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Dec 16,2007-Dec 23,2007 |
Christmas traditions of Canadian Brass
Toronto ensemble heads home for a holiday show
By Kerry Doole
A Canadian Brass Christmas-themed show is now an annual musical highlight of the holiday season, not just in their Toronto hometown, but in major performance halls throughout North America. The internationally popular and pioneering brass music ensemble play Roy Thomson Hall on Dec. 22, and even long-time hardcore CB fans may do a quick doubletake upon their entrance. You see, they will introduce a new member here, the first female to join the group in their 36-year history.
Trumpet virtuoso Manon Lafrance has already achieved great renown as an orchestral musician, teacher, and soloist. She has been a member of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Principal Trumpet in the National Ballet Orchestra of Canada, and regularly performs with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, and many other major ensembles. Canadian Brass co-founder, trombonist Gene Watts, jokes that “she came out from behind the screen at the audition and it’s a girl. Were we ever surprised!”
Personnel changes are to be expected over the course of such a long career. As co-founder and tuba player Chuck Daellenbach notes, “People come to see us now because there’s a history, a heritage, there. We have these younger players, but they are fitting into a tradition. They also bring another perspective and the chance to look at things from another angle. That’s always a good thing.”
Tandem recently sat down with Gene Watts and Chuck Daellenbach, in the latter’s beautifully appointed C abbagetown house. The pair reflected on a career that has certainly exceeded any expectations they may have had when setting out on this journey back in 1971.
Watts explains that the Canadian Brass mandate has not really changed over the years. “We just wanted to have fun playing music we thought was really good for people to enjoy. I think people feel that we are just there for them. There’s not really any other motivation aside from that.”
Their rare ability to both entertain and educate with their music dates right back to their earliest days. The two musicians met in Toronto, and took their newly formed Canadian Brass to the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra where they became artists-in-residence in 1971, and the players remained members of the orchestra until 1977.
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