Quick update on all things CB. Well…ok, most of the things that are CB. We do a lot, eh!?

On March 14, 2008, we were in Canadahhh! Yayyyyy!! We did a concert in Port Hope, Ontario.

We were very happy to be performing in Canada, our home country. It was fantastic for me personally to get back to Canada too. My parents live in Toronto, so I got to see them. Also, after our concert (great hall, great audience! thank you!) we hit an iconic Canadian restaurant. Thaaaaaat’s right…

You just can’t get better than Tim Horton’s! Tim was a Canadian hockey player who passed down a generations-old recipe for donuts. They are simply irresistible!

Brandon, Gene, and Joe (and my white shoes!) are on our way to our concert in Springfield, Ohio on March 28. It looks like Joe is sad to not have the police chase he experienced last time. At the very least he’s looking much calmer.

Most of the time when we’re on the road, we get to the hotel around noon, find food, and relax for a few hours before heading to the hall for a sound check and dinner. The ride to the hall is something we all use to relax together. We catch up on what we’ve been doing over the past week or two that we’d been apart, and discuss our upcoming projects too.

It’s interesting to see how different people prepare for a concert. One consistent thing is that we definitely all conserve energy in the hours beforehand. We meditate sometimes, or we just sit and chat. It’s just kind of a calm feeling more than anything…hard to describe.

I love those two hours because it’s a great time to calm down and clear my mind. Ahhhhhh. Going over the music in my mind. If I’m performing music for the first time, or so, I also do what I call “putting finish” on the music. I go over it, practice it a bit if need be, and decide that tonight’s version will be a finished product. I don’t decide it will be perfect, because what is ‘perfect’ in live performance art? Everything? Nothing? Something between?

So rather than pursue perfection in performance, I just give everything I have in that performance to create a finished passionate pristine-as-possible product. I decide that all the work I’ve put into it so far has made it as good as it will be…so far. The final elevation of the performance comes from telling myself that tonight’s version will have “finish” to it. With each performance, my “finished version” is better and better, while getting as many things as close to perfection as possible. I try to play as technically perfectly accurately as possible, for example. The time after the performance is when I look at making the next performance’s finished product better.

Here’s a further crazy thought about “finish”. If you read my “Magic Line Theory” article, you read how I draw a magic line between backstage and onstage…a line between everything not in a performance situation, and performance situations. We can look at “finish” much like a varnish that is put on wood after it is cut, sanded, etc. This varnish is called ‘finish’ as well. We can install a “shower of finish” that is raining down the magic line, and when we walk across the line, we are covered with a “performance finish”. Crazy, I know…but if you want to try it, go for it! It worked for me today.

Just warmin’ up…

“High Society” in Naples, Florida, April 8, 2008.

Backstage, Gene is getting ready to go out for Hornsmoke.

We’re talking to each other. Yes…iPhones are that amazing!

Joe is playing his incredible rendition of Duke Ellington’s “Echoes of Harlem” in Naples, Florida.

We have a fantastic summer coming up! If you live in California (L.A. and Santa Barbara), Quebec, Greece, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, New Jersey, Interlochen, Ravinia, or Bloomington, Indiana, you can see us! Check our concert calendar for more details. We also have some exciting recording releases and projects in the works.

Have a fantastic summer too, and we’ll see you around!

Keep breathing,
Jeff

Spring is springing! Yayyyyyy!! That’s one thing I miss, after moving from Alberta, Canada…how the winter builds such incredible anticipation of spring! Living in Bloomington Indiana is completely different. The winter weather there is so much more…hmmm…ok, almost as cold, and almost as snowy, and almost as…

Spring is springing!!! YAYYYYYYYY!!!

Canadian Brass did get to go to a few warm places along the way, though. On January 25 we performed in Culver City, California.

We performed at the invitation of California politician Luther Henderson III, the son of prolific Canadian Brass composer/arranger Luther Henderson. It was a very intimate setting, making music in the type of setting the term “Chamber Music” was created. Living rooms and salons were probably before Governmental Chambers, but Canadian Brass keeps being where trends are set! Next performance: “Canadian Brass and the Chamber of Secrets”! (I think that was a Harry Potter reference? Did I get it right?)

Commendation from the Mayor of Culver City

A couple of the tough Canadian Brass members, at a cool Californian coffee company.

We were on our way to Palm Desert, to see a young old friend of ours, Hal Laster. We performed at the St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church with their beautiful choir. Also performing with us was organist extraordinaire, FredSwann. A guest artist for the concert on a couple tunes using three trumpets was Ray Nowak.

Next day we did a concert as part of the Grand Opening of the new Balboa Theatre in San Diego.

It’s a beautiful concert hall, and they have a fantastic season planned! Check them out here!

Joe and Manon – Balboa Theatre, San Diego CA - Jan 27

In the lobby pre-Closer Walk – Balboa Theatre, San Diego CA - Jan 27

A few weeks later, we went to Kalamazoo, MI to perform the Brandon Ridenour homecoming concert. It began with the monthly instrument lost by airline fun. Here is Chuck leaning on a tuba borrowed from a student in town.

Chuck, Brandon, and a borrowed tuba – Kalamazoo MI - Feb 23

Just a walk to Just a Closer Walk

End of Closer Walk

Gene talking about Glenn Miller

Barber’s “Adagio”

As you might know, we’ve been encouraging people to take photos during our performances. I gave my camera to someone who works at the concert hall, and he went a bit crazy with it. He took some fantastic pictures! Check out this next one.

We took a group picture backstage after Brandon finished the concert with an amazing “Carnival of Venice” encore.

Brandon didn’t quite feel like he had gotten enough exposure in front of the group, so he insisted on us posing with him for next year’s photo for our Kalamazoo performance.

Okayyyyyy, Joe might have pushed him out front for this picture… ☺

Our next stop was Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We met in the lobby of the hotel to find that our police escort had arrived on time.

Gene confirming our police escort was locked and loaded.

Ok, maybe having a police escort isn’t a regular occurrence. We had one cruiser in front, our two cars, and then another behind (pictured below). It was pretty cool flying through all the red lights at crazy speeds! I would have thought Joe would have felt safer than he did, though.

Joe mentioned something about feeling chased instead of escorted…

Pre-concert at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church
Plaquemine LA – March 3

We loved our time in Louisiana, for so many reasons. Their hospitality was second to none. Our dinner blew our minds!

Chuck in Creole Heaven!

Our cook was incredible. Ronald Regan took him to Russia with him when he went there! We asked him to come to Toronto with us. I videoed him while he told us what he had cooked…it was wow.

Hornsmoke in Louisiana

A few days ago we performed another homecoming concert, this time in Sarasota, Florida. We were joined by Sarasota resident Ronnie Romm. Chuck and Gene also used to live there, so it was a three-fold homecoming!

Us, in sunny Floridahhhh…in front of the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall
Sarasota FL - March 9

Van Wezel backstage, with beautiful sunset background.

Setting up for some Luther Henderson pieces…

…and so go our days. Just like we look in the picture, and how this blog of our last weeks has read, we’ve been keeping busy. Life continues to be a dream for us. Performing music for Canadian Brass audiences is the best performing thrill in the world. I’ve been writing about ways of performing fearlessly for years. The Canadian Brass concert stage has been the best laboratory for me to figure these things out. If you want to read a recent interview I did on some tips to “Get Fearless”, go here!

Happy performing or/and concert going!

Keep breathing…

Jeff

Happy 2008 everyone!!

This issue is called “Bachstage Brass” in honour of our New Year’s 2008 offering! Introducing our new release as of THIS WEEK:

Now available EVERYWHERE!! Click here to download it NOW!

The press for this CD reads:

Following High Society, which debuted #3 on the US Billboard Classical Chart, the world’s leading brass ensemble rings in the new year with a fresh collection of some of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most beloved works.

It includes some exciting double quintet performances of “Brilliant Overtures” like Air on a G String and Cantata 188 Chorale to the genius Christopher Dedrick’s quintet re-workings of four of the Anna Magdalena Notebook pieces titled “Fantasies for Anna”. We’re very proud of it, and we are sure you’ll enjoy it immensely.

We hope that everyone is well on their way to enjoying their new year in a fantastically fearless manner! We are!!!

Our Christmas tour was a huge success! One of the highlights happened in Seattle. Because we’re a band, the guys felt they needed to get all games associated with being said band.

We’re still looking into when “Brass Band” is coming out!

Manon said something interesting just before this picture was taken. I think it went something like, “Oui, a Wii!!”

Here’s what artistic farmers do in Canada for Christmas!

Here’s what artistic brass players do for Christmas!

Yup, they watch movies on planes all month! …and maybe have a few hundred business discussions too. Both activities sure make the month fly by. But the best activity by FAR is performing for you!

Here are Joe and the guys rehearsing with the New Jersey Symphony.

Manon, Chuck, and I in front of the Lincoln Center Christmas tree after our New York Philharmonic brass concert. We’re already planning next year’s concert!

Soon after our concert in New York, we headed to Greenville, South Carolina. How great is it to be in the South in December!

Ahhhhhhhh!!!

We also did some pre-concert talks. We enjoy these a lot, and we’d like to do more of them in the future. We speak about the beginnings of the group, what it’s like to be a member of the group, and field any questions about music making, brass playing, or my magic tricks. We’re hoping that soon our question and answer sessions will happen at your community’s Canadian Brass concert as well.

We started announcing at the beginning of our concerts, “Canadian Brass encourages picture taking during our performances. The best picture sent in will receive a free CD!” Can whoever sent the above picture please notify us of your address, and we can get you your CD? Thank you!

We did a school show in the hall in Norfolk VA.

This is Joe’s hometown! It was really great to celebrate Joe’s hometown performance, and he blew everyone away, literally, with his “Virgen De la Macarena”!!

We have gotten some great action pictures from people taking and sending their pictures in!

Thank you everyone for making our Christmas tour a huge success, and we look forward to more of this fun in 2008!

We’ll be in California for a three-day tour in the end of January. We look forward to seeing our Californian fans at one or all of our concerts while we’re out there.

Remember, keep taking pictures and sending them in. We look forward to adding your memories to our memories!

Here’s an excerpt from our recent Canadian Brass Newsletter:

“Take a pic, win a prize!

Canadian Brass has once again changed the concert experience. During our 2007 Christmas tour, we had the hall announce, before the concert began, “Canadian Brass would like to encourage you to take photos during the this evening’s performance. You will learn more about why later. Enjoy the show!” Later in the concert Chuck explains that we want you to send us your pictures. Every night’s best picture will win a free CD!

This has created quite a buzz during the concerts, and also creates a wonderful archive of pictures for Canadian Brass. This archive is going to be a public place where we can go to relive our concert experiences. If you took a picture before Christmas and haven’t uploaded it yet, please do so now! We look forward to adding your memories to our memories!”

Email your pictures to: photos@canadianbrass.com

Enjoy your January everyone!!

Until next time,
Jeff

Well, we’re having fun now!!We’re driving from New York LaGuardia airport to our concert tonight in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania (Dec. 6). Our dear friends at US Air were unaware that their plane was going to need mechanical tending to when they sold all those tickets to their 9:30 am flight.

Sooooo, we left the airport, rented a van, and we’re driving to Elizabethtown.

This is fine with us, cause we have things to chat about (and I have things to write, as you’re reading right now). Here’s the problem, or opportunity. Someone must tell Starbucks that coffee is needed on Highway 78 West!! We may not make it without our daily fix… wish us luck! In other news…

We have officially begun our Christmas tour 2007!

Hooray!!We began in an amazing Gothic church in Toledo, Ohio (Dec. 1).

Here’s some interesting backstage brass information. The original venue we were booked in had an explosion a few days before our appearance. This church was booked as our replacement venue. Pretty amazing replacement, eh?!

This picture was taken at our concert in Henderson, Kentucky (Dec. 4). More about how our Christmas tour is going later. But first, where did we leave off in the last Backstage Brass?

NEW YORK CITY!!! We went to New York City (Oct. 28) to perform for a corporate event. Here’s a sneak peek into the event…(shhhh!!!!)

Here we are on our way back to the hotel after the show.

Yes, Joe lives in the city.Yes, Chuck lived in the city.… but New York still can stir that sense of awe in a person. “It’s a bird.It’s a plane!” Those crazy kids…

Our next stop was Kansas City (November 3).

Joe’s father worked with railway equipment in Europe. Joe was very excited to see the Kansas City Railway!! He ran up to the trains just bursting with excitement!

We think he expected it to be much bigger…

We then flew to Europe to do some concerts in Switzerland and Germany. Our first stop was…

Lucerne, Switzerland (November 9)! This was the beginning of the end of me not drinking coffee! Cheers!

Nice Swiss flags above our heads, eh? It is quite a long trip, and each of us have different ways of landing as energized and healthy as possible.

Manon says, “ I put in ear plugs, read and sleep as much as possible! I also memorize new music and listen to music on my iPod.”

For me, there is much energy to be found in surrendering to the fact that I’m stuck on a plane. I’ll change everything I can to make it better, like trying to get in an exit row, but otherwise staying calm saves energy. I also remember that I’m on a long flight, so that means I’m definitely going somewhere new and exciting!

After writing my thoughts on travel, I received this from Chuck:

Long ago I read that one should avoid food on airplanes - -I’ve followed that idea with great results. Sometimes I carry certain snacks that I know are good for me so that I don’t need to starve, on the other hand. Also sleeping through trips as much as possible and immediately putting myself in the new time zone to which I am traveling helps lighten “jet lags.” Nothing however is more refreshing that getting out in a new and exciting city, just waiting for exploration.

There is a beautiful bridge in Lucerne that is in many pictures you see of the city. At one time it burned down. They restored many of the paintings that hung in the rafters of the bridge.Here is a picture of the five of us in front of the bridge. We just had the most amazing lunch of Italian food…freshest vegetables, meats, and cheeses. Eating is definitely an art form in Europe! Oh, and the guy in the middle of this picture is named Jeroen Berwaerts. He plays trumpet… poor guy!

The rafters on the bridge are very impressive! Here’s Chuck looking at some of the art on those rafters. Comedian Eddie Izzard once said, “I’m from Europe, where the history comes from. ”It’s just so true.Well, ok… Japan and Africa and others might have some older history too…but anyway… walking is never just walking in Europe. There is so much history to experience!

The fastest walking we did was because our dear friends at Lufthansa must have dropped my heavily armored horn case from the sky. My lead pipe got bent. Ohhh, the excitement!!

The bend is almost imperceptible. It’s pretty amazing how that little bend made the horn unplayable.We luckily found some amazing people at “Atelier Lohri” who stayed late, and fixed things up perfectly!

They were amazing! Thank you Christoph and Mathais!!!

The guy from the picture of the five of us in Lucerne, Jeroen, not only dabbles in trumpet playing, but he dances on the side. He’s seen above showing off his latest move, but sadly none of us were watchi—–ooookayyyy, Jeroen is a major musician in the trumpet world. He is principal trumpet with the Hamburg Radio Orchestra and teaches at the Hannover Conservatory.As many of you know, he is part of our “Trumpet Dream Team” and he joined us for our European Tour.

He is a complete joy to perform with…

…and hang out with as well…

We love him! Almost as much as our audiences do! Unfortunately for him, though…there might have been a little mix up with the train tickets. We felt really bad about it, and tried to fix the situation, but we were unsuccessful. It seemed that Jeroen ended up with a 2^nd class ticket for our first train trip.

He seemed ok with it, and after unsuccessful attempts to fix the situation, we used our “surrender to what we can’t change” wisdom, and went with the flow.

Traveling on a train in Europe is such a wonderful experience…

…unless you’re being bothered by people who aren’t in the section they should be in.

Joe really tried to help Jeroen surrender to where he was supposed to be sitting on the train. Jeroen kept forgetting he just wasn’t worthy of 1^st class yet.

I don’t think Jeroen was quite ready to surrender, so Chuck and the boys helped put him back in his place.

Once things were put right, the rest of the trip was quite serene, and uneventful.

…aaaaaand don’t’ worry…everyone laughed about the whole thing later…

We went and saw our friends at Yamaha in Frankfurt as well. I tried some new combinations of horns.

Having a lot of choices can be a blessing and a curse at the same time!! So many horns, mouthpieces, equipment thingys…so little time. That’s why I believe “you are your instrument”. We do love playing our Yamaha instruments, though…those quotes on ads are not just for show, we promise!

Our tour was awesome, and as difficult as it was to leave Jeroen , the European culture, and the wonderful audiences, it was time to come home to our wonderful North American audiences. It was time to start the Christmas Tour!

We’re getting ready to do our double quintet show with the New York Philharmonic principal brass.

Matthew Muckey, Phil Smith, Manon and Joe

We do this concert every year in Lincoln Center to a sold out crowd, and we do new music every year.

Joe Alessi and Gene

We come in and out of New York a few times throughout our early December dates.

Alan Baer and Chuck

The concert is in a few days, Sunday December 9 at 3pm!

Phil Myers and me

We can’t WAIT!!

I have so many great pictures, it’s hard to not include them all here. Here’s one of the best pictures ever!! It was taken in Henderson, Kentucky (Dec. 4).

We call it:

“A Christmas Hornsmoke with Manon scaring off the

brass boys as the bullying bad ‘guy’ “Bb Bart””

One does not know fear until you have to face off against Manon Lafrance in a gun fight! She’s such a bully…oh, and a beautiful trumpeter! One of these nights I’ll win that gun fight!

This month’s “Backstage Brass” thoughts are about all those times we say, or hear people say, “I have high standards”. High standards are a very good thing, when wielded for good! The problem is how often they are used for something else. Here’s a good way to explore whether they’re being used for good or for…well…many things, starting with excuses or defense of destructive thinking. Ask yourself how often do we talk about our high standards in celebration of those standards? In contrast, ask yourself how often, “I have high standards” is said as a qualification for why we’re upset at how our performance didn’t live up to our high standards?

In other words, think about whether we say, “I have high standards!” after someone has said to us, “hey, great job!” or do we say that in response to, “hey, why are you so upset about your performance?”

I hope that standards are high in most people who get up and perform in front of others. The important thing to note, however, is that there are many areas in which we can have high standards. Most performers know when they’ve played to a high standard, and know when they haven’t. This is a high listening standard. The evidence that most people project their high standards on others is revealed in the immeasurable high standard of critique that comes from people, regardless of their own performing abilities. We could go on and on, but what I find interesting is looking into using the word ‘standards’ in a more limited way. I don’t mean change your standards…keep them high!!

But I think two things.

1. High standards should be used mostly in the practice room. Let those standards be your teacher, and your guide.

2. High standards can be set not only on our playing, but in many other important areas. Areas like our performing abilities, our constructive self-critique techniques, our applause and complement receiving abilities, our ability to seek out, discover, and integrate ways of raising our standards… and countless more!

I think #2 is pretty clear, so I’ll write just a bit more on #1. Once you are in a performance situation, replace having high standards with having high goals. Phil Myers (pictured above) once said, “I don’t try to play my best anymore. I just go out there and play like me.” He brings incredibly high standards into the practice room with him, and he has those mold what happens when he goes into a performance with the high goal of “playing like him.”

The reason I say standards should be used mainly in the practice room is because thinking or speaking of high standards during or after a PERFORMANCE puts the performer behind the task at hand. Our job while performing is spinning the note we’re on as best we can, and doing with it what is needed to create the best musical experience for that moment. …and now this moment. …and now this one. …and so on. Applause. Money. Fame. …and then we die. Amen.

Ok, that’s a bit strong… but clear, yeah?! If we’re thinking about how we’re doing during a performance, we’re now a second behind our task at hand! If we’re thinking about how horribly we missed the high note 20 notes ago, that’s even less professional!

My mother’s voice teacher used to tell her “if you’re listening, and the audience is listening, then who’s singing?” To me, this is a key element of performing. It is the voice inside our heads that says negative stuff to us after we’ve done something we’re not completely happy with. If we choose to speak that way to ourselves, our inner dialogue can become 100% destructive during performance. If we’re taking that extra hundredth of a second to listen to what we are doing and make sure we’re succeeding at keeping our “standards” high, then we are missing out influencing the only music making opportunity that we have…the one RIGHT NOW. …and now. …and now.

Happy Holidays from Chuck, Gene, Joe, Manon, and me!

Issue 1 – What does it take?

I’m just going to dive right in here. As you know, Canadian Brass is a world famous ensemble. Though today it really doesn’t take much work to become world famous because of YouTube and reality TV, Canadian Brass’ 37 year success most definitely took TONS of it!

In interviews, I’ve heard the founding members attribute their first few breaks to their tour to China in 1977 and their appearance in the same year on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The early breaks they got can be seen in countless ways. The most important thing in my opinion is how people think others got their big break.

One choice of perspective is seeing those ‘breaks’ as dumb luck, and simply being in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, this approach puts less responsibility on us for our lack of getting our own breaks. We just weren’t lucky, or the timing wasn’t right for us. Failure happened to and around us, and success just wasn’t in the cards for us.

I believe, rather, that ‘breaks’ happen from being in so many right places that eventually the right time happens! For every break we get, there are hundreds of wrong times or wrong places. Opportunity is more often a result of an incredible amount of good work and choices that have us in tons of places, and a few of them work out.

(An added thought: Bad breaks also happen from being in the wrong place often enough for the wrong time to happen…)

In interviews, Chuck and Gene talk about the annual 300+ school shows the quintet did in the early years. They used the kids’ honesty during performances as their laboratory to figure out what worked, and evolve their presentations. That is an incredible amount of commitment and work. The years I’ve had so far with the group have been a lot of work too, but I imagine this is still nothing like the work done during the early years of Canadian Brass. I think their beginnings were much like what you, the readers trying to get yourself or your group their first ‘break’, are experiencing now.

Today we benefit from Canadian Brass’ (and other fine brass musicians’) incredible trailblazing efforts for brass music. The ground is more fertile for brass performances today, so remember…things could be worse. Thirty-seven years ago, a brass player’s chamber music repertoire choices and performance opportunities were much less vast and numerous.

So those are some random thoughts on what it takes to get one’s first break or two. The story of Canadian Brass’ continued success, on the other hand, is longer than, well, their success! I’m enjoying my fifth year with the group, and that’s only 5/37 of the time put into their 80+ recordings, 80+ commissioned works, 200+ publications, and thousands of performances!

The other goal for this “Backstage Brass” column is to tell stories from the road. Here are some pictures and happenings from our most recent concert tours. Not much has been going on lately, so this shouldn’t take long.

We were in Mexico for a few concerts in September. We flew in, had a meal, and went straight into a rehearsal.

Here were are doing some “Carmen” refreshing… We then took a walk, ate again (one of the grrrreat things about life on the road!!) and then rehearsed again.

One problem about life on the road as a brass player is finding somewhere to rehearse. We have to think about our hotel room neighbors. Most instruments have “practice mutes” that muffle a large portion of the decibel level out of the sound while allowing enough feedback to do effective practicing. You can see the mute that is in Gene’s bell in the picture below. Chuck’s practice mute is a bit more improvised…

There are practice mutes available for tubas, but the size of them makes it travel prohibitive for sure!

The beautiful hall in Mexico City, the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Chuck, Manon, and Joe under a very cool poster!

The hall has a 22 ton backdrop, seen behind us. It is made of thousands of pieces of Tiffany glass! We are in our pre-concert set up. We usually arrive to the hall around 5:30pm to set up, do a sound check, eat, and get ready for our concert.

Within the group, we each have our ways of contributing to the business side of Canadian Brass. When we get to the hall, one of Joe’s duties is to talk with the backstage people and tell them our needs. He discusses how to get the best lighting service with what lighting equipment each hall has. He also informs the hall’s technical people about any other needs we have…where the microphone goes, when to turn it on, etc.

The good thing is because we don’t have electric guitars and all that crap, we’re an extremely low maintenance group for a hall to host! Not a single tractor-trailer of equipment to unload and load each night! Whew!!

Ok, we might have a hat or some bull horns to carry, but we can easily handle that load ourselves…no roadies needed!

Another fantastic thing about life with Canadian Brass is meeting fellow musicians from al over the world. A bunch of horn players from Mexico came backstage, and took us to a restaurant after the concert as well. There are always many tuba, trombone, and trumpet players backstage too, but I didn’t get pictures of them this time. We love seeing you all at our concerts, and backstage too! Keep the visits coming!!

I do a ton of writing while on planes. Yup, I’m on one now, flying to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada! Yay…a homecoming for me! I was just asked a few questions by the person sitting next to me. The first question was, “Heyyy…how’d you do that!” That one’s referring to the magic trick I just did.

The other question was, “Don’t you hate all the travel?” I replied, “Nope. I can’t hate it. If I chose to hate it, I’d be in a self-imposed living hell. There’s nothing I can do about having to travel when I’m in my line of work.” What serves me well is surrendering to the fact that I can only be in one place at any time. Now I spend my time affecting what I can. The current travel experience of having to wait in line, check in for the flight, wait in line while going through security, wait to get on our flight, sit in the cramped leg-room-less seats, wait in line to take off…

…wait to get off the plane, wait to find out if our luggage is lost, and wait to file a claim, and wait and hope to get our luggage and/or instrument? Love it!! All these things are things that I can’t control, or even influence…without driving 35 hours to Edmonton!

Yeah, all those things could drive us crazy, but we really do have a choice. Frustration is a choice, and I believe getting frustrated is a choice to be bothered by something instead of learning about whatever we’re choosing to be frustrated with. Our choice lies in doing something about the situation, or moving on. That choice is usually made by the facts of the situation. If we don’t choose to attach an emotion to it, the facts (or ‘content’) of a situation can usually serve to reveal whether we can do something or not. Most things about travel, for example, are out of my control. So I try to accept that, stay calm, and spend my time well…by, sayyyyy…writing Backstage Brass!

I’m writing a full-length article about redefining a few words, one of which is “frustration”. I’ll go more into that with that article… Stay tuned!

So just one or two more things happened recently with Canadian Brass. Here are a few more pictures.

“Backstage Brass” in Mexico…leaning on the set for “Aida”

Gene with CB photographer Robyn McCallum and CB operations assistant Janina Laughton.

Our rehearsal with the Elmer Iseler Singers in Toronto

Our meal after our rehearsal! We heard Manon finished both bags of chips! (well, ok…truthfully, we helped with the eating…and then bought more bags!)

A backstage moment of everyone preparing for the concert.

“Just a closer walk” down the aisle…

Another typical day hanging out together…

Hmmmm…ok, so there might have been a few things going on with us lately. I might have lied… Heh…

Ok, what did we do then? Oh yeah…we went to Rochester, NY.

We performed and recorded with the Eastman Wind Ensemble. Here’s our first day’s rehearsal together.

Chuck, of course, earned his doctorate from Eastman…by the time he turned twelve, we think.

He was very happy to return to the Eastman School of Music for this project. The rest of us were blown away by the quality of this ensemble! The “World’s Best Wind Ensemble” is not inaccurate, from what we experienced!

All the musicians were incredible, and maestro Mark Davis Scatterday was a fantastic fearless leader!

We did a live one-hour radio broadcast as well, with interviews and performances. We opened with a double quintet piece with Eastman’s Emerald Brass Quintet. Both groups then spoke and performed.

One of the best parts of this type of event is the collaboration with the younger musicians.

We get to talk to them, and share things we have and are experiencing…

…and we get to hear what their thoughts and experiences are too.

All the above pics were taken within 2 minutes of each other. Everyone just paired off, and chatted away the pre-broadcast time. Above you will see Shachar Israel chatting with awesome Eastman hornist Allen Fogle. Shachar came in to play some of the pieces with us on this concert and recording. He’s a great guy, and a pretty good trombone player. No wait…he’s a great trombone player and a pretty good guy. Yeah, that’s it. (I told you I’d get even with you, Shachar…wooohohaaaa!)

The recording went great, as you will hear in the near future. These are some of the behind the scenes stars of the show! The biggest star seen above is Mr. Dixon Van Winkle. He is a Grammy Award winning producer, and a former Eastman classmate of Chuck. He’s the one wearing the hat. He takes the sound from the microphones and creates what you hear come out of your CD player!

Mary Beth Daellenbach has been our “Tonmeister” for many recordings. She lets us know what takes are really good, and what moments we miiiiiight want to play one more time. She makes sure we get it all on tape, while making sure we’re moving forward during the recording sessions, while assuring us to feel good about what’s happening, while inspiring us keep our energy at a high level, while advising us to watch the right details. In her spare time, she writes down everything that happens throughout the sessions so an edit plan exists at the end of it all. Otherwise, she talks to us in the breaks about what could be better. J …and we think we’re tired at the end of these sessions!

To MB’s left is Michael Sweeny. He is a Hal Leonard star arranger, and he arranged a three-movement version of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” for the Eastman Wind Ensemble and us. It is incredible! No more words about that, as you’ll have to hear it for yourself with the CD is released!

On MB’s right is a great guy named David Jacobs. He’s a doctoral student who works very closely with Mark Scatterday. Beside Dixon, at the console, is John Truebger. He is an engineer with the Eastman recording team, and played a large part in the technical running of the taping.

We went to Bartlesville, Oklahoma next.

We played with the Bartlesville Symphony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the orchestra, and the 30th anniversary of their maestro, Lauren Green. It was wonderful to return to see old (young looking) friends, and play with the orchestra there again.

Well, I think that about catches us up! Hmmm…ok, one more thing. We recorded a wonderful Christmas CD titled Christmas Tradition.

It has us performing 23 perennial favorites with organist extraordinaire Eric Robertson. That’s Eric working with Chuck pictured above.

This CD is available now! You can either get it at our December concert near you or order it exclusively through Arkivmusic.com

Here’s a sample, “Good King Wenceslas”:

Thanks for stopping by, and reading about some of our adventures! More to come, we guarantee it!

Until then,
Keep breathing…