Morris Soenen has lived in Lethbridge his whole life. A member of the CCHS class of 1969, he has been a motorcycle enthusiast and mechanic, banjo and mandolin player and a lifelong lover of music.
Morris has had a long involvement in the Lethbridge Folk Club since the mid-80s, acting as club president, with only one break in his leadership since 1995.
As one of the longest-running Folk Clubs in Alberta, Morris has been involved since the mid-80s and has been president since 1995. We need to celebrate his over 30 years of leadership in the club. As written in an article in the Lethbridge Herald on March 22, 2002, Lethbridge Folk Club labour of love for Morris by Dave Sulz, “Soenen is a firm believer in live music and one of the reasons is the intimacy created between the musicians and the audience.” He says, “That’s one of the nicer things about it. Everybody can talk to the artist. They have a conversation and find out who they really are.” As a businessman, he owned MJS Cycle and Salvage, a motorcycle repair shop, and the Wolf’s Den, the Lethbridge Folk Club’s concert venue for more than a decade, closing in 2018. Morris is now retired and spends his time as Lethbridge Folk Club President and artistic director, playing banjo, attending festivals and riding his trusty motorcycle into the sunset and anywhere else he wants to go.