ALMA WYNNE MEMORIAL TROPHY

The St. David's Society donated the Alma Wynne Memorial Trophy to the Winnipeg Music Festival in 1949, in memory of Alma Wynne, who died tragically as a youth in a train accident. This trophy was originally awarded in an annual competition of Junior Vocal Class winners. Since 1960, it has been awarded for the most outstanding performance in a competition of vocalists, 18 years of age & under.

Alma Wynne was born in 1929 and died tragically in the Dugald train wreck on Labour Day 1947. She was a student at Laura Secord School and Gordon Bell High School. She studied singing with Doris Mills. Alma was a talented young lady, with a beautiful singing voice and outstanding dramatic and artistic abilities. She performed in her school operetta productions, and in 1946, at age seventeen, participated in the Winnipeg Music Festival, winning the Junior Contralto solo, Junior Folk Song solo and Junior Gilbert & Sullivan Operatic solo classes. In the latter class, she received a mark of 95 for her interpretation of Mad Margaret's Song from Ruddigore. The adjudicator Mr. Golsbrough said, "No words of mine could do justice to this performance. It is so mature and imaginative - it was a staggering performance".