The More the Merrier

With Geoff and Emma (photo by Vincent Lim)

My friend Dave Branter (a great saxophonist and teacher) mentioned in an email how he likes being 'the old guy' in Colin MacDonald's Pocket Orchestra.  I'm not as old as Dave, but I do know how he feels. One of the best things about being a music educator is watching students mature technically and artistically into wonderful musicians with whom I get to perform.  That seems to be happening a lot in the past little while and I have really enjoyed it. Stefan Thordarson (violin) was on the Colin MacDonald Pocket Orchestra gig with me last Friday and I've also been playing with him Lyle Hopkins (bass) Trio.  The week before that I played the music of Jimmy Giuffre at the Tangent Cafe in a trio with Emma Postl (voice) and Geoff Claridge (clarinet).   Two weeks ago Luis Melgar was playing second trombone with the Hard Rubber Orchestra and I see that Jeff Gammon (bass) is playing with Steve Kaldestad at the Cellar this coming week a.  In a few weeks I'll be playing in Bill Clark's band with John Paton (sax).  We've been featuring Capilano U students at Presentation House each week since September and I've heard some really good music from students.  This past week at the BCMEA conference I ran into a whole bunch of my students who have gone on to be really successful school music teachers and players. It just feels good to see people continuing the tradition of bringing beauty into the world.

Stefan with CMPO between two other talented
young players, Elyse Jacobsen and Doug Gorkoff.

CMPO w. Dave, me Stefan and great
 musicians of various generations.