She’s a classical soprano, a voice teacher and a costume shop owner, but Megan Skidmore was almost a Powell River kid as well.
“My dad actually spent most of his 20s in Lund,” she explained. “He was a fisherman and my mom and him met here but then they moved up to Terrace. When I was five we moved and their original intention was to come to Powell River but we were over in Comox visiting friends and I think my mom and I got sick or something.” Instead of catching the extra ferry over to Westview to go house hunting, the family settled—quite literally—where they were. Comox became home for the next three decades.
That’s not to say that Powell River wouldn’t resurface on Skidmore’s radar, though. As a young singer she competed at the 1997 BC Festival of The Arts. “The next year I came over and did the solo competition at [International Choral] Kathaumixw, so already at that point I knew that something happened over here and it was something way more than whatever happened in Comox.”
During her years at university, Skidmore would return home every summer to go prawning with her parents. “I am a member of the Prawn Trap Family Singers, of which we are three,” she joked, adding that it was fitting she’d later spend time in Austria, taking master classes and additional courses there.
A few years would pass before she’d return to Powell River, but in 2009 Skidmore responded to a call for soloists at Chorfest, to be held that May. “They were doing Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, and so I auditioned for Don James at the Academy of Music, and at that point I remember Terry [Sabine] pulling me aside and giving me a lovely tour of the school. She talked about all the wonderful things that happened there and at the end of it she said ‘oh and by the way we’re looking for a singing teacher.’”
Not only did Skidmore land the soprano solo a few days later, but she had also decided to take Sabine up on her offer. She became Powell River’s newest private voice instructor the following January. As if making the move to another community wasn’t pressure enough, she soon learned she’d be following in the footsteps of local legends like Eleanor Anderson, Margaret Ferguson and Nancy Hollmann. “Those are big shoes to fill,” Skidmore said.
The McGill University graduate rose to the occasion, becoming the mentor to an ever-expanding roster of students, including recent Performing Arts BC Provincial Festival Powell River double-winner Jeremy Hopper and runners-up Ciara Maguire and Jan Swanson. “I adore students like them because they come in ready to work and they go home and practice and actually think about the things that I’ve said and put them to use,” said Skidmore. “It’s so great when you have students who want to do that…I’m not surprised that those three did as well as they did.”
Every September, Skidmore has a one-on-one chat with her entire brood. “I ask everybody, ‘What is your goal for this year? What is it that you want to achieve?’” Some tell her they’d like to sing a song in the year-end recital. Others want to be able to hold their own in the Powell River Chorus. “Everybody has different things that they want to walk away with,” she said.
Despite her busy teaching schedule, Skidmore manages to nurture her own goals, too. With pianist Sarah Hagen and others, she still performs frequently around BC. Last year, she acquired a costume rental business which she now runs out of the basement of her home. And, of course, there’s the ongoing dilemma of trying to outdo her previous comedy routines from Kathaumixw’s closing ceremonies—a tradition she and accompanist Ellen Wang have become known for. Her unorthodox rendition of “Nessun Dorma” from Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot—the lines of which were delivered between mouthfuls of wine and spaghetti—was a hit at the 2012 festival. A more recent number about a tone deaf soprano still has people talking over a year later. Needless to say, the pressure is on for next July.
Skidmore said she considers herself lucky to be able to enjoy small-town life without having limited career options because of it. “I’m very fortunate that I ended up here and that I get to come into work every day and work with some pretty amazing people,” she explained. “There’s a lot to be learned teaching and we need teachers out there to pass on the love of music to the next generation…I love to perform but I also love working with the talent that is here and hoping that they’re going to take that with them and they’re going to do something with it.”
