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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Music fans mourn guitarist, teacher
WINNIPEG music fans are mourning the loss of Ashley McCurdy, a performer who helped organize the Corefest music festival and founded an organization that donated guitars to under-privileged children.
McCurdy, 38, died at his home on Sunday. Family members are planning a celebration of his life but details weren't finalized Thursday.
He had been a fixture on the Winnipeg music scene for two decades. He started playing in local bands as a teenager and over the years was in groups such as Artificial Joy, Buckethitch and his solo project, Mr. McCurdy.
He worked and volunteered at numerous organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club of Winnipeg and the Manitoba Métis Federation, where he gave guitar lessons. He was a co-organizer of music festival Corefest from 1992 to 2000 and in 2009 he founded the non-profit organization Guitars for Kids that donated instruments to lower-income families.
He hoped the donated guitars would spread his love of the instrument and give the young people something to practise on at home.
"The idea is they become a mentor and every student becomes a guitar teacher. Hopefully it spreads and passes on and turns into a lifelong passion like it did for me. Some of these kids could still be playing guitar when they're 50, so that's what I get out of it, passing on the love of guitar," McCurdy told the Free Press in a 2010 feature on the program.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 17, 2012 D2
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