Keeping Us Connected -- Weekly Questions for Members

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  Other than the BCB, what's been your favourite group that you've ever played with?
  • gordon  

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  This is a tough question! I have very fond memories of my high school days. Our band travelled every 2 years internationally! I got to go to New Orleans and perform on the banks of the Mississippi river and I got to visit some amazing restaurants where some of the jazz greats once played. We also performed "Snakefence Country" and were adjudicated by Howard Cable himself!
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  What has been your go-to piece of music during the pandemic?
  • gordon  

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  @shewis one of my favs too!
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  If you could play with any musical group (that you haven't already played with) which would it be?
  • gordon  

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  @gordon hmm... If I could have played with another group, it would have been "Velvet Knights" out of Anaheim, CA. But sadly, they have folded due to financial mismanagement. They were fun to watch, the shows entertaining. You can see for yourself... 1989 Velvet Knights - "Yo Mambo" - Final 1:00
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  Who has been the biggest influence on you as a musician?
  • gordon  

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  My Grandmother (piano) and my mother (voice) were my first two music teachers and my biggest influences. For trombone, Rob Sommerville (Lakeshore Music) showed me have fun while I play, Mike Polci (McMaster University) taught me how to listen and John Jasavala (Western) taught me how to practice.
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  Which Concert Band piece most reminds you of summer?
  • gordon  

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  "Porgy and Bess". How could it miss with the song "Summer Time"?
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  What is your favourite Canadian composition or song of all time?
  • gordon  

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  @gordon Okay...I might be showing my age with this one. But Gordon Lightfoot has two songs that I cannot decide between. "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "If You Can Read My Mind " GORDON LIGHTFOOT(VIDEO CLIP)-"THE WRECK OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD"(LYRICS) Gordon Lightfoot - If You Could Read My Mind
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  If you could only play music written by a single composer for the rest of your life, who would it be?
  • gordon  

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  That's not what I heard at a recent concert, @julian. Are you sure you're right about that?
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  What do you miss most about the BCB during the pandemic lockdown?
  • gordon  

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  @clarplayr said in What do you miss most about the BCB during the pandemic lockdown?: I miss the laughs. The clarinet section always has a great time joking around with each other. That we do. Sometimes we have too much fun. Apologies in advance @joanner.
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  If the BCB could go on tour, where should we go and why?
  • gordon  

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  @wjerome I was still relatively new as a BCB member, and I remember when the Executive discussed and planned out for the band to perform out of city in the summer. I was so looking forward to going on that trip for the experience of playing on a platform / barge in the lake; not knowing that there was such a set-up! The trip was to Gravenhurst. Unfortunately it was that town that ended up cancelling out - if memory serves me well too - as the organizers could not adequately fund / sponsor the bus trip for BCB.
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  If you could invite a guest artist to play with the BCB, who would it be?
  • gordon  

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  I have some phenomenal talent in my Salvation Army church band. It would be amazing if we could get either our euphonium player/co-conductor, Rob Miller, to play, or our tuba player/co-conductor, Rob Brown, to play. Also, it's something that could definitely be arranged since I've known them for 30 years and I'm sure they'd be happy to be guest artists
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  If you had to play an instrument other than one you play now, which would it be?
  • gordon  

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  @Pualanasn Good to know. Thank you
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  What made you choose to play the instrument that you play in the BCB?
  • gordon  

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  When I was a kid I was obsessed with Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet. I especially love the clarinet lines throughout. When I was offered the chance to learn an instrument at age 11, I knew exactly which one I wanted to play...clarinet. I also learned to play saxophone and played in jazz bands when I was in school, but I have always come back to my original love, the clarinet.
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  If you could pick the theme for a BCB concert, what would it be?
  • gordon  

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  @TeresaWhite I like the trivia idea - I think it's been tossed around as an idea before, but never implemented. Anything to get the audience more involved!
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  What's your favourite BCB concert venue?
  • gordon  

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  My favourite venue is the Central Park Bandshell. There's something magical about playing an outdoor concert on a soft summer's evening that just makes me feel that all is right with the world. It was also the "big stage" in Burlington when I was growing up and one that I've been playing on since I was a kid. So many great memories.
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  What's your favourite BCB Memory?
  • gordon  

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  Somewhat similar to Jerry Ford's recollection I remember what was probably my first time coming out to band under Cliff Hunt. There were only 3 or 4 trumpets there but cliff called out Amparito Roca. I expected Eric Ford, then leading the Teen tour, who could play rings around me, to play the first part and solo but even though he knew nothing about me he said I should do it. Fortunately I had played it before in the girls and Boys band and possibly the early days of the concert band before Cliff. I got through it without a hitch and Cliff liked me ever since then.
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  What's your favourite piece you've played with the BCB and why?
  • gordon  

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  @Dannomyte I agree with you about Christmas Festival. I first played it in 1970, and I'd only been playing flute for three years, and the busy flute part during Oh Come All Ye Faithful seemed so impossible at that time. I still like the piece.
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  What piece would you most like the BCB to play, and why?
  • gordon  

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  Those both help @lisa-yl, but it's really the marches.