Imagine a teacher with the magic touch, someone whose motivational aura is so strong that his students rush home after their lesson because they just can’t wait to—practise. Most teachers can only dream of inspiring that level of dedication. It’s one thing to get students excited about music. It’s quite another to inspire them to […]
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Roger Admiral
A man of the keys With a bounce in his knees Fingers that pounce And all but announce Roger Admiral is Abracadabrical! All musicians know this to be true: Satisfaction is one’s career is only possible with assistance. Teamwork Makes The Dream Work. Without an entourage of sympathetic and dependable professionals, career advancement is limited. […]
Choral varié
Halfway through the writing of this post, I learned that Jean-Marie Londeix had passed away at the age of ninety-two. I was deep into two resources which I regard as saxophone encyclopedias; trustworthy tomes that I find myself drawn back to again and again. The first is Londeix’s 2003 version of A Comprehensive Guide to […]
Gino Nobili
Gino Nobili—Music Lab—Downsview—636-8722 Name—Business—Place—Phone number Valuable information printed neatly but with style on the cover of my copy of Intermediate Method Saxophone by J. E. Skornicka. (I must have been into my second blue Rubank method before repairs were required.) I was probably thirteen or fourteen. Life was a highway. My dad could sail the […]
Julia Nolan
Julia Nolan is someone I have admired from a distance. The first occurrence was twenty-six years ago, six rows back and eighteen seats in. I saw her perform the Heiden Sonata on the stage of Pollack Hall at McGill University for the Hommage à Gerald Danovitch concert. In Canada, a country of regions, Julia is […]
Try
I find myself at the end of an interesting journey. I’ve been poking my nose into what’s happening in academia; probing the scholarly work of today’s saxophonists. The book in question is The Legacy of Elise Hall: Contemporary Perspectives on Gender and the Saxophone, edited by Kurt Bertels and Adrianne Honnold, published by Leuven University […]