Proving that music really is the gift that keeps on giving, School of Music Professor Emeritus Ian McDougall presented Fine Arts with a cheque for $16,000 in early December—the first significant payment in the “one potato” fund created by the sales of his Fine Arts benefit CD, The Very Thought of You.
Ibrahim Inayatali (left) with Ian McDougall and Susan Lewis Hammond
McDougall, together with Associate Vice-President of Alumni and Development Ibrahim Inayatali and acting Music Director Susan Lewis Hammond, gave the cheque to Fine Arts in early December. He is clearly pleased with the album’s success, but realizes the necessity of keeping it in the public eye. “The record is popular now and selling well, but it’s important to keep it going,” said McDougall.
“It’s great you had the vision to do this and make it benefit all of Fine Arts,” Lewis Hammond told McDougall at the presentation. Inayatali agreed, noting he will be taking copies of the CD along on an upcoming alumni trip to Hong Kong. “This is your life’s work, to be supporting students perpetually.”
Conceived of as a benefit album for Fine Arts students in financial need, The Very Thought of You features 14 beautiful ballads from the ’30s and ’40s with McDougall on his signature trombone, backed by a string orchestra—but the best part is that $10 from each $20 CD goes directly to a new emergency fund created by him to benefit Fine Arts students in financial need. Currently available downtown at Munro’s Books, Lyle’s Place and Larsen Music, The Very Thought of You can also be found on-campus at the Bookstore, Arts Place, the School of Music, Phoenix Theatre and the main Fine Arts office. Online, you can find it at CD Baby or through McDougall’s own website.
Nicknamed the “one potato” fund, the idea of creating a means to help out needy students came to McDougall a number of years ago, after he saw a student buying his meal for the night at a local grocery store: a single potato.
If you have yet to pick up a copy, don’t forget The Very Thought of You makes a great gift for the holiday season!