2020 Scout House Youth Scholarship Winner
Mia Haug, who graduates this summer from St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School in Cambridge, is the 2020 winner of the $900 Wilf Blum Memorial Youth Music Scholarship. After starting music training at age two, she is a trumpet player who marched with the Preston Scout House Cadets drum and bugle corps in 2015 and 2016, composes music, has performed with many different school ensembles, started her school’s first marching band, sings on stage, has served as stage manager and is a thyroid cancer survivor.
She was unable to play the trumpet for several months while undergoing surgeries and radiation treatment, after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer at age 14. She had to work very hard to relearn the instrument.
Mia Haug, 2020 Wilf Blum Memorial Youth Music Scholarship Winner
Preston Scout House Band Inc. of Cambridge offers annual youth music scholarships in memory of Band founder Wilf Blum to a Waterloo Region student who intends to make music a central part of his or her life. The award may be applied to post-secondary tuition in a music program, lessons with an accredited teacher or purchase of an instrument.
After passing her audition for the Bachelor of Music program at the University of Western Ontario in London, she received a music scholarship of merit, which she will use to help pay first year tuition. She will also use the limited payments she receives as a trumpet teacher to help with tuition costs. Plans to purchase a C trumpet and piccolo trumpet she will need for a performing career have been altered because she has been laid off from her part time job during the Covid 19 shutdown.
She is currently working her way through the Royal Conservatory of Music (RMC) grade 8 theory book while also composing a trumpet solo. She plans to continue her formal training through university grad school in order to become a university professor, private teacher and trumpet performer.
She is already an experienced performer as a member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Youth Concert Band for the past two seasons. She will join the Waterloo-Wellington Honour Band again next season. She was accepted for the current season, which was cancelled because of the pandemic. In 2016, she was a member of the Laurier/OBA (Ontario Band Association) Elementary Honour Band, an educational concert band program to develop not only the participants’ musical capabilities, but also their self confidence, team work and spirit.
She has won awards at every grade level while performing with school ensembles, including grade 9 Spirit Award in Music; grade 10 Outstanding Achievement in Jazz Band; grade 11 Leadership Award in the Arts. She also won the Music Award as a grade 8 graduate. With a love of singing, she has also acted in high school productions and served as stage manager.
Ten Waterloo students have previously received scholarships since Scout House initiated the program in 2014. The 2020 review and selection panel includes Caroline Hissa: a graduate of the Masters of Arts Degree in Community Music program at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Executive Director of the Community Music School of Waterloo Region; Paul Mitchell, president, Central Ontario Musicians Association, Local 226 of the American Federation of Musicians; Gord Cupskey, director and music instructor for Silver Leaves Brass and Preston Scout House Band.
Preston Scout House Band, Inc. is a non-profit corporation with registered charity status able to issue tax receipts to donors, incorporated under the Corporations Act of the Province of Ontario on November 29, 1956. The multi-unit organization offers individuals the opportunity to “Arrange the soundtrack of your life” in marching arts activities starting at age 8 and continuing throughout life.
For more information about Preston Scout House Band Inc. activities, contact telephone (519) 653-3376, email prestonscouthouseband [dot] adm [at] sympatico [dot] ca or visit the website at: scouthouseband.com.
