This page was last updated on July 09, 2002
Music
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To be really honest, I like fairly traditional and mundane stuff most of the time: Vivaldi and other Baroque composers. But since I sometimes try to play the French horn, I also like wild or loud orchestral music, such as portions of Dvorak's New World Symphony, Shostakovich, or even Honnegger. For some reason, I'm not at all keen on Shoenberg, opera, or Mahler. And for some reason, I am pretty keen on the music of Mike Oldfield, Stan Rogers, and Frank Zappa. |
 Yes, I used to play the French horn. Here I am in the Western Mustang Marching Band, circa 1980. I wasn't good, but I was loud. My father used to claim if there were offence and defence in a marching band, I played offensive French horn. |
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| After a nearly 20-year lay-off, I joined the Goderich Laketown Band in the summer of 1999, again playing the French horn. I also bought an e-flat alto horn in July, 1999, and have enjoyed playing it now and again. | |
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Nevertheless, several other groups have been desperate enough for horn players that they've invited me to join them. I like baroque orchestral music enough that I jumped at the chance to do Handel's Water Music with the Blyth Festival Orchestra. Also, the Bayfield Winds (one of the best musical groups I've ever been involved with) let me play with them. I even bought my own horn recently, so I guess I'm getting serious about horn-playing again. |
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I'm sufficiently inept at playing the horn, though, that the orchestra decided I'd do less damage if they made me the conductor. I loved conducting (what a control-freak, eh?) but had to give it up after a year and a half because I got too involved in too many things. |  |
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From 1996-1999 I sang with The Blyth Festival Singers, a group of singers all better than me, which made singing with them both challenging and a great deal of fun. They put on between three and five concerts each year at various locations throughout Huron County. I've taken a break from the group to do other things for the next few years, but I hope to get back to it in the near future. |
From time-to-time, I also sing in some smaller groups, including Thatotherchoir.
Thatotherchoir sang the national anthems at a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game on July 5, 1998. We have also done some gigs as part of local theatre performances and at local churches. My best singing performances, though, are probably in the shower. |
