Holiday Season

This year, the Taffanel Wind Ensemble will be enjoying a quiet holiday season. With our clarinet player away it is time to relax and experience the season the way others do. Relaxing with friends and family. Here's wishing you a safe and happy holiday.
See you in the new year.
Taffanel Wind Ensemble

New season

Now that the fall has arrived, the trio is busy planning new gigs and getting music organized. Our next performance is at a library to help promote the arts. Plein Air who we were supposed to play for earlier this summer is sponsoring the event and we are part of it. Should be fun. We will use a sub for the flute but we are comfortable with Louie who played with us last spring. We actually have several flutes ready in case of emergencies. Now to get others for the clarinet and bassoon and we are all set to go.
After the library, we are going to Princess Margaret Lodge to play for the cancer patients.

New member of the trio

For the new year, the trio will have a new flute member, Stephanie Pesant. She is an excellent flute player recommended by Zach who is going to take some time off.
Will keep you posted about our progress. We are picking new repertoire at the moment and that is going well.

Liberty Place

One of the benefits of performing at a Seniors residence is that you get to case out where you might want to be someday. Today the trio with guest, Elena are going to perform at Liberty Place. This is one of the places that has caring staff but lacks some of the amenities that you would hope for. Wonder what it would take to make the place more desirable?
Food for thought.
Off to play.

Plein Air

Tomorrow evening, the Taffanel Wind Ensemble will be performing at Artist in the Garden's Plein Air concert. This is one in a series of concerts. We are pleased to be part of this concert series. Please check the website for further information about this concert and the rest of the concerts.

What we learn from music

The group is busy trying to regroup for the coming year. In the meantime, here is some lessons that can be learned from music. Author, Craig M. Cortello links musical training and success. As a result, he questions why music programs are the first to be cut in public schools. He has written a book, Everything We needed to Know about Business, We Learned playing Music (La Dolce Vita Publishing, 2009).
As he says, there are scores of ex-athletes who give speeches regarding the parallels between playing sports and business success, and there doesn't seem to be a shortage of funding for sports programs," he says, "I felt it was time to tell the music education/business success correlation story."
According to Cortello, the benefits that successful businesspeople got from music, in childhood as well as in adulthood, include building self-esteem and confidence, learning how to collaborate, leadership, salesmanship, and branding skills; creativity and innovation; willingness to take a risk, discipline and realizing the value of fundamentatals, individuality and passion.
There was an article in Making Music, March issue and the article lists Cortello's website as a source of information: www.ldv-enterprises.com. Worth checking.

Young @ Heart

Sometime ago, I wrote about the movie, Young at Heart. It seems that the group whose members are all over 70 years of age is still busy singing and entertaining people. An article in today's paper discussed the group which is based in Northampton, Massachusetts. The vocal group will in Toronto at Roy Thomson Hall as part of the Just for Laughs Festival on July 10. Now, I am not sure why they are part of a comedy series but the group is certainly worthy of our attention. The group does not perform the golden oldies associated with seniors but songs which usually connect with people half their age.
One of the members comments that she has been to Europe 12 times and had the time of her life. Where else could she have done that?
The group's director, Bob Cilman understands that he has taken his group down an interesting and unexpected road but it certainly works.
I think that more of us need to go down unexpected roads.

Making Music

Some of you must be wondering where I am finding all these articles about music making and other musical issues. One of the sources is the magazine Making Music which is a magazine directed at "Better living through Recreational Music Making", music for people who have finished their academic careers and are looking to music as a source of recreation. There are many good tips and sometimes some interesting instrument suggestions. I am not sure that I would consider them but I do believe that music provides a wonderful outlet for people. My main issue is find your passion and pursue it.

Spadina House 2010

The Taffanel Wind Ensemble invites you come and hear the group in a couple weeks. We will be at Spadina House playing for Music in the Orchard. This is always a highlight of the summer season.
When you have finished listening to the music, enjoy the gardens and orchard. What a treat!

J. S. Bach

One of the composers who has become our favourite is J. S. Bach. Each trio concert with start with two of his three part inventions. As I explain to the audience, it is nice that someone has seen fit to rewrite the music for our combination. I am not sure how long it will take for me to learn to play three melodies at once.
The audience members love hearing about the fact that Bach had 20 children. Not about all the music that he wrote and how famous he was but the children. Must find more information that will entice them.

McMichael Concert-This Sunday

My goodness, this Sunday is it. The Taffanel Wind Ensemble will be performing at the McMichael Gallery. It is one of the high lites of the season but must admit that we have quite a number of special performance.
We will be at Spadina House at the end of June. This should be a lovely day out in the garden. Before then, we will be performing at quite a number of homes. The list seems to be growing by the day. Not sure why but not complaining.
Hope that some of you will be able to attend our performance.

The Story of Ping

Fascinating what you have to look up when playing trios. The latest topic is Children's stories. We are performing a suite of Children's stories. We all knew the story of Babar the Elephant and Curious George but the Story of Ping was a challenge. After several rehearsals, I decided that it is time to explore the Story of Ping. Ping was a duck and he decided that he did not like getting spanked for being the last duck back home after a long day. He would stay out over night instead of returning home. Unfortunately, that is all that I know. Must actually find the book which was first published in 1933.
Will keep you posted about this duck.

McMichael Gallery concert 2010

Here we are ready for another McMichael Concert. The trio has been busy preparing and will be ready to perform on Sunday May 2. Hard to believe that another has passed since we last did the concert. Hope that some of you will consider attending.

Spring visits Colborne Lodge

Yes, it is that time of year. Spring has been officially declared by environment Canada and Colborne Lodge is going to celebrate Spring, Saturday March 20. That will be the eve of Spring. What a wonderful way to celebrate the arrival of this special season. I think that it is my favourite. Looking forward to seeing flowers burst forth and also some out door performances. This one will not be outdoors but we will start thinking about it.

Princess Margaret Lodge

This week, the trio plays at one of our favourite locations and also most challenging. Princess Margaret Lodge, a residence for cancer patients from out of town who need serious out patient treatment. The patients are so lively and wonderful. We love coming and adding something to their day.
We hope to add something to their day.

Octet: Conductor, John Liddle

Good news, the octet will have a conductor again this year. While it is good to work and attempt to practise music on our own, having a conductor work with us focuses the group. A conductor will see the errors and possibilities much faster than we can. This season because Gloria Ratcliffe has moved out of the city the octet will have John Liddle conduct our group. Should be an interesting experience.
More about that once the group starts rehearsing. In the meantime, time to pick repertoire.

Colborne Lodge

It is that time of year again. The trio will be celebrating Spring at Colborne Lodge. What a wonderful way to celebrate the beginning of the season. We will be playing in the main room of the Lodge. It is always a fun to celebrate.
Join us if you have a chance.

Octet

Good news, the octet has found a place to practise. We are returning to the Donway, a seniors residence with a lovely hall in the basement. We are getting organized, have the location and most of the players.
The trio has been asked to play at Music in the Orchard again. We are waiting to have our date confirmed. Will be lovely to be out under the trees at Spadina House which is undergoing an extensive renovation.

January 2010

January 2010 has arrived and the group is ready to take on new challenges. Next week, we are going to perform at the Dunfield, a new residence with a recreation coordinator who we know well from another home. It will be a pleasure working with her again.
It is time to start thinking about our programme for the McMichael Gallery. May seems like a long time away but time will pass quickly.
The octet is starting to organize again. Want to be ready for May.
We wish everyone a Happy New Year. (It is okay to wish everyone the best this week.)