Manitoba’s choral music community is mourning the loss of one of the province’s greatest conductors.
George Wiebe, the longtime director of the Faith and Life Male Chorus and the choirs of Canadian Mennonite Bible College (a predecessor college of Canadian Mennonite University) passed away on June 5 at the age of 98. Together with his wife Esther (who passed away in 2023), Wiebe laid down a blueprint for community music-making that still resonates in Winnipeg and across the province to this day.
A family of music
Alongside their commitments to creating music in the community, George and Esther were also dedicated to ensuring that music rang through their house with their children. Their son Bob Wiebe has spent many years as a violinist with the Mennonite Community Orchestra, and his brother Peter played the cello in the Windsor Symphony Orchestra.
“We had a family string quartet,” Peter recalls, “and at some point, Dad started bringing me along to play along with some of the choir pieces and come along to performances and I loved doing that and being kind of the tag-along little brat.”
It was a slightly different story for Bob. “I was a little reluctant about this and I didn’t buy in, you might say,” he says, “but now, I find myself doing what my mom and dad did, leading music regularly at the church.”
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Both Bob and Peter speak about their father’s work ethic when it came to the music that he conducted and shared over the course of his life. “It wasn’t like a technician,” Bob says of his dad’s approach to music. “It was like a passionate person doing this so that the music could glorify God. That was his ultimate goal all the time.”
That passion was just easily passed along to his children as it was to his choir. “Dad would sometimes come into the room while I was practicing cello and he would be encouraging. Sometimes, he would say, ‘Maybe you could do a little bit more with the sound.’ It sort of encouraged me to listen for more and it’s like he was always listening as as a choral director, listening for the sound of the choir and what kind of sounds are possible.”
Contributing beyond the stage
Along with leading memorable performances of works like Brahms’ German Requiem and tours to South America and Ukraine with his ensembles, George Wiebe is also being remembered for his other contributions to countless lives. This included serving on communities for Mennonite hymnals in English and German as well as providing encouragement and guidance to the next generation of choir and church music leaders.
“One thing Dad would do is that he would see potential in people,” says Peter. “He was not just thinking of his own fame or something, but he would see possibilities in other people – ‘You would make a good organist. You would make a good composer. You should study voice.’”
“It’s a lesson in leadership that comes first to mind.”
The people that George served and inspired will be out in full force at his funeral, which will include a choir filled with family and alumni that sang under his baton at CMBC – a fitting tribute for a man who always strove to create meaningful gatherings in music.
“His legacy I think is the passion that he had for this kind of music-making, and he passed it on to individuals who continue to pass it on. It’s as simple as that,” says Bob.
Remembrances of George Wiebe are being shared through Birchwood Funeral Chapel.