role. For instance, if the second or third violin section was weak, I could always ask Wallace to play first desk of that section -- and even though his skills were well above the level of the music he was playing, he would set an example for the other students by playing this sometimes uninteresting music with the same enthusiasm as if he were playing a solo with the orchestra.

At the time that Wallace went to attend Churchill High, we parted company... However, I kept in touch with Wallace because he kept playing with the DYO and eventually moved up to the senior division. Wallace was also attending UBC at the same time, and he got together a group of his musical friends and put on a concert. I don't quite know how this came about but this orchestra was made up of many of you who are here today to pay honour to Wallace. As I understood it, Wallace was conducting a group of his peers for the first time, -- I think, -- and had invited me to attend. The concert was held in the Old Auditorium at UBC and I don't quite know what I was expecting. BUT from the moment that Wallace raised his baton, I could feel the electricity flowing through it and I knew instantly that Wallace had found his instrument. And 10 years from the time he joined DYO as a player, Wallace began his first professional appointment as Conductor of the Junior Strings. Only a little time later, Wallace was appointed the Music Director of the Delta Youth Orchestra. Students who played with Wallace in that orchestra -- and who also played under his baton, have wonderful memories of those days. he demanded a lot from himself and expected no less from the members of the orchestra, no matter what age they were. When a youngster was playing a solo with the orchestra, Wallace made the student feel comfortable and he followed them extremely well. And to me, that sensitivity to others is the one triat a person requires to become a truly fine conductor, a truly fine person, and that is what Wallace had become. I had great respect and admiration for him, as did his peers.

I was so proud of Wallace when he took up the baton of the Prince George Symphony Orchestra -- where, from all reports, he displayed all the charm and sensitivity of the young man I first met 23 years ago.

I thank you, Mr. & Mrs. Leung, for giving me the opportunity to work with your remarkable son. And like so many others here, I will continue to carry his enthusiasm and commitment to his art in my heart -- throughout all the days of my teaching. The world may have lost a promising conductor, but all of us he touched have gained so much from knowing that vibrant young man, WALLACE LEUNG.

Lorraine Grescoe - violinist, teacher, mentor
Eulogy given Saturday January 26, 2002 - RIchmond BC.

Address for the Wallace Leung Memorial Concert - Gateway Theatre, March 10, 2002

Wallace had a long relationship with the Delta Youth Orchestra, about 15 years in total. As a young violinist he was a member in each of the three orchestras, junior, intermediate and senior. The DYO provided Wallace’s start as a conductor. He began studying conducting while concertmaster of the senior orchestra and was given many opportunities to develop his technique and conducting skills. His interest in conducting was encouraged and fostered. While studying at U.B.C. Wallace was hired to conduct the junior orchestra. Soon he became the intermediate conductor. And after a few more years Wallace was appointed Music Director and senior orchestra conductor. Many DYO musicians moved through the orchestral ranks with Wallace as their conductor, having the privilege to develop their orchestral musicianship under his baton in each of the DYO orchestras. Wallace’s musicianship and conducting skills were excellent. Every year his orchestra competed in the Kiwannis Festival and every time won top place. That was true for juniors, intermediates and seniors. Wallace encouraged each player to rise to their very best. He communicated his love of and dedication to music. The musicians under his leadership always rose to the occasion, be it a competition, a recording session, or a concert. Dozens of DYO members have gone on to study music in universities around the world, forge careers in music, some pursuing conducting careers. Wallace had very high standards and expected a strong commitment from the musicians he led. He was inspirational. He is missed.

I met Wallace when I was five years old. I came to his apartment and he gave me a blue book and he taught me how to pluck strings. Years later, I can still vividly remember that summer day when I took my first lesson with him. Whenever I plucked the wrong string, he would laugh and encourage me. That is a memory I will always remember. Now that I am thirteen, I really think that Wallace was a real inspiration. To tell the truth, I wasn't really a good hardworking student who really enjoyed playing the violin, but his commitment in teaching me, his enthusiasm, and his will, really pushed me and made me try my best although I didn't really enjoy it.

When I was eight, he encouraged me to go to DYO in pre-juniors, and I passed. Two years later, I went on to Juniors. I never finished the rest because I lived really far away from Delta, in Burnaby, and I also had many other out of school activities. Today, I can still remember those days when I would go to his apartment when I was really young. There were these cats that I played with, and for some reason, I really liked the place where he lived, in downtown. While he was tuning my violin, he would let me play with his piano, or play with the magnets on his bookshelf. I think that Wallace was a real confident person, who strived for more, and never gave up on anything. This really showed in his teaching, because I think he knew that I didn't really practice my violin much, although I was really good at my school, partially because I started earlier than the rest of my classmates. There were times when I got in trouble, times when I didn't try my best, or concentrate. And Wallace knew that I could do better, that I was lazy... now that I'm older, I think that Wallace was right, I really regret what I left behind. Playing violin was fun.

-Stephanie Fung - student
March 2003

GUEST EDITORIAL - THE PRINCE GEORGE CITIZEN

REMEMBERING WALLACE

Our community lost someone very special when life slipped away from Wallace Leung last Friday. Appointed last March as Conductor and Music Director for the Prince George Symphony Orchestra, we got to know Wallace as a man passionate about music and enthusiastic about this community.

He had big plans for the orchestra, including future performances in other northern communities. Because his interests spanned the spectrum of musical possibilities, he also worked with musical theatre, opera and chamber music and with young people in groups like the Delta Youth Orchestra. At 33, already he had earned a world reputation and the respect of numerous international colleagues.

In Prince George, people responded warmly and welcomed him to our community. Eminently likeable, audiences liked him back and stayed after performances to talk with their conductor. He was that approachable and interested to relate to audience members.

In the very best sense, Wallace was also a teacher. He wanted people to hear some unfamiliar, unusual pieces as well as the traditional work of major composers. An example was the Strings Plus performance, conducted earlier this month by his friend and fellow conductor, Bradley Thachuk. As a tribute and with hope for his recovery, the concert was performed exactly as Wallace had planned it.

It was our good fortune that we got to know Wallace Leung. We appreciated his talent and were just beginning to sense the possibilities he imagined. One way we can honour his memory is to support our symphony by making sure it performs to the full houses the PGSO deserves.

Guest editorial by Valerie Giles.
Printed in the Prince George Citizen 22 January 2002, p. 4.

Tributes to Wallace Leung