Marion Elizabeth Haggart, formerly Camburn, nee Gibbs, skilled accompanist, nature lover, former radio DJ and awesome tickler, died on Saturday 28th March 2020 after a short but fatal illness.

Born to Peg and Archie Gibbs in Victoria BC, she left to travel to London, aged 19, where she studied at the Royal Academy of Music and achieved her LRAM. Marion qualified in Accompaniment, where she was always happiest, rather than being at the centre stage as the main performer. She taught many, many pupils to become excellent performers in their own right, and this may be her greatest legacy, that she instilled in others the simple enjoyment of the music, whether listening or performing.

Married twice, first to John Camburn in England, and subsequently to Doug Haggart in Canada. Marion had four children from her first marriage; Simon (Phyllis), Jessica (Glen Auker), Philip (Angie), and Gregory, all of whom, with Marion’s beloved grandchildren (Chloe, Lois, Tabitha, Ben, Drew and Charlie) live in England, but regularly travelled to visit her at her beautiful home on Lake Menominee, Baysville, Ontario

In 1983 she returned to Canada and married Doug Haggart, from whom Marion inherited three further children in Laird, Leslie (Ken George) and Dougal (Marie Zernask), the latter two along with grandchildren (Aileen, Wyatt, Unika), who also survive her.

When the children were young, the house would be frequently filled with the haunting passion of Debussy or Rachmaninoff, and sometimes the discord of a new student over-reaching their talents, but there was always music and the appreciation of what music could do for your soul.

Aside from music, Marion instilled in her offspring a love of all things natural, and she surely had the best outlook from her front room that anyone could fairly expect to have. Regular, excited exclamations of “deer tracks!” would accompany our forest excursions with our parents. The simple enjoyment of all things natural, that was her forte.

Once settled in Muskoka, Marion co-founded the Muskoka Musical Arts Society (MMAS), an organization which offered scholarships, co-founded the Huntsville Community Choir, and also The Muskoka-Parry Sound Music Festival (M-PSMF), a Kiwanis-like music festival which alternated annually between Huntsville and Parry Sound. The M-PSMF provided performance opportunities with accredited adjudication to students of all ages with any instrumentation. Marion was a pioneer in knowing what the community needed, musically, and providing it.

Early on, Marion offered a tasteful selection of music compositions with historical anecdotes in a radio program she created, called; “A Little Night Music”, featuring classical music. This radio program later evolved into a house concert series entitled; “A Little Night Music House Concert Series”, offered in different homes in the Huntsville area, hosting 3 live concerts a year, of mostly classical performers. The proceeds were donated to local valuable causes.

As the accompanist for solo performers, Marion was a founding member of the Huntsville Chamber Players, she being the integral link who brought together 4 other solo musicians to perform Baroque chamber music.

One of her projects, established more than thirty years ago, which continues to be enjoyed by Huntsville Festival of the Arts (HFA) patrons still today, started as a weekly program known as Mid-Week Music. This one hour concert at noon, held once a week, was appreciated by and requested by Huntsville Festival of the Arts (HFA) co-founders, Attila Glatz and Susan Alberghini to become part of the HFA, and so Marion’s Mid-Week concerts became a daily offering during the Festival, re-naming the noon hour concert to be Music at Noon.

Much loved by her local community, kind, thoughtful, engaging, enthusiastic, and always inquisitive, Marion will be sadly missed by all who survive and remember her.

In keeping with Marion’s request, there will be no funeral or ceremony.

Rest in peace, Marion.