We had a great time meeting the faculty and students in the music school at WLU, and really enjoyed our brief stay in West Virginia. Of course, when we travel, we always make a point of seeking out the best traditional local cuisine, which of course led us to coffee and doughnuts at that venerable West Virginia institution, Tim Hortons… (click on the photo for a closer look.)

If you want to see some rather more scenic photos of TNB on the road, check out Al’s photo site, alkayphotos.com. There you can view Al’s fabulous photos from his various travels, including his motorcycle trip through Labrador and TNB’s residency at Music by the Sea.

Yamaha Canada has been a wonderful advocate of True North Brass — beyond building the instruments we play, they’ve been terrific partners in our education and outreach efforts. Now, they’ve begun a series of podcast interviews with Yamaha artists, and one of the first such interviews is with Joan and Scott. You can hear them talk about their development as musicians, their life together as musicians, and their thoughts on what it takes to make it in the music business today.

Click here for a direct link to the podcast: Yamaha Podcast: Joan & Scott

You can view the Yamaha Canada podcasts page here. Check out the interview with Chase Sanborn, who performed as a featured soloist with TNB at the 2008 International Trumpet Guild Conference in Banff, Alberta.

Last week, True North Brass gave 12 performances in and around Parry Sound as part of the “Music Scores” program which is run by the Festival of the Sound and co-sponsored by the Music Performance Fund. For three days, we travelled from school to school, introducing ourselves and our instruments to the students. We performed not only in Parry Sound, but also Britt, Nobel, Wasauksing, Humphrey, Mactier, McDougall and Dunchurch. Fortunately, we didn’t have to find our own way around. Cam Murch and Jim Ferris served as our guides, and without them we almost certainly would have gotten lost and been devoured by bears. (We would have been an especially tasty treat, given our daily doses of butter tarts from Richard’s Coffee in Parry Sound, and the fabulous breakfasts at the Bayside Inn.)

On the fourth day, the students all came to the Charles Stockey Centre in Parry Sound, where we performed for them again. We really enjoyed the entire trip — I’ve played for many supposedly adult audiences that weren’t as quiet and attentive, which is especially remarkable the day before Hallowe’en! Obviously, the small communities outside Parry Sound don’t host a lot of concerts, so it’s great to be able to bring live music to kids who don’t often get that opportunity. It’s fantastic that the Festival of the Sound brings this program to them, and it was a real joy and privilege to be part of it.

Ceremonial Fanfare by Scott Irvine

In preparation for our performances, the students at St. Peter’s School in Parry Sound and Nobel Public School listened to some of our recordings and created some cool artwork inspired by what they heard. Follow the links below for two more videos!

“Downbound from Thunder Bay” from Ontario Pictures by Howard Cable

“Point Pelee” from Ontario Pictures by Howard Cable

For more details about tickets and venues, please click on these links:

Saturday: TNB with Eric Robertson

Sunday: TNB with Rideau Lakes Brass Quintet

Monday: R. Murray Schafer’s Isfahan

For lots more about the musicians, the music, and the programs, click here or follow the link below!

Saturday, August 2nd, 8:00 pm, Dominion-Chalmers United Church

Our Saturday evening performance features organist Eric Robertson. Eric is a Juno and Gemini award winner, and is music director and organist at St. Paul’s Bloor Street in Toronto. We’ll be joining Eric for three numbers: Scott’s Ceremonial Fanfare and Morning Music, and Mussorgksy’s Pictures at an Exhibition in Scott’s brand new transcription for brass and organ. The quintet alone will also be performing Calixa Lavallée’s La rose nuptiale and Morley Calvert’s Suite on Canadian Folk Songs, and Eric will be performing four solo selections, including three works by J.S. Bach. You can see the festival program here (PDF).

We’re all very excited about Scott’s version of Pictures. As brass players, we finally get a crack at the juicy solos that Ravel foolishly assigned to other instruments, and the combination of brass and organ creates an absolutely fabulous sound. 

For this performance, we’re also delighted to welcome one of the founding members of True North Brass (and another brass quintet you may have heard of), Stuart Laughton. Stuart will be filling in for Ray, and he’ll be featured in Morning Music, a piece he has performed many times and which was originally written for him. Stuart’s energy and musicianship make him a real joy to work with, and we’re sure you’ll enjoy hearing him play with TNB once again.

Sunday, August 3rd, 4:00 pm

On Sunday afternoon, you can hear us on the grounds of Rideau Hall in a free concert. We’re delighted to be sharing the stage with the Rideau Lakes Brass Quintet (Karen Donnelly and John Ellis, trumpets; Jill Kirwan, horn; Donald Renshaw, trombone; Nick Atkinson, tuba). It’s a real treat to get to play with such great musicians and fabulous people. Both groups will perform selections on their own, but of course we’ll also band together for some spectacular pieces for double brass quintet.

You can see the festival program here (PDF), but it’s not entirely accurate, so what follows is the most up-to-date list of the repertoire TNB will be performing at this concert. (The other information in the program is correct.)

Scott Irvine: The True North

Duke Ellington: Don’t Get Around Much Any More

Monti: Czardas (featuring Al’s dazzling trombone playing)

arr. Scott Irvine: Purple Bamboo Melody

Jim McGrath: Tango from Three Miniatures

arr. Al Kay: Londonderry Air

Youmans, Kahn & Eliscu: Carioca

For this performance and again on Monday evening, TNB is very pleased to once again welcome Brendan Cassin. Brendan is a fabulous trumpet player who performs all over the Toronto area, and I always consider myself lucky to get to play alongside him. Useless trivia item: with Brendan filling in for Ray, everybody in the group is either a french horn player (Joan) or married to one!

Monday, August 4th, 8:00 pm

Our final performance in Ottawa is part of a celebration of the 75th birthday of one of Canada’s greatest composers, R. Murray Schafer. The program (see it here, PDF) features four works by Schafer, including a world première, but the grand finale is his work Isfahan for three brass quintets. The work was inspired by two historic buildings in the Iranian city of Isfahan, both of which have remarkable acoustic properties. For this performance, we once again join the Rideau Lakes Brass Quintet, plus Geoffrey Thompson and Michael Fedyshyn (trumpets), Lawrence Vine (horn), Colin Traquair (trombone), and Christopher Lee (tuba). The performance will be conducted by Alain Trudel, who also happens to be one of the world’s finest trombonists. This promises to be a truly memorable event.

We look forward to seeing you in Ottawa!

It may be true that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but in the summer there is very often an abundance of free concerts. Over the next couple of weeks, TNB is performing in two such concerts, so this is your chance to hear some great music absolutely free.

This Friday, July 25th, we’ll be performing as part of What is Classical? This event, which takes place at Toronto’s Harbourfront, includes three days of concerts exploring the idea of “classical” music from a range of cultural perspectives. We’ll be playing from 7:30 to 8:00 on the Toronto Star Stage. (If, like me, you’re not exactly sure where that is, click here for a map.)

Al’s enjoying a well-deserved break this week, so for this performance we have a special guest, Curtis Metcalf. Curtis is one of the world’s finest euphonium players, and is Artistic Director of the Hannaford Street Silver Band. He’ll be featured in the virtuosic theme and variations, Grandfather’s Clock.

We’ll also be performing a selection of pieces focussed on folk music and music from Canada, including Morley Calvert’s Canadian Folk Song Suite, Calixa Lavalée’s La rose nuptiale, and two fanfares by our own Scott Irvine.

If you’re nearer to our nation’s capital, you’ll have three chances to hear us this August, and one of those is also a free concert. On August 3rd, we’ll be playing on the grounds of Rideau Hall along with our good friends, the Rideau Lakes Brass Quintet. Watch this blog for more information on all of our performances at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival; in the meantime, you can get more information on all of our performances on the Events page.

Because of the remarkable acoustics of the Temple, Stephen Cera, who is Artistic Director of Music at Sharon, requested that we include some antiphonal music in our program. So, for this performance, we invited Rob Weymouth & James Langridge (trumpets), Julian Alexandrov (horn), our webmaster Nick Mahon (trombone), and Courtney Lambert (tuba) to join us in a few selections, including Samuel Scheidt’s Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ and a double quintet version of Scott’s Ceremonial Fanfare. TNB also performed selections from John Beckwith’s Tunes of the Sharon Band, which is a suite of music which was played by the first civilian band in Canada.

Inside the building, one of the most striking features is “Jacob’s Ladder,” which leads to a gallery on the second story. To begin the second half of the program, Ray, Rob and I climbed the ladder and played the fanfare from Swan Lake to call the audience back in. I’m pretty good with heights — I once acquired the nickname “Monkey Boy” — but it was a little disconcerting to realize that as soon as we climbed down one of the ushers roped off the ladder and hung a sign warning people to stay off! But we made it in one piece, and for the first time in my career I received applause for climbing a ladder.

All in all, it was a wonderful event — a great venue, an appreciative audience, and none of the trumpet players fell to their deaths! The shot above shows Ray making his descent. (Click the photo to enlarge.)

Very cool!

Joan

Over the past few months, we’ve been busy getting this new and improved website ready for you. Nick and Amy Mahon have done an admirable job of putting up with our nitpicking and woeful lack of web savvy, and have built a website that we’re sure will be both informative and easy-to-use.

One of the most obvious new features of the site is this blog. We’re hoping to use it to connect with listeners, brass players, and anybody else who happens along. The plan for the blog is to be as flexible as possible, and use this forum for whatever strikes our fancy — or yours! Whether it’s discussion of past shows or upcoming events, our ideas about playing brass instruments or music in general, or even Scott’s gazpacho recipe, eventually you will find it here. If you want to see it, don’t be afraid to ask for it in the comments or via the contact page. We’re more than happy to try to respond to your requests. If you’re wondering what happened to the old website archives, have no fear — one of the regular features of this blog will be to republish articles from the old archives.

We’ve also enhanced our online store. You can now listen to MP3 samples from every track of every CD, and I have to say that I’m extremely impressed with the slick new shopping cart Nick has implemented. As well, you can purchase sheet music for many of our arrangements directly from this site. One of our priorities is creating and disseminating quality repertoire for brass quintet, and in the coming months we’ll be releasing many more pieces.

Of course, the website isn’t the only thing that’s new. Some of you may have noticed a new face in the group, and boy is it an ugly one! (I can say that, because it’s mine.) I’m thrilled to be part of such a fabulous group, and I look forward to lots more great music-making with True North Brass. 

Please let us know if you have any problems with the website, suggestions for how we can make it even better, or ideas for future blog posts. Of course, if you just want to tell us how great the site is, we’re happy to hear that too!