“One—Two—One, Two, Three, Four!” I gasped: “That’s Gerry!” And so it was, a blast from the past, this familiar voice counting in Billy Joel’s Root Beer Rag, arranged by Michel Perrault for saxophone quartet. This was the first track on sketches/esquisses, a 1985 recording by the Gerald Danovitch Saxophone Quartet, an album best described as […]
Great Teachers
Mike Tremblay
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 […]
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 […]
Old Souls
YAPPA BABA: Those were the Ukrainian words, hand-drawn in large letters on the front of the card. Translation: OLD WOMAN. Me, an old lady? It was my birthday, you see, and I was turning the grand old age of…23. In the moment, I laughed. On further reflection I realized—it’s true! Old souls…wise beyond their years […]
William Street
Art has the provinces in its blood. Art is provincial in principle, preserving for itself a naive, external, astonished, and envious outlook. Andrei Sinyavsky, In Gogol’s Shadow “The final round of the competition is in Edmonton.” I said. “Then you should get in touch with my saxophone professor.” said Andriy. Thus began my western odyssey […]
Bobbi Thompson
Sound the trumpets saxophones: Now presenting the Queen of saxophone professors, Her Royal Majesty, Bobbi Thompson! Presiding over her subjects—saxophone majors—with an aura of competence and kindness, this beloved teacher leads the largest saxophone studio in Canada at the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University. Friends, Romans, countrymen: She owns this role, going […]