Co-owner of Halifax Folklore Centre passes away

Co-owner of the Halifax Folklore Centre Tom Dorward is pictured. (Facebook/Halifax Folklore Centre)

Tom Dorward, who co-owned a music store in Halifax and helped nurture the East Coast scene for more than 50 years, has passed away.

Dorward launched the Halifax Folklore Centre with his wife Marla in 1971, according to a statement from the store. Operating out of a 150-year-old Victorian home on Brunswick Street, the business buys, sells, trades, builds and repairs stringed instruments.

“His loss will be felt deeply not only by us at the shop, but by everyone who has walked through our doors,” the statement reads. “The shop will continue to run in his absence, keeping up the legacy he and Marla built to support the local music scene and musicians abroad.”

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The store has attracted legions of dedicated customers over the years, including performers like Joel Plaskett.

“I love what I do,” Dorward said in a 2021 interview with CTV News Atlantic. “We restore old instruments, vintage instruments. People find things in their closets that they bring in that haven’t been played in years. We fix them up and make them playable again.”

Noah Tye studied under Dorward’s mentorship for 15 years.

“Every day I’d watch him do something that, you know, was almost like magic,” he told CTV News Atlantic’s Katie Kelly. “He imparted on me just how much knowledge he had.

“I think people’s music sounds a whole lot better just because of him. I think we’re all a little more in tune just because of Tom.”

-With files from Katie Kelly

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