Volume 10 Issue 4 - December 2004

As for french horn: that's
where the door has revolved most
of all; Jeff Nelsen is the founh
horn player to work with the Brass
since founding hornist Graeme
Page left in 1983.
using on this parnde of hornists,
m a chatty 1993 book on the Brass
by Rick Walters (called, what else,
The Canadian Brass Book) trombonist
Gene WattS said:
well they're really a different
breed - different insll'\Jment, different
technique. different auitude. I
mean in orchestra literallJtC they're
often gemng to be a hero, playing
some famous noblt solo, and we're
sitting in the lxtck row counting our
242nd measure of rest .. . We've come
up with rules for hiring horn players ...
they have to look far more phot0genic
tran I.he rest of us. And !hey have to
wear a it.e 40 suit·
(To complete the record, the other
three other men who have worn
Page and Nelsen's sii.e 40 homist's
suit are Manin Hackleman
('83-86) :
David Ohanian (86-98),
and Chns Cooper (1998-2000).
I tNTERVlEWtD TUBA Pl..A YER
Chuck Daellenbach for this article
right at the beginning of November
just before the Brass hightailed
it out of town on the European leg
of a tour designed to suppon the
new CD. I commented on how
easy it had been on the Brass website
10 figure out who the various
members of the group had been.
"There's a real sense on the site
that they still belong" I said.
"I'm delighted to hear you say
that" he said. "It's something you
hope people will notice, but you
can't know for sure. One of the
things that has made the Brass
what we are is that throughline of
genuine affection."
Since talking that day, the
Brnss have been to Europe and are
now packing again. "From U.S.
giving to New Year every
year 1s nonstop" Chuck said. ·we
still do better than a hundred concertS
a year."
Teir pre-new ycar swing bears
out his words. Between the time
this anicle gocs to press (Nov 27)
and their Dec 23 Toronto da t e
they will do a 27-day, 18 concn.
16 city tour that takes them clear
across the continent and back.
ranging from an appearance in Toledo.
Ohio with the Toledo Symphony,
to an appearance at Avery
Fisher Hall with the
Philharmonic Brass.
ew York
It's what wc've tx..oen doing
from day one Chuck says.
10
"Schools, universities, Carnegie
Hall. I guess we've always had the
feeUng that it shouldn't make a difference."
Tn£RE'S A TEMPTATION when doing
a good-news story, wh.ich Lhis one
mstly is, to ask about "turning
pomts", t11osc little "if it hadn't
been for .... " momentS, lf External
had had $250,000 in the 1977
tour pot instead of $25.000, for
example, who'd have gone to China
instead? Or "if Chuck hadn't
gone to Toronto 10 teach ... ".
So I asked. Chuck didn't hesitate
for a moment. "If it hadn't
been for Betty Webster and the
Hamilton plan" he said "then I'd
say none of this would have happened."
Betty Webster, who went on 10
head Orchestras Canada until her
etiremem from that organization
LO 200 l , and now sits on the board
of Boris Bron's National Academy
Orchestra, was, from 1969 to
1974, executive director of the
HPO (Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.)
"Her plan, the Hamilton Plan,
was to arrange for at least three
different professional musical ensembles
y ar to .visit every single
school Wtthtn a thmy mile radius
of the city of Hamilton, and to use
that as a way of building tile orchestra."
Chuck explains.
It was brillianlly simple. Hire
professional section leaders for the
HPO at a decent wage, then make
them earn their keep by sending
them out into the schools. "I think
it was strings that can1e first, then
winds, then us. It was a pretty fair
wage for the time. $12,000 a year.
enough to lure Fred Mills away
from Ottawa."
There was one significant hurdle,
though. It had been fairly easy
for Beuy to sell the powers that be
on the idea of creating ensembles
made up of orchestral section leaders.
"A string quartet was a no
braincr," says Chuck "and a wind
ensemble -- even trumpets. trombone
and horn. But a rubar The
orchestra was basically a chamber
orchestra still, and the idea of a
chamber orchestra with a resident
tuba player was a tougher sell.
Eventually it was Chuck's PhD
in education and stint at the U of T
that did it. Given that they were
planning this ambitious school
campaign it made sense to have an
educator in the group!
Bt:TTY WEBSTER confirms Chuck·s
recollection. "Our first ensemble
was called the Ci.ech Quanet" she
said. "Milan Vitek, Rudolf Kalup.
Jaroslav Karlovsky, and Zdenek
Konicek. They had been the
Prngue Quartet, but came a year
after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovalda
in 1968. The Ontario
ArtS Council made their coming
possible. The cellist Zdenek Konicek
is still a stalwan in the community
- a story in his own right."
I mentioned to Betry Chuck's
cont about the Hamilton plan
as havmg been formative for the
Brass ... Yes." she says, "but only
because they were musicians with
a cenain kind of conuniunent.
"For some musicians the kind
of stuff we were doing was hard,"
Chuck says, "literally three hundred
shows in a school year. Some
people's inclination would be to
walk through it. But I can honestly
say we never saw it that way.
Children are honest. If you can
have a child not only sit quietly
through three minutes of Bach but
x rience the musician's pleasure
m 11. then what audience are you
not ready for? School gym. Carnegie
Hall. We just never saw it as a
contradic1ion."
"The more typical musician's
attitude" Betty says "is that somehow
this kind of community stuff
detracts from their professional
Status. The things that work wheo
musicians see themselves as builders
of an orchestra don·t necessarily
work once they think of the orchestra
as having been built for
them . ..
T1t£ HAULTON Pt.As, rr HAS TO BE
SAID, is no more. and music in the
schools is at a low ebb. "Back
then the union, the AFM, used to
put money into school concertS if
you can believe it," Betty says.
"Now the union itself is in financial
trouble. What's in Lhe schools
now is pathetic. Hamilton doesn't
even have a fully funded coordinator
of music ...
But the plan gave the Brass five
years. and for five years it gave
thousands of people, young and
old, the unique gifi of the Brass.
The ensemble emerged from it
with a sense of musical mission
that has given the ensemble a durable.
sustainable idemity through
the years. even as individual musicians
have come and !!One -- the
mission of having pe;ple experience
the joy of music.
WWW. THEWHOLENOTC.COM
V101.1sr Dol·cus PERRY. for one.
studied with them in Hamilton at
the shon-livcd Hamilton Institute
a school for young professional '
musicians which Chuck and Gene
added 10 their already full work-
load. "It was an amazing year,.
says Douglas. "I met Takemitsu,
Shumsky, Perlman, Nexus. and
others, played some fantastic mtsic,
from experimental (a viola
solo piece, topless with a mask
and with music hanging from the
ceiling) to 'high brow' serious, all
ver intimate and musically pos-
111ve circumstances. The most signicant
thin_& that l came away
w1Lh was th.is: be responsible for
your life and your career. My university
time fme-runed my perfo
skills, but I really knew
nothing else. The Institute showed
me that to realize my dreams I
must think, act and be respoible
for au aspects of my music life.
From the music you play, t0 what
you say on stage. to how the PR
looks, etc .... "
And to conclude, this: from a
WholeNote colleague reflecting on
the "big schtick, soft talk" title we
saddled the story with before 11
was written - the cover of the
magazine goes 10 the printer before
the story geLS written . you
see.
"I'd call it sucking and blowing"
she said. "First they'd suck
you in :- lure you imo listening to
something you couldn't have imagined
hearing, like Flight of Lhe
Bumblebee on a tuba, or some
genre you'd already decided you
couldn't stand.
. .. And then having sucked you
LO, they'd blow you away with the
pure brilliance of what they did.
The perfect ensemble work, the
sheer vinuosity, the thrill of how
mu h fun they were having and
gettmg you to have, Lhe way they
could take a piece of music where
the structure necessitated instruments
trading themes, and rum it
into a game of stealing themes and
then chairs from each other according
to what the music dictated.
And never miss a beat.
"But I'll tell you even more
what they did for people like me.
They set in motion the liberation
and the vindication of the bandroom
geek. Tons of us out there
by their example, discovered we1
were entitled 10 arrange things for
ourselves. Not just the pieces of
music. but the places 10 make music
happen. We didn't need a conductor
to play together. heck we
didn't even need a room.
"By their example we discovered
ensemble playing and put it
on like a cloak of visibility!"
They're still sening Lhat example.
And it's wonh taking in.
•
DfCfMBfK 1 2004 -FEBRUARY 7 2005