Making a better place to play

Still, a $5-million shortfall remained. The kickoff campaign for the balance began last April, with a gala dinner where Partridge announced his family’s personal donation of $1 million; in recognition of that gift, the main concert hall will be named Partridge Hall.

Already, the campaign has raised approximately $1.8 million, and Partridge is confident the goal can be reached. Major corporate contributors include Algoma Central Corp., a large shipping company based in St. Catharines, and Montreal-based Cogeco Cable Inc., the main cable-TV service provider for the Niagara region.

The new venue – designed by Diamond + Schmitt, the architects responsible for Toronto’s new ballet and opera house – will be a 8,500-square-metre concert complex located in downtown St. Catharines, near Brock University’s new Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. The complex will be home to four venues: a main concert hall that will seat 775 people, a 300-seat recital hall, a 210-seat dance/theatre hall and a 187-seat film theatre.

The project is being developed in partnership with Brock University, which will be moving its Walker school of performing arts to an adjacent location. There will be a walkway joining the two facilities. Both the recital hall and film venue will share access with the performing arts school.

That new connection with the university will add a whole new dimension to the arts community, says Partridge: “We will really have the size to become a cultural campus, which is going to play a huge role in the revitalization of downtown St. Catharines. We are going to bring a whole new level of artistic experience to both performers and audience members.”

Although Partridge was born and raised in Kingston, Ont., he has lived in St. Catharines for more than 50 years and, during that time, has become something of an icon within the local performing arts community. He is a former member of the Brock University board of trustees and currently is chairman of the Rodman Hall Arts Centre advisory board. He has been an active board member and is a past president of the Niagara Symphony, Choirs Ontario and the St. Catharine’s Community Concerts Association. He continues to be a great supporter of Chorus Niagara and the Canadian Opera Company, among many other arts groups.

“The arts are the soul and spirit of the community,” Partridge says. “Music and arts speak to people in different ways, and it is just as important to have an arts venue as it is to have a sports facility.”

Partridge grew up surrounded by music, with a mother who was an avid pianist. Choir practice at Kingston’s St. George’s Cathedral was a passion for Partridge as a young boy. He often travelled to Toronto to sing at St. James Cathedral, one of downtown Toronto’s most famous churches, where he later became assistant organist during his high-school years.

One of Partridge’s most memorable trips took place in 1954, when, along with 30 other choir members, he travelled to Westminster Abbey in London, U.K., to sing daily services for three weeks. “It was a year after the coronation [of Queen Elizabeth II],” Partridge says, “and an extremely exciting time to be there.”

Seven years later, he was accepted to the Royal Academy of Music in London; during his studies, he was assistant to the organist of Westminster Abbey. Upon graduation, Partridge returned to Canada to be the director of music at Ridley College, a private boarding school in St. Catharines.

That gig turned out to be a pivotal one for Partridge. During an Easter break, one of his students invited him to dinner with his mother and stepfather, Sir John Templeton.

“The discussion around the dinner table was fascinating,” Partridge says, “with John just being back from China and Japan, [where he had been] investigating various companies. You could hear the enthusiasm that he had for the financial services industry and the mutual fund business.” Partridge liked what he heard and became an investment advisor in 1970.

The switch didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for music and Partridge was an organist and choirmaster at St. Paul Street United Church in St. Catharines for 27 years before retiring in 1997.

“Being an organist at a big downtown church, I met wonderful people who eventually became clients,” Partridge says. “By inviting clients and prospective clients to musical events, symphonies and choral music, I certainly was able to expand my horizons and share the joy that the arts can bring.”

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