Len Hew Bursary
Audrey Belyea Scholarship
Camerata Nova Bursary
Emmanuel Horch Memorial Bursaries
Frances Wickberg Bursary
James Vaclav Machovec Memorial Bursary
John Melnyk Memorial Bursary
Joy of Music Scholarships
Junior Musical Club Bursary
Len Hew Bursary
Lydia Wiebe Scholarship
M. Winnifred Sim Bursary
Madge O. Stevens Bursary
Mary Campbell Memorial Bursaries
Morna-June Morrow Scholarships
Stewart M. Thomson Memorial Bursary
W.H. Anderson Family Bursary
Walter & Helen Bohonos Award
Wednesday Morning Musicale Award and Bursaries
Wickberg/Mercier Bursary
Winnipeg Mennonite Children’s Choir and Alumni Golden Era Bursaries
Awards
Len Hew Bursary
NameOfPersonOrOrganization
Len Hew was born and raised in Malaysia of Chinese parentage. After high school, he went to Taiwan for university studies. After his graduation, he travelled to Canada to study at the University of Manitoba, taking graduate studies in Political Science. He became a high school teacher, teaching at Sanford Collegiate in Sanford, Manitoba for more than 20 years, at which time he took early retirement to try something else.
In 1995, when his wife also took early retirement, the couple traveled to the province of Yunnan, China where they taught English for 3 years. Yunnan is a border region of China and is inhabited by many poor ethnic minorities. Len and his wife started a small charity called ‘Yunnan Project Hope’ to raise funds to help build schools in the area. They also ran a student financial assistance program. Over the 20 years the Hews were involved, they built 30 schools for the small mountainous communities. In 2015, as they were getting older, Len and his wife stepped down from the charity’s Board. His brother-in-law has taken over as President of the organization.
Len always enjoyed classical music and guitar. Wanting to play the instrument himself, he took lessons on and off over the years. While teaching English in China, he tried to promote classical guitar among his college students, but was not successful.
During the 1990s, he took lessons from Skender Sefa of Winnipeg, who was at the time President of the Winnipeg Classical Guitar Society at that time. Skender was trying to promote the importance of the classical guitar and its music to the local musical community as well as to recognize the classical guitar as equal in importance to other musical instruments.
As a member of both the Winnipeg Classical Guitar Society and the Winnipeg Music Festival Board of Directors, Skender was looking for donors to provide both trophies and monetary awards for the different levels of classical guitar players in the Festival. Len was deeply honoured by the invitation extended to him.
He chose to purchase a trophy and established a permanent bursary to accompany it. In addition to the Winnipeg Classical Guitar Society, Len is very grateful to Winnipeg Music Festival for giving him the chance to play a role in promoting classical guitar – achieving a life long personal goal.
The Len Hew Bursary is awarded to the recipient of the Winnipeg Classical Guitar Society – Len Hew Trophy for the most outstanding performance in Classical Guitar Classes Grade/Level 9 to Honours, as selected by the adjudicator.