Hearts, Minds & Souls

Photo Credit: Dennis Tupman

HEARTS MINDS & SOULS The true stories of 23 respected, career B.C. Music Educators who influenced the lives of many young people through music.

4 ~ Publisher Copyright 2016 Christopher Best All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopywrite.ca, 1-800893-5777 Warfleet Press 1038 east 63rd Avenue, Vancouver, B.C., V5X 2L1 www.warfleetpress.com All photos supplied by the individuals being interviewed unless otherwise noted.

Cover Photo: 2004 Dave Proznick and his Semiahmoo senior music students on a trip to Cuba

Cover design by Christopher Best Text design by Christopher Best Printed and bound in Canada Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Best, Christopher 1949 HEARTS, MINDS & SOULS B.C. Music Educators’ Series, Volume I ISBN

1972 Annual Vancouver School Board Nights of Music. Kerrisdale Arena five nights in the Arena with 2000 performing each night. Photo Credit: Dennis Tupman

Photo Credit: Dennis Tupman

FOREWORD:

A History of the B.C.M.E.A based on an interview with Dr. Dennis F. Tupman

The British Columbia Secondary Instrumental Teachers Association or BCSITA was a loose group of about fifteen directors. It included Rex Potter from Trail, Ted Aimes in Castlegar, Cummings in Powell River Ralph Yarwood in Kimberley and Howard Denike in Victoria. Fred Turner ran several bands in New Westminster. Most of their members came from the military. The ones who started the strings programs like McMurdo in Kamloops, probably came from Kneller Hall in England where directors were trained for the military bands. Gar McKinley was in the Okanagan in Vernon. He was an amazing guy. He used to teach all the grade 8s in one class. He preferred to have a choir of around one hundred and twenty kids. That was quite common. ‘Kids wouldn’t sing in junior high unless it was a large group. He also directed the band. He was a general music teacher. A driving force behind SITA and the BCMEA was Fred Turner. He was a ball of fire in those days.

8 ~ Fred Turner

The BCSITA organized festivals. I remember the first one was in New Westminster. Fred Turner directed it at Vanier Auditorium. There were four hundred and forty players (all from B.C.). I was one and Earl Hobson was another. We were both in grade nine. They were held in New Westminster and were directed by Fred Turner for the next few years.

After that they moved to Victoria around 1959. That is the year the SITA really took off. Howard Denike was its secretary. Before the internet you just picked up the telephone and called the guys. I can remember Howard being on the telephone to whomever while I was having a lesson with him. The first event in Victoria drew about 1500 kids from all over the province. It was held in the Memorial Arena. I attended that one as well although I had graduated by then.

In 1958, I came over to Brock Hall at U.B.C. A group of about twenty-five teachers had got together. They were university educators, secondary choral teachers and a strong contingent of elementary teachers.

They had a meeting at Brock Hall. That is when the whole concept of the B.C.M.E.A. was consolidated and articulated. They said, “We must have something that goes from elementary to secondary and everyone needs to be involved: instrumental, choral or whatever. At that time this was a big thing to think about because band programs were just starting.

Choirs were the big thing. There were more orchestras than bands but they were not really school orchestras. They took kids who learned

FOREWORD ~ 9

outside the schools and brought them together in the schools but they weren’t really started in the schools.

Organizing meetings that included teachers from all around the province was difficult. It was expensive to fly and long distance telephone calls were costly as well. We were really handicapped in the outlying communities. But we prevailed and teachers always managed to come down for the conferences.

After the meeting it was decided to start up the British Columbia Music Educators Association or the B.C.M.E.A. They held talks with SITA and both groups decided to come together to form one comprehensive group in 1959. It was quite rare in Canada. Other provinces never did it this way. This is how the B.C.M.E.A. was born. Dr. Lloyd Slind was one of the key movers in this group and probably the one responsible for fostering the concept. He also brought together I.S.M.E. and the C.M.E.A. making it one comprehensive group as well.

Conferences were a big deal. In the early years a great majority of teachers attending the BCMEA conferences were elementary teachers.

In 1960, we used to figure that it was about 70% elementary and 30% secondary. Now it is the opposite which is very disappointing. It is good for the secondary level but what it means is there are people out there who don’t care enough to go to the conference or cannot afford to go or aren’t given release time to go and learn the skills of teaching music.

10 ~ Langley School of Fine Arts

As a result they don’t have what we had at that time which I would call a discipline based approach to teaching music. That was the time of Kodaly and Orff, both systems of teaching music that spread all over the world. Both were discipline-based, very systematic and very successful.

They still are but nothing to the extent they used to be. They required a methodology and lots of exposure. There is another system in America called “Threshhold to Music.” It is led by Mary Helen Richards. A person who worked closely with her in the old days was Sister Floret Sweeney. She still lives in Vancouver and is still working. She has devoted her whole life to the methodology of teaching music. In my opinion if you do not know her approach in the primary grades then you are not teaching correctly. What can be accomplished through music is phenomenal.

I am very excited about elementary music because it is not just for the talented. It is for every kid and we handicap our kids’ ability to learn if they are not exposed to music. By putting emphasis on computer education too early (e.g. teaching algorithms in grade one and in Kindergarten) they are entirely wrong. Émile Jaques-Dalcroze was another.

Today the conferences are a shadow of what they used to be. We used to have 1500-2000 people at the conferences. Now there are only 300500. We have doubled the number of kids taking music but the music groups have diminished to a quarter of their size. So what we have all over the province is classrooms that have no music what so ever or a classroom where music appreciation consists of listening to an FM radio

FOREWORD ~ 11

station. That is not to fault people today.

There is a very special movement in B.C. that started about 30 years ago called the Specialty Featured Arts Program for Elementary students.

An example is the Langley School of Fine Arts. They have phenomenal teachers, excellent programs and kids that just blow you away, kids who are not necessarily great musicians but they get a lot out of music. I did an assessment on many arts schools and the first thing the kids say was they feel safe and they know who they are. The arts have a way of doing that. There are others. There is one in Kamloops and another is the Abbotsford School of Fine Arts. Districts tend to concentrate the arts teaching in that one school though and that wasn’t the original intention.

But it happened. In order to teach English you should use drama and the arts. So that is what is happening today.

We have in B.C. one of the the most adversarial provinces in Canada where there is a need for improved cooperation between schools and trustees. It is amazing that they do as well as they do. I have tremendous respect for teachers who can make anything work and in B.C. they have done the impossible. That is not only in music but in all disciplines.

Standards are high in many areas but it has often been at the cost of the teacher’s health.

1972 Kerrisdale Arena annual Vancouver School Board Nights of Music. Five nights (2000 performing each night) Photo Credit: Dennis Tupman

CONTENTS 1. Dennis Tupman................................................................17 2. Pete Stigings....................................................................37 3. Bob Rankin......................................................................53 4. Ernie Colledge.................................................................65 5. Bob Schaefer....................................................................79 6. Fred & Kerry Turner..........................................................87 7. Rob Karr.........................................................................93 8. Dave Henderson.............................................................107 9. Bob Rebagliati................................................................123 10. Peter van Ooyen...........................................................133 11. Keith Woodward...........................................................187 12. Margaret (Neill) Behenna.............................................199 13. Mary Howland Ellenton.................................................209

14. Chris Robinson............................................. ...............215 15. Tom Koven...................................................................223 16. Ron Pajala....................................................................231 17. Sandy Koven..........................

.................................243

18. Mark Kowalenko.............................................. .............251 19. Dave Proznick................................................................265 20. Dave Fullerton.......................................................... ....275 21. Marilyn Turner................................................................297 22. Bob LaBonte..................................................................309 23. Curt Jantzen..................................................................315

PHOTO RIGHT: 1972 Annual Vancouver School Board Nights of Music. Kerrisdale Arena Photo Credit: Dennis Tupman

Photo Credit: Dennis Tupman

1 Dennis Tupman Back Story

My father Frank Tupman was a director of choirs in Victoria. During the war he was asked to teach at Victoria high school on the bequest of Dr. J.F.K. English, an important figure in Victoria at the time. I think he was the deputy Minister of Education. He asked my father to teach music. My father was too old for the war so he was happy to oblige. It was a smaller province with lots of cooperation.

Victoria has always been a musical town. From a very young age I operated the family record player which had a fiber needle that you put down and then cranked up the machine. I would run the record player for my sisters who were in their late teens. Saturday nights service men were invited to our house during the war for a dance. That’s how I got

18 ~ Harry Bigsby

used to the big bands: Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson. They were all household names. In the summer just before I turned ten, I started playing clarinet. I liked the sound and it was what Benny Goodman played. Harry Bigsby taught extracurricular band after school for anyone who was interested. Because I was asthmatic my parents felt it would be good for me to play a wind instrument. For a year I rode my bicycle once a week from Gorge Road to Esquimalt with my clarinet. The following November, I played my first Remembrance Day Service with the band. Mr. Bigsby took us to Esquimalt where we played at the memorial. [It was snowing and we were standing outside playing a march. Snow was building up on my instrument and I wondered if I would be able to play.] I played in the band for a couple of years until my father was transferred to Vancouver where he worked for Western Music. The following year I returned to S.G. Willis School in Victoria for grade nine. Howard Denike was the choir director working on a letter of permission. He had learned his music in the Air Force band and was an excellent musician. He inspired me so much that when I finished grade nine and left the school he offered to give me private lessons for free. We didn’t have much money in those days. I spent a few months at Victoria High School studying technical education (the trades) but after conversations with my father and G.F. Gough I decided to set my sights on Victoria College for a year and then to Normal School.

DENNIS TUPMAN ~ 19

I wanted to be an elementary teacher but like most starting teachers in those days I didn’t have a full degree. Harry Bigsby, the Superintendent of Music, said to me, “Why don’t you teach music at Central Junior?”

So I did. That was in 1956. I had graduated from high school in 1954.

Roland Grant directed the band at both Victoria High School and at Central Junior. He was a graduate of Kneller Hall in England where they trained directors for the British military bands. He too was an excellent musician. Both Roland and Howard inspired me greatly.

Howard especially inspired me because he got to me first. He became a father figure to me. Both Earl Hobson and I took lessons from Howard after high school. We received an incredible education from him and for free. We went every Thursday night for two years. He said, “I won’t charge you. All I want you to do is take notes and then give them to me.”

He put them together in a book which he used later for teaching the Victoria University Band. It was a wonderful mentorship.

My first teaching job at Central Junior lasted one year. I taught Social Studies, English, and a course called Health and Personal Development as well as a couple of music courses (one was orchestra and the other was a grade eight band). I had trained as an elementary teacher but launched myself immediately into a secondary level teaching career. I wouldn’t teach elementary school until later. I soon realized though that I needed to finish my degree.

20 ~ Robert E. Lee

In 1957 I was hired to teach in Kitimat, an industrial town with lots of money. I had a wife and a child. My pay at Central Junior was only $1800 per year. In Kitimat it was $4000 per year. I stayed in Kitimat for 13 years. Ten of those years I also attended summer school so I was working 12 months a year. Soon we had two more girls. My wife Ruth has always been by my side and worked hard raising the children. It was tough for her when I was away at summer school so I am grateful to her.

That is why I am so devoted to her now. [Ruth had a stroke in 2010.]

Anything I did, she was at my side. Now it is my time to support her.

That is just the way it is. We have been married for sixty years. I taught elementary for two years in Kitimat, every grade half time and then I went up to the high school to teach band.

One day someone brought me a double barreled euphonium. It came from Kitimat Village (a native village). They had once had a band there and he asked me if I would come and start one again. I didn’t have time between school and my ever-growing young family and I eventually gave the euphonium to Marilynn Kerr at Sight and Sound Music in Terrace to hang on the wall.

In 1959 I was down in Terrace with my band at the Terrace Music Festival. Today it is called the Pacific Northwest Music Festival. They had a lot of bands. We all marched down the main street. There was a community band there and its director was named Dr. Robert E. Lee.

DENNIS TUPMAN ~ 21

He was a big supporter of music in Terrace and there is a theatre named after him. He welcomed bands from Canyon City, Greenville and one from New Aiyansh (all Nisga’a communities). The new Aiyansh band had about 54 players. They could play well. The Aiyansh band played Rossini’s Semiramide Overture. The first clarinet player had no teeth.

He had a vibrato that went up and down about a tone. He was just wailing away. The conductor just stood there and occasionally waved his arm. Each group was supposed to bring their own adjudicator. Their adjudicator had been the past director of the band. He was distinguished by the fact that he was deaf. But that didn’t hold him back because he leaned over to our adjudicator who was John Calam (the principal of our school) and said, “That was ten minutes. Semiramide is 20 minutes long.” So we could see what his criteria were for evaluation: The length of each piece. He had a pocket watch. The fact that the Aiyansh Band won was no surprise. Later we found out that the conductor couldn’t conduct. I attended one of their rehearsals and it was absolute chaos.

People were working away on their individual parts all at the same time in sections. Somehow it all came together in the end and they could play.

They had double bell euphoniums. All the instruments were there.

The genesis of these bands was after each war, British/Canadian musicians who had played in the military bands needed make-work projects.

They went up the coast and found fertile ground. Some bands in the

22 ~ Metlakatla

native villages had been going since the 1800s. They were only small bands of about fourteen or fifteen players. These musicians gave the local natives lessons and it caught on. You still find these bands today in places like Metlakatla, Bella Coola, Prince Rupert and Port Simpson.

I took two years off from teaching in Kitimat to finish my bachelor’s degree in 1963-’64. It was taking too long at summer school. I had to go into debt as well. I was always in debt as a young teacher.

In 1967, there was a call for bands to go to Expo in Montreal. This caught the imagination of Alcan because they had a smelter in Chicoutimi. So we took our high school band to Chicoutimi. [I had a bunch of kids (about forty) in elementary school who had just become my grade eights. My high school band consisted of only twenty-four grade eleven and twelve students. There was nothing in between. That’s the group I took to Expo. I combined them into one band.] We came from the farthest away of any band in Canada and we were the only school band. I received a call back home before we left asking us to play at a Montreal Alouettes’ home game. We had fifteen minutes for the half time show. I didn’t know what to do for a half time show. That year in Kitimat it was too cold to go out and practice until June. The only information I had was that it took eight steps to go five yards. That’s four bars of music. So we practiced enough music to fill in fifteen minutes and marched as far as we could. I had done a little marching in a military

DENNIS TUPMAN ~ 23

reserve band in Victoria. We were always playing parades and marches.

We worked out a little routine but it only took thirteen minutes. We were two minutes short. They shot off fireworks for the last two minutes. It took a long time to get there by train and we cooked our own meals.

When we arrived in Montreal we hadn’t played for four days. There was a field outside where we stayed and at 5 a.m. I had them out there practicing. People were shouting at us from the apartment buildings.

Not very motivational! However, it was a good trip. We had prepared our program notes in both French and English but when we went to use them in Chicoutimi they blew off the stand. I had to do it all in English which didn’t go over too well with the die-hard French locals.

In the fall of 1967-68 I went back to the University of Victoria to finish a Master’s degree. I also studied counseling during the summer. I got just short of a doctorate in counseling as well as a Master’s in curriculum. Because my teaching load in Kitimat was so exhausting I switched to being a combination high school counselor and band teacher for my last two years. Ruth told me there was a job opening for a music supervisor in Vancouver and asked if I was interested in applying. I said, “Oh no, I would never get that.” “Well, it doesn’t hurt to apply,” she said. So I did and I got the job. I was thirty-five. We went down to Vancouver and I stayed for twenty-one years.

The job changed quite a bit over the years. Drama was added and,

24 ~ John White

multicultural education. I kept getting more and more duties each year.

Every year there were budget cuts and they are still going on. There was also a declining population. When I arrived, there were 78,000 students.

When I left in 1992, there were 51,000 students. They lost 28,000 students across the district towards the end. My job was to look after drama, art and music. It was a very rich time for me in Vancouver. I was able to work with the Music Educators’ Society of Canada (C.M.E.A.). and became its president in 1991. I was part of that organization for many years. I started a group in conjunction with people like John White, Kerry Turner and Bob Rankin called ArtsCan which is now ArtsBC, where you take professional musicians and singers and use them in the schools to give concerts. It became a huge thing. We did it as a service for the entire province and now it has been taken over and is a professional job for somebody. I didn’t distinguish between the professionals and the kids. We wanted to inspire the kids.

In 1985, I was asked to go and listen to the Lax Kw’alaams/Port Simpson band to see if they were good enough to go into the amateur section of Expo 86. They flew my wife and me up to Prince Rupert and then to Port Simpson. When we arrived, I was told to look up the manager of the community. When we got to the dock, I phoned the manager.

He came down but was suffering from the effects of a big party the night before and was a little hung over. I asked, “When is the rehearsal that I

DENNIS TUPMAN ~ 25

came up to hear?” He says, “Well, the boys are all out fishing. What you can do is go on the CB radio and tell them you are a big lawyer from Vancouver and you would like to hear our band.” I said, “I will go on the CB but I will not tell them I am a lawyer.” I said, “Hi folks, I hope the fishing was good. Sure love to hear you for an hour or two. I am up here from the festival.” Eventually the band got together that evening. There were about eighteen of them (Three were still out fishing). Those guys really could play but they only had one repertoire: old British marches, Sousa marches and Kenneth J. Alford marches. That’s interesting, I thought. I said to them: “Sure you guys can go to the festival. You guys are great!” They said, “Well, we would sure love to have uniforms but we don’t have enough for everyone.” There were thirty-five in the band. They showed me there uniforms and they were great. They had piping on them and were very detailed. They phoned the company in England (which was still in business) and said, “We have these uniforms from ages ago. Can you make them and produce some more?” They did.

They got about $15,000 worth of uniforms exactly like their heritage uniforms from a way back. They had hats and everything. They looked like a million bucks. Fast forward to the day before Expo and I get a call from their manager. They were at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and were just going to go out to practice their marching.

They wanted me to come and see them. I was absolutely blown away

24 ~ Sherry Wilson

by these guys. They looked like something out of 1922. They looked great and they played well. I was proud of them! “Good for you,” I said.

I kept in touch with them for a while afterwards.

These native bands were very committed. When they weren’t fishing they would practice for four or five hours a day. They had nothing else to do. They were a great community asset and they are found all over the west coast. After both wars bands were a really big deal in the Indian villages around the Pacific Northwest. I was proud to have met these people.

Back in Vancouver, I also started a district string program. It was the first time in the district that strings had been offered at the grade four level. Initially I had three amazing teachers who I worked with on the program: Rob Roy, Sherry Wilson and Peter Roloph (I think he is still around). The three of them and I sat down to design a workable program. It took a while to put together but thousands of students have benefited from it over the years. It has now been cut back but I had to fight for that program. I couldn’t do it by myself, so I assembled a bunch of people who were in various areas of music education and formed an arts advocacy group.

It was just an informal group. “We’ve got to save these programs,” I told them. The teachers alone cannot do this, we all have to work together. That’s when I first got involved in arts advocacy. There were

DENNIS TUPMAN ~ 25

several people interested. Rory Ralston was one. He came from Edmonton and had been involved in the arts programs there. He was an incredibly inspiring person. There were many others like him. We really got involved in arts advocacy. This got my foot in the door so when I retired it became a full-time, non-paying occupation to give talks in every province and territory in Canada.

My time in Newfoundland stood out. The premier, Danny Williams, pulled together several arts people from across the province and said, “We’ve run out of fish, we are going to run out of oil but we are not going to run out of people and people are about culture and the arts. I have brought you all together because you are all leaders. I want you to come up with a plan for what the government can do to help the arts programs in Newfoundland.” They went away, had a meeting, and came back in two weeks with a plan. The premier followed it for three years. In the second year they brought together music educators and did the same thing. I was brought in to speak to these people. Everyone in Newfoundland was buzzing with excitement at the possibilities and I imagine everyone in the other provinces was depressed at how bleak their situation was.

My last province I worked with where I worked with the ministry and teaching leaders was Manitoba. Manitoba does things differently than B.C. In B.C. it is ugly! In Manitoba the ministry came and sat

26 ~ Bill Kristjanson

down with people from the province. I was so moved, it was in June, that I improvised on the song called Row Row Row Your Boat. The conference was made up of music educators. Bill Kristjanson was a very influential music educator in Manitoba. In my opinion Manitoba has some of the best high school bands in all of Canada if not the best.

They teach in the spirit of the music and in the spirit of the kids. I used to adjudicate that way - it was a conversation.

My last speaking engagement was at a conference in Ontario. I threw my speech away and told everyone that I was going to talk to the band and ask them what music means to them. It starts with them. It is for the kids. It is not for you. It is not for your ego. We should never forget this.

It is to get them to the next level through music. At this time I finished my advocacy work because soon after I had a stroke. It was during the summer of 2009. I had to go through therapy then my wife had a stroke the following February. We were two people down for the count and it has been uphill ever since. Fortunately I have been able to work through mine but Ruth’s was more serious. She had other problems as well but we both still sing. I still have trouble with tonguing. Playing clarinet with arthritis is also difficult because the fingers don’t cover the pads properly anymore. My left hand won’t behave itself. But music goes on!

I am still alive and still breathing.

A salutation would be thanks to all those people who choose to

DENNIS TUPMAN ~ 27

teach music and music education. You are doing something for the kids that only music can do. The same goes for art. I have had the opportunity to work with so many wonderful people.

It doesn’t matter what the instrument is there are some wonderful Bluegrass players all over the province. They don’t come to the conferences but they are working with the kids. Whether it is inside or outside of schools it is allright. But if it isn’t happening in schools, then shame on them. I don’t mean the teachers. Shame on the system or society for not making it happen. In Finland they insist on music in the classroom. Same goes for Poland. After the referendum in 1989 they had 200 schools dedicated to the arts. There are many in B.C. but there are also many who don’t do anything. That is a problem. Specialty schools shouldn’t replace general comprehensive education in my view.

I served for a long time in Saskatchewan with the government. I also served in Ontario where I gave annual discussions and also talked about health and wellness. This has always been an issue with me as an asthmatic with frail health. I never thought I would make it to eighty. It was all a very humbling and far reaching experience. It was all a matter of working together. I just can’t separate myself from them anymore than I can from my wife. It was a great privilege to be talking about arts advocacy. In the 1950s which was all about expansion and opportunity, everything was booming after the war. In the sixties everything started

28 ~ Dave Dunnett

to wind down. Then, the seventies became a little bare with the oil crisis and then recession in the 1980s. We all know what it has been like lately. Cut backs and more cut backs, cuts, cuts, cuts in education. We are always fighting for music because music seems to be one of the first things to be regarded as a frill and I have spent a lot of time finding out about the research that shows it is not. It is a basic human experience.

To do without it is to deny yourself and to handicap your ability to learn.

That has been proven. I regarded myself as a spokesperson for music rather than a music teacher. I have been humbled all my life by the brilliance of trained music people, many of them who were my students and could run rings around me. That is still the case. I don’t see myself as a great musician at all but I love music and I speak for music. I’m humbled by great musicians. I always felt sad in a way that I didn’t have the talent but I always knew what good music was and I bless all my musician friends.

I still give lessons in music appreciation in Williams Lake. I give two or three a year at what’s called the Elder College. We sit down and listen to music and I talk about it. All kinds of music: pop, country and western, symphonic. I am going to be giving one in 100 Mile House soon. It’s been a rich life and I give thanks every day when I wake up and think of the friends I’ve had in music. I am so grateful. * Dave Dunnett and I played in a band with Donny Clark. Donny is

DENNIS TUPMAN ~ 29

another fellow I should mention. He was not a school teacher but he has done more for school bands around the province than anyone. He has gone everywhere. So Dave Dunnett, Donny Clark, Earl Hobson and myself were in a big band in Victoria. We rehearsed in the Air Force hall on Sunday nights. That’s when I first met Dave. At the age of sixteen, Donny was playing professionally. Gordy King was another teacher who had an influence on both Donny and Dave. Dave went back to teach at Oak Bay High School for many years and had a very strong influence on many kids. He is what I would call a professional music educator. I define professional as one who is looked up to by other teachers. * Charlie Stowell was a different cat. He came out of the military. He was an American who moved up to Powell River where he developed an amazing band program. Charlie was a cornet player. His bands had to play cornet and they had to all be the same brand. His elementary school bands in grade six were outstanding. The discipline in his bands was unbelievable. He was a pretty hard-nosed guy. He liked to cook and he liked single-malt whiskey. He always won in the festivals. * A fellow named Gary Hartley was up in Prince George. He should be mentioned as well. He was principal of D.P. Todd Secondary. He started as a band director in Burnaby. Prince George became a leader for bands and strings during his days up there. This was in the late fifties also for Kodaly and Orff. It was a hotbed of education.

30 ~ Martin Berinbaum

* Bryan Stovell influenced a lot of people including Diana Krall. She used to go to his house in Nanaimo and listen to jazz records. * Dave Proznick was another very humble and self-defacing guy. I once heard his band at MusicFest Canada. He had about seventy-five players in his concert band. They sounded great! I said to him, “This band doesn’t need you now. You have made them independent of you. You get them going and then I want you to stop conducting. Just stand there and listen.” You should have heard that band. The tears were streaming down his face. He said at the end, “Yeah, they don’t need me!” That’s the finest compliment you can give yourself or your kids. They will have you and music for the rest of their lives. * Martin Berinbaum is an important figure because he carried on the summer music programs at U.B.C. They have been enormously successful. I was in one of the first ones. It was run by Alan Clingman.

Away back in 1958, five kids from my program in Kitimat went to the summer program at UBC and they all became music teachers. The energy and inspiration that was given to them was just enough to make a difference to kids from the smaller towns around B.C. It was a terrific boost. I have had the privilege of teaching in a rural setting and in a city setting and they are very different. These summer programs were huge. * Dr. Cam Trowsdale was a brilliant violinist and teacher who taught at U.B.C. and had a great influence on a number of programs. He would

DENNIS TUPMAN ~ 31

go out and work in the classroom, particularly in Langley where he got together with another fine gentleman, Ray Featherstonehaugh, and they got together this ukulele program that is still going. Peter Luongo carried it on. You wouldn’t think you could get so much out of a ukulele. * Delamont worked on repertoire for trips and he would be working on 100 pieces. He did phenomenal work but he was a man of his time. Tyrannical, he knew a lot and he could bring kids together and could selfpromote as well. C.E. Findlater did something similar with the Elgar Choir. Delamont did a huge service in carrying on something that kids could do well. He deserves credit. He knew how to put on a show. He wouldn’t bore you. The subtle points of music weren’t his forte. I loved playing in his band on the 1955 tour of England. * The B.C. Choral Federation has been around for thirty years. They have done phenomenal things: training directors, putting on festivals, bringing people together. It is largely community based but whatever happens in the community can happen in the schools. I was proud to be involved in a world choral conference in 1993. It actually made money.

Two others lost money. We can thank Kim Campbell for that because I am sure she helped out with grants.

Arts advocacy is all about mobilizing teachers and parents to protect their programs. It has worked in many cases. We are in a different time now. We have to look at music as a phenomenon. In my own develop-

32 ~ Bluegrass Music

ment I have come to the conclusion that I cannot define what music is.

It’s just like God. That’s where I am right now. I love music. I have been involved in music all my life. But that music has been mostly European based and we are in a society that is evolving into a world culture. It’s a completely different aesthetic. It’s not just singing in a choir or playing in a band. It’s doing everything: singing, playing, dancing. Sitting down in a theatre for an hour and a half is a shrinking phenomenon. I love it. But I also love Bluegrass. People play it and socialize. With a band you have to have all the instruments. But if you have a guitar, violin and banjo you can make up a good group. It’s more democratic and it’s more inclusive and it seems to be more where people are at these days.

More and more they seem to find satisfaction in doing something together. Some of our school programs have gone that way to emphasize the change. But research shows that kids who play in a band hang up their instruments when they graduate. The community part of it depends on being able to play together with other people. So music is changing. It is not so much anymore what we are teaching in schools because I still feel it has merit but I feel it is getting dated. Bands came out of the military, orchestras came out of Vienna and singing came out of Italy. Do I still believe in music? You bet, more than ever. But how we do it and how we make it in schools is going to be very different from how we do it now.

In the elementary schools we need to go back to learning how to do it.

DENNIS TUPMAN ~ 33

That’s where it starts. Computers are taking up more and more of our kids time and teachers are being asked to do things that should be being done by the parents.

Dimitri and Eleny Chronopoulus in Militsa. 1930s

2 Peter Stigings Back Story

I am a Vancouver boy through and through. I went to Edith Cavell Elementary School and then on to King Edward High School when it was at Oak and 12th Avenue on Vancouver’s west side. I was very involved in the orchestra in high school. It was directed by Charles Rowley. In my elementary days I was lucky. After the war private music teachers were desperate for pupils. They went around the neighborhoods knocking on doors. One of them knocked on my parents’ door. He was a violin teacher named Frederic Grieves. He had a studio in the 800 block west 16th Avenue. We lived in the 800 block west 24th Avenue. My mom used to walk me over to his house to take lessons starting around 1950.

I was nine. We signed an agreement that if I took lessons for a year he

38 ~ Julian Grau

would supply the violin for free. We kept that arrangement for five years.

After five years it was decided that I should get my own violin. My teacher introduced me to a fellow named Doc Porter who worked out of the Seymour Fine Arts Building on Seymour Street. He had a carpenter’s shop on the sixth floor. He repaired violins for guest artists who came to town: Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin etc. They would take their violins to him to be checked out and tuned before they performed with the VSO. He built me a violin from scratch. I was very fortunate that every Saturday through the fall of 1954 I was able to go down to his shop and he would describe to me what he was going to do the next week on my violin. I saw it go from a block of wood from the Black Forest of Germany to the finished product. I still have that violin today and it means a lot to me. Because of my violin experience I received an offer to join the Vancouver Junior Symphony. It practiced at that time in the Catholic Hall just off Granville & 13th. Julian Grau was the conductor. He was also the concertmaster of the VSO under Irwin Hoffman. The Junior Symphony was the predecessor of the Vancouver Youth Symphony.

In the 1950s there were only two high schools with band programs.

Gladstone was one and the other I do not recall. Most of the schools had orchestras. There were a lot of violin teachers in those days. So I played violin all through high school. I wanted to make music my lifes’ work.

My violin teacher told me not to become a professional violin player. He suggested I go to UBC and get my teaching certificate so I could teach

PETER STIGINGS ~ 39

in the public schools. Once on campus I realized I would need to know how to play the woodwinds, brass and percussion instruments as well.

I started at UBC in 1960 and graduated four years later. Then I enrolled in Music Ed with a minor in Social Studies. Others in music with me at UBC included Sharon Habkirk, David Lynne, Marty Summers and Neil Welles. There were about thirty-two of us in all.

My first teaching position was in Coquitlam. The band program at Port Moody High School was initiated by a dedicated group of enthusiastic parents who met, organized a parent committee, chose a member to run as school trustee to put pressure on the School Board to have band put on the timetable. They hired Mark Rose from UBC to start a beginners’ band in September 1963. This enthusiastic group of students from Port Moody and Ioco met every Monday night. Their first performance was for the Legion when they led the parade down St. John’s Street to the Cenotaph for Remembrance day, 1963.

By Spring 1964 the school board in response to considerable pressure from the community passed a motion that required the principal of Moody High to include band on the timetable for September 1964.

This meant that it was necessary for the Board to hire a Bandmaster. A number of candidates applied and I was lucky enough to be selected. In addition to teaching a beginning band and an advanced band at Moody High, I was also given the task of starting the band program at Sir Frederick Banting Jr. Secondary which was a brand new school opening in

40 ~ Grey Cup Torchlght Parade

September 1964. To provide a real challenge for a first year teacher the Board also piled on five beginning band classes for five elementary schools in the Port Moody area.

My trusty VW bug was my office for boxes of music, a instrument repair kit, tuner and a few spare instruments for those students who came to class without their instruments.

The highlights of my four years in the Coquitlam School District were preparing the band to march in the Remembrance Day Parade, the Port Moody May Day parades, the Port Coquitlam (sister city) parades and marching in the Grey Cup Torchlight Parade down Georgia St. in Vancouver. In 1967 we helped celebrate the Canadian Centennial by taking our first band tour of Oliver, Grand Forks, Salmo and Nelson B.C. The parents were always extremely supportive and took on the School Board once again, demanding that a proper music room be built at Moody High. In the first two years we rehearsed on the stage of the gym with only a curtain separating the band class from bouncing basketballs and hearty gym/referee whistles. Not a very serious classroom atmosphere, to say the least.

I still hear from some of the students. Many are still playing in community bands in their retirement years. We had a good time, worked on tuning up a few chords and the students learned to play with much enthusiasm and energy thanks in part to the parents who had taken the

PETER STIGINGS ~ 41

initiative to start the program.

Lord Byng Secondary School One day in 1967 Pete Stigings found himself in Fred Turner’s office with another music teacher, Earl Hobson. Fred was looking to fill two positions in his Vancouver School District where he was the District Music Supervisor: one at Prince of Wales Secondary and one at Lord Byng Secondary. As luck would have it Pete got the position at Lord Byng and Earl the position at Prince of Wales.

Lord Byng had a well established band program, thanks to the four years that Jim Kirk spent there. The program was fortunate to have an organized and supportive parent group called the Lord Byng Booster Society (known as the Triple B.S). They organized massive fund raising projects including selling 10,000 light bulbs throughout the West Point Grey area, rummage sales, bake sales, magazine subscriptions and so forth. Their biggest project was to raise sufficient funds to send the forty-five piece Byng Band to Japan in March 1970. The two week tour included five days in our sister city of Yokohama, a visit to the Datsun car factory and performing at the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka. We visited many museums, shrines, cultural centres and one of the highlights was performing in front of two thousand people at the Kanagawa Prefecture Hall. This was a concert we shared with a number of

42 ~ Ted Golf

Japanese school ensembles. We were most impressed by a Primary School orchestra that played from memory Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.” Wow! This was a tour that one remembers vividly for a lifetime. The students still talk about it with fond memories. They remember the easter egg hunt in a Shinto Shrine (not politically correct something so frivilous), the tour of the Ginza through the ears of our blind clarinetist, playing on the butt end of huge Douglas fir logs at the B.C. Pavilion and playing for hamburgers at the American Park Pavilion. Isn’t it funny what sticks with you forty-five years later! Pete left Lord Byng to become the District Fine Arts Coordinator for the Saanich School District on Vancouver Island where he remained for four years.

Vancouver 1975 I started my longest teaching stint in September 1975 at Magee. Initially there were 38 students in Senior Band, 28 in Junior Band and a volunteer noon hour concert choir of 64. My timetable was loaded with a number of Social Studies courses. The biggest challenge I faced was the fact that the music courses lasted all semester (either fall or spring semester). I explained to the principal that this just was not going to work if he wanted to build the program. His solution was to put me on the timetable committee. The next year we managed to get Band eight

PETER STIGINGS ~ 43

back to back with PE8. I established a relationship with the Social Studies Head, Ted Golf and got Band nine back to back with Social Studies none. Senior Band was back to back with Senior Jazz Band. This gave more students the opportunity to take two band courses that ran all year.

Magee had around 900 students when I started. Today in 2015, it has about 1260. In my first year we started what was to become an annual tradition of musical theatre at Magee: a production of “Pajama Game.”

Over the years we put on HMS Pinafore, “Guys and Dolls,” “Pippin” and many others. A new drama teacher, Barb McColl, arrived at Magee in the late 1970s. She was interested in producing original musicals rather than paying large sums of royalties to New York companies. She sought out talented music students and convinced them to write the melodies using her lyrics. This became a real challenge for all of us to figure out the orchestra/chorus accompaniment. Many an hour in the months leading up to the production dates was spent arranging orchestra parts for a 22 piece pit orchestra. After a couple of years of spending many weekends in rehearsals, I bowed out so that I could spend more time with my family. As the program grew additional courses were added such as Fine Arts Survey Course and Jazz Band. My teaching load quickly became a full time position by year three and Ted Golf came on board as the Senior “A” Jazz Band director. Another highlight of the early years was the establishment of a parent supportive group, the Magee Music Soci-

44 ~ John Trepp

ety. This group raised money for instruments, music, music tours and sponsored guest musicians for special workshops and concerts. Some of the notable guests were Bobby Shew, trumpeter par excellence from L.A .and Geoffrey Brand, conductor of the London (England) Wind Ensemble. After I had been at Magee for a couple of years I received a call from Dennis Tupman, the District Music Supervisor for the Vancouver School District, asking if I would like to have a choral specialist on a part time basis join the Magee music department. Hence the fall of 1977 marked the beginning of a long relationship with John Trepp, an excellent choral director. John had been living in Blaine, Washington and he was recruited by Bill Stonier to start up the choral division of Northwest Music. John gradually built the choral program and in time directed many award-winning choirs at Magee. While he was teaching at Magee he always worked part time at one of the music stores. First it was Northwest Music, then he moved to Ward Music and finally he did a stint at Tom Lee Music. He was trying to build up their choral departments because he wanted choral music to thrive in schools across Canada and he knew the programs wouldn’t survive unless they had access to the latest, quality choral music. John stayed ten years longer than I did because he needed to build up his pensionable years. Previously he had been teaching in Montana. From the start of my time at Magee I made a point of supporting as many district music events as well as colleagues’ music concerts. Dennis Tupman made a determined effort to organize

PETER STIGINGS ~ 45

district events as well as on a number of occasions offering Vancouver District as the host district for the annual BCMEA provincial conferences. In addition, he organized many district events including an annual Vancouver School Board Nights of Music. For a long time it was held in the Forum at the PNE. Then it was moved to the Kerrisdale Arena, a larger and more central location. It was an evening to showcase the districts’ musical ensembles. Spread over four or five nights, each night different groups would perform. Dennis and his consultant would spend weeks going from school to school rehearsing the grand finale where everyone would perform several spectacular massed numbers. Secondary bands would combine with choirs along with elementary musical ensembles, ukulele groups, recorder ensembles etc. It was a real musical potpourri. This was one of Dennis’ major focuses every year until he retired. We were all very sad when Dennis retired in 1992 as this also marked the termination of twenty-eight coordinators and consultants in the Vancouver School system. This also marked the termination of the annual Kerrisdale Arena Nights of Music. Today in 2015, Magee hosts a District Secondary Night of Bands and Eric Hamber hosts a Junior Night of Bands. Magee also hosts a District Chamber Choir night as well.

Over the years Magee has traditionally sponsored a number of school musical events: the Ryerson Fall Concert (for senior concert bands and choirs) and the Remembrance Day assemblies for the school. The month of December would kick off with a Seniors Tea & Concert. This was

46 ~ David Fromager

repeated in June. The whole school was involved thanks to the administrative leadership of Mr. Wally Moult, principal in 1976. The rugby team would carry the wheelchairs up the front stairs. The Home Economics department would prepare the tea and snacks for a reception. This was followed in December by the Traditional Christmas Nights of Music which were spread over two nights to accommodate both Junior and Senior groups. In early March the school hosted an Invitational Elementary Massed Band concert for the feeder schools and the grade eight and nine bands. The concert had a guest conductor for the massed band numbers.

Quite often Dennis Tupman was the guest conductor. As a special feature we had a local composer write a special massed band finale number.

One year it was David Fromager (former Richmond music educator) and another year it was Fred Stride (UBC) who composed a piece that was dedicated to Dennis Tupman. We kicked off the final month of June with another Seniors Tea & Concert. The June Nights of Music marked the culmination of the year, again spread over two nights. In addition to our in-house concerts, we started traveling and doing exchanging senior ensembles in the spring to such places as Gresham, Boring and Ashland in Oregon, Lethbridge, Courtenay and Victoria. The department participated in a number of festivals both locally and eventually nationally. We made annual treks to the Kiwanis Concert Band, Jazz Band and Choral Festivals. With Ted Golfs’ assistance, our jazz bands always participated in Bob Schaefer’s Hyack Jazz Festival in New Westminster. After it

PETER STIGINGS ~ 47

ended we participated in the Surrey Jazz Festival as well. Both of these festivals were highly competitive involving ensembles from not only the Lower Mainland but also stateside. These festivals became invitational festivals that selected the top ensembles to represent this region at the Canadian Stage Band Festival (later to become MusicFest Canada), which welcomed not only stage bands but also concert bands, choirs and eventually even orchestras. Music Fest was held in a different city in Canada, usually one year in the east, followed by one year in the west. Hence, over the years we visited and participated in festivals in Quebec City, Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and even Vancouver! Besides our Jazz Band we usually took the senior concert band (wind ensemble) and the Magee jazz choir and chamber choir. One of the biggest highlights was 1993 when the Magee Senior Jazz Band and the Magee Senior Vocal Jazz Ensemble were both awarded first place GOLDS. In the mid 1970s, the Federal Government sponsored an exchange program called, “The Open House Canada Project” which enabled many school groups and musical ensembles to exchange with a comparative group in a another region of Canada. We were very fortunate to be paired with the Joseph Francis Perrault Secondary School Band from Montreal. This provided us with a good introduction to Quebec and the cultural and linguistic characteristics of our P.Q. partners. It is too bad that this cultural program was discontinued by the Federal government. If it had been allowed to continue it prob-

48 ~ Brian Knapp

ably would have prevented the vocal uprisingof Quebecers who wanted to separate from Canada. We also did an Open House Canada exchange to Toronto one year. In the 1980s Magee bands and choirs started the tradition of a fall Whistler weekend retreat to hone our skills as musicians. Many of these retreats featured a variety of guests including Dennis Tupman, Bryan Knapp, Howard Denike, Earl Hobson, Grant Lapthorne, Kerry Turner, John White. The purpose was to inspire our young musicians. Over the years Magee bands and choirs spread their wings and in 1985 the Magee Music department undertook their first European tour of Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria. After this successful European cultural tour, future tours took place in 1989, 1992 and 1995. Magee performers were heard in Notre Dame Cathedral (Paris), Hildegard Bingen Abbey (Rudesheim on the Rhine) Freiburg Cathedral (Germany), Hotel Mozart (Salzburg) to mention just a few.

We also participated in the Pacific Basin Invitational Music Festival in Honolulu on two occasions. The motto of the music department was “PROMOTING EXCELLENCE THROUGH MUSIC.” Soon other schools and festivals were calling on Magee musicians to provide inspiration for their programs through workshops, clinics, performances and professional development sessions. Exchanges took place with bands at Campbell Collegiate (Regina) and O’Neill Collegiate (Oshawa), and one year all three of us booked into the International Music Camp in International Peace Gardens, North Dakota.

PETER STIGINGS ~ 49

In 1999 when I retired, Magee had three concert bands and four jazz bands. The bands always participated in the Kiwanis Concert Band and Jazz Band Festivals. John Trepp had a large Concert Choir (100+singers), and two Chamber Choirs that participated in the Vancouver Kiwanis Choral Festival as well as festivals at Carson Graham Secondary (organized by Peter Taylor and Rob Karr) and Lynn Valley United Church (organized by Janet Warren). as preparation before going on to MusicFest Canada. Many good musicians and music educators came out of the Magee Music program. These included Tom Shorthouse (trumpet), Bill Meikle (composer), Ann MacDonald (vocal teacher), Dr. Peter Lupini (Music and Voice Processing Technologist), and numerous student teachers from UBC, Western Washington State University and UVIC, including David Ennis (Abbotsford), Gail Sudermann (Kwantlen University) to mention just a few. (Dave Fullerton didn’t come out of Magee but I taught him at Banting Jr. Secondary in Coquitlam.) From 1990 through 1999 the Magee department heads were busy planning for the New Magee (the school was being replaced with a brand new school). One of my goals was to make sure that the Fine Arts Wing contained a working space and separate rooms for choir, band, drama and art disciplines. I also pushed for a good acoustical performance venue now known as the Magee Theatre. The provincial government said, “a gym is good enough for other schools in the province so why not for Magee?”

However, Vancouver School District had a policy that every school

50 ~ Hass and Quan

should have an auditorium/Theatre. The architect and school board managed to get the government to pay for the outside structure of the Theatre (walls and roof). Through the Magee Music Society we raised $5 million over several years to cover the inside costs: seating, lighting, sound system. 525 seats with the same high quality as the Terry Fox Theatre. The New Magee opened in September 1999 and was situated north of the old Magee. The Fine Arts Performing Wing opened a year later with much needed separate rooms for each discipline and an classy Stage and Theatre with 520 padded Theatre seats. In June 1999, I retired from a teaching career of 35 years. Yes, I miss the students but I do not miss the politics and the administrative paper that the job demanded. I have many fond memories and if I was to do it all again, I wouldn’t hesitate to be an active music advocate remembering with much personal satisfaction the years I spent providing the opportunity of making quality music with talented, interested and enthusiastic students. It warms my heart to go back to Magee and see Mr. Chris Haas, band director, and Mr. Greg Quan, choir director, carrying on with many of the traditions that were established in the latter half of the twentieth century.

The quality of the programme, the level of musicianship and the quality of music emanating from the hallowed halls of the new Magee have steadily risen through the leadership of Haas and Quan and the support of the parents and community.

PETER STIGINGS ~ 51

Peter Stigings, Band Director, Fine Arts Department Head, Magee 1975-1999

3 Bob Rankin

Bob grew up in Ontario where his parents were officers in the Salvation Army. A lot of people with an SA background went into teaching music. Bob started as a kid in the local SA Band and his family’s social life revolved around the SA. His family moved every four years. Bob started taking lessons on the cornet at age seven and then moved on to the alto horn and then the tenor horn. As a teenager he played the euphonium. When he came out west everyone knew him as a euphonium player. His parents also started him on piano at an early age around 1951. Today, the piano is his principal instrument. He was always asked to play in groups that needed a piano as he could sight read at a high level. In his late teens he started conducting the SA band. In Grade 9, in Ontario, he started playing in his high school band. His teacher was

54 ~ Janet Warren

very smart and had him play an instrument he was unfamiliar with, the bassoon. After two or three years on bassoon the local civic orchestra asked him to come to rehearsals. It was his first encounter with the tenor clef and keys with multiple sharps (bassoons play in F). The orchestra wasn’t for him but he was encouraged to join the National Youth Orchestra. His father frowned on him playing in any groups that were not S.A. so he started to teach himself on piano with the help of a library that had a great collection of piano music: Chopin, Liszt etc.

In Vancouver Bob became the bandmaster of the local S.A. band. At UBC he took a math/science degree and played in local bands. He soon realized he was not doing what he loved and switched to Education with a special music/math major because of his music background. It was now 1964/5 and Bob was taking his music courses in the new music building (Prior to 1964 music classes were held in wooden huts constructed on campus during the war years). In 1968 before he finished his degree he decided to apply for a teaching position and went for an interview at the Hotel Vancouver. A band position was available in Kitimat and he was quickly hired. He replaced Dennis Tupman who had been teaching band in Kitimat for the previous eleven years.

The school he taught at in Kitimat was Mount Elizabeth Secondary.

He taught extracurricular band at 7:45 am and Gr 8 music, math and science throughout the day. He took over Dennis’s choir as well but only for a short time. During his first year in Kitimat he took his band to the

BOB RANKIN ~ 55

music festival in Moose Jaw. They placed first. In the summer when he was at UBC completing his degree he was told that the North Vancouver school district was looking for band directors so he applied.

“Bob Rankin, where have you been?” is what he heard when he called the district office. Everyone knew everyone in those days. There were a lot of recruiters. Bob was hired to teach band at Handsworth Secondary where he stayed from 1971 to 1975. The District Music Supervisor was Sherwood Robson, a strong choral person. The district was filling up with great talent: Bob Rebagliati started at the same time, Janet Warren went to Argyle to teach choral and vocal jazz and Rob Karr went to Carson Graham. Together they created the North Vancouver Music Educators Association. Bob became its president and it became a very cohesive unit during Bob’s time there. One of its fundamental positions was that it was their responsibility to say professionally what they needed to do a good job. Bob developed a format for all their music teachers and standards were set. He encouraged them to say what they needed and then he made a presentation. About 1975 Sherwood Robson took ill and the position became available for District Music Supervisor. “You should apply for the job,” Bob Rebagliati told him and he did! But it wasn’t without much reflection. He was enjoying his job at Handsworth. He had 110 students in his choir. He brought back Joe Beraducci and along with Brian G’froerer and they taught band. Bob taught choral. He was also teaching folk guitar and classical guitar. They brought a student

56 ~ Sherwood Robson

teacher over from Victoria one year and he got to go on their year-end band trip which was great experience for him. Handsworth’s twenty minute modular system allowed every student to participate in their musicianship program as well. They could sing, work in a music lab, play an instrument or even compose. It was a very rounded music education program, one in which everyone worked together. He made his final decision to leave after he started getting calls from other teachers encouraging him to apply for the position.

Bob became the District Music Supervisor in North Vancouver in 1975 when Sherwood Robson retired. In his role as the President of the North Vancouver Music Educators Association Bob learned that an organization needs to function cohesively, set standards, be ready to make their case and be ready to fight for what they believed. These were the three principles that Bob brought to his position of District Music Supervisor. He streamlined music purchasing for all so it was fair. Formulas were worked out based on the size of each program. Standard purchasing orders were issued. Bob had a full time secretary to help him with his duties.

Duties of the District Supervisor: * Provide support, coordination and direction in the Fine Arts. * Facilitate and support teacher growth in the arts. * Support teacher networks in music, drama, art and dance. * Support the organization of District-wide activities for students and

BOB RANKIN ~ 57

teachers: Day of Dance, Primary Mornings of Music, Elementary Choral Festival, Orchestra Day, Band Friendship Festival, Orff Children’s Day, Band and Orchestra Festival, Summer Band Vamps, Summer Strings and Art. * Observe teachers for the purpose of recognizing success, giving encouragement, offering suggestions for improvement. * Support a comprehensive Artists-in-Schools Program (auditioning, recommending, contracting, evaluating, applying for outside grants). * Assist schools in need assessment, goal setting and action plans for improving arts programs. * Develop district policy and implementation standards for the visual and performing arts. * Provide resources and information to teachers, principals, parents and others through the District Fine Arts Office/Resource Centre. * Assist in selection of staff by providing required qualifications, reviewing applications, recommending for short list and hiring. * Administer a Fine Arts Budgets (budget setting, allocating, monitoring). * Respond to over 2000 phone calls annually and provide consultation and advice.

One of the challenges in North Vancouver was declining enrollment.

Yet in spite of the band programs were growing. How can you hire

58 ~ Ken Osterreicher

new teachers when hiring is based on number of students? Other school districts (such as Surrey and Abbotsford) didn’t have this problem because their numbers were growing. They could go ahead and hire as they wished. Bob had to fight for each position. Often new teachers would be recommended but until school started no one would know the actual numbers. Prospective teachers would need to trust the Supervisor if he said there would be a position available. Those who could not wait were lost to other districts. The role of the District Supervisor was to help ensure that good teachers were hired. They also had to prevent the deterioration of a program by a bad teacher. Principals would call and say, “Don’t send him back in September.” The kids wouldn’t sign up for the program if they didn’t like the teacher. Bob sometimes had to counsel band teachers to leave the system. Sometimes he was so convincing they would ask him for a reference which would go something like this: “If you are prepared to be in the classroom and are very clear about your expectations, so and so could deliver pretty closely what you want. But I cannot guarantee he will deliver if you are not in the room with him.”

Bob was district supervisor for 17 years from 1975 to 1992.

The crunch of 1992 (the cancellation of music programs) was the result of a change in the funding formula. North Van funded its programs with the support of the community. The Board would present a budget and if it was larger than some formula the voters would vote whether to pay the difference. Because they wanted a strong music program they

BOB RANKIN ~ 59

paid the difference. There were outdoor schools, and a broad elementary program with band and strings etc. When the funding formula was changed the district no longer allowed to to have the community cover the difference. Instead funds were allocated by a formula called ‘equalization.’ The term ‘Lighthouse Districts’ came about. They had more progressive school boards. Some people ran for the board just to cut programs. Their mantra was ‘cut taxes.’

The most important factor in a music program is the director -the individual standing in front of the band or choir. The teacher with the dynamism, the broad experience, the love of music, the skills -- they were superstars! North Van had its share: Bob Rebagliati at Handsworth, David Henderson at Windsor, Janice Warren and Ken Osterreicher at Argyle, Rob Karr and Peter Taylor at Carson Graham. However the superstars cannot do it by themselves. There are too many gatekeepers, the first being the principal. They need the support system to fight for the resources and support which they need to thrive. Bob worked with all the principals. Music directors needed to work together towards a common goal. Bob kept getting calls from West Vancouver saying, “Our guys don’t talk to each other.” Small districts didn’t warrant a supervisor.

Leading up to the crunch in 1992: A superintendent told parent’s at a meeting that each student in the band program cost $750. Bob heard about it and did his own calculations in an effort to save the programs: There were 2,297 students enrolled in band in March ’92 in the district.

60 ~ Save the band Program!

If it were true that represented 2 % of the budget or &1.7 million dollars.

Salaries for band and string teachers was just under $600,000 or $249 per child. The cost of each instrument for the parents is considered 50% of the program costs (the parents actually fund 90% of the cost). Some districts (such as Calgary) do provide all the instruments. As a result of their elementary and string program their high school program was operating at a high level which resulted in a staff saving of 5.25 full time teachers. Bob had all the figures. When all of the above was taken into account the actual cost per student was only $137. He could even show how to reduce it further down to $35.

In 1984-6 the cost per child was $30. Grade five participation increased 52-64 %. Handsworth’s elementary participation in ’92 was at 96%. District wide it was 72%. This was Bob’s plea to save the band programs in North Vancouver. It worked and the band programs were saved but they cut the position of District Supervisor. Bob’s focus was to save the program and he is not sure when it became evident to him that it probably meant they would cut something. His position would probably get cut. Every district was different. Some supervisor positions had already been cut by 1992 and others were cut afterwards.

Bob accepted a Vice Principal-ship at an elementary school and taught a grade 6 class as well. After spending 17 years working with all the principals in the district he now found himself working under one. When he finally retired Bob Rebagliati ask him to sub with his band. He had to

BOB RANKIN ~ 61

go down to the board office and apply. This was 2002. He used to know everyone in the board but ten years later he knew no one. He thought he was going to be asked for a criminal record. He was 57 when he retired.

Today in many districts retired teachers cannot sub but they could in 2002.

Bob enjoyed getting back in the classroom and once the kids found out he knew what he was doing he was accepted as a superstar. It was great! He recalls subbing in a stage band once. One trumpet player was really wasting time. “Let’s go!” Bob said and got little response. Finally he said, “Okay, look, I am going to give everything I have and how about if you do the same. If you do not want to then you should pack up your trumpet and leave.” The young fellow packed up his trumpet and left. Once he was out of the room the rest of the kids all gave a big bronx cheer! They wanted him gone as well. On another occasion he subbed in a choir. They didn’t have a piano player to accompany them so Bob played. They all wanted him to come back. As a VP in an elementary school he took on many roles. Once two grade one and two students came up and hugged him below the knee. He used the opportunity to engage them in a conversation which worked out just fine. There was a girl once who was from Eastern Europe and she had bruise marks on her arm. She got into a fight with another girl. Bob said she should explain what had happened to her parents.” She said, “Don’t call my parents.”

Several years later after he retired he subbed at a school where she was

62 ~ Wonderful Connections!

a student. She was now about 15. She was was late for choir and when she came in she saw Bob and went over and hugged him. She remembered him from elementary school even though he didn’t recognize her.

He had almost forgotten about all the wonderful connections you make as a teacher!

Voula and me. 1959

1970 Osaka, Japan with Ernie Coledge conducting

BOB RANKIN ~ 63

1970 Osaka, Japan with Ernie Coledge conducting

4 Ernie Colledge Back Story

I grew up in Kimberley in the beautiful East Kootenays with the magnificent Rocky Mountains towering to the east. My mother started me on violin when I was eight but there were no permanent resident violin teachers in our mining town, so instruction depended on teachers who came to work for short terms in the Cominco offices or other local businesses then moved on.The best teacher I had was Finan Deagle and I was sad to see him move to Vancouver after three years. (A side note: Iwould later teach with his younger brother Gene who became French

66 ~ Ralph Yarwood

department head at Hamber). My least favorite teacher rapped my knuckles with an old chair rung at every wrong note, without ever explaining what I had done wrong—no explanation of key signatures. I often went home with bleeding knuckles that needed to be soaked in salt water for a few days to help heal faster, and feeling very discouraged about ever being as good a violinist as my uncle. However, there was a growing band program at McKim High School headed by a wonderful teacher and director named Ralph Yarwood, so in Grade 8, I took band and learned to play the trumpet. A few years later the brand new Selkirk Senior High School opened with much celebration of new facilities, school colors and uniforms. The school band program had lots of community involvement besides concerts, playing in the very chilly February Snow Fiesta, May 24th and July 1st city parades, and fundraising for uniforms and trips to band festivals. We took part in the annual BC Schools Band and Orchestra (precursor to the BCMEA)conferences and competitions with several excellent adjudications.. My first very memorable trip was to the Victoria conference hosted by the Victoria Symphony Orchestra and the H.M.C.S. Naden Band as the inspirational host groups. I graduated in 1958 and stayed at Selkirk for Grade 13, continuing in the concert band and serving as Mr. Yarwood’s student assistant. He was a master teacher who inspired several students to pursue careers in music. He kept all of his students aware of and on the cutting edge of all things musical, not just band. There was also a small com-

ERNIE COLLEDGE ~ 67

munity band in Kimberley that was run by a family with Salvation Army and military band roots. Whenever they needed a few extra brass players a few of us from the school band were happy to help out--another great opportunity to play and learn. As Grade 13 was nearing completion, Mr. Yarwood asked one day what my plans were for the following year. I replied something like, “Oh, I’m going to UBC to become a research chemist or chemical engineer,then take over Cominco operations in Kimberley and maybe in Trail as well.” Mr. Yarwood was a very tall angular man and he looked at me with a kindly shake of his head and said, “That would be a real waste Ernest. You are a people person. You need to be working with people. You would make a wonderful teacher. You should think about becoming a band teacher.” “Oh,sure!” I thought.

Several months later, I was at the UBC Registrar’s Office, documents in hand. I remember facing a kindly lady with her greying hair pulled back in a bun. “Okay, now, yes! Your documents are all here. Into what faculty are you going to register?” I had left home two days earlier on the Greyhound bus with mom, dad and me expecting that I would be registering into first year Science going into Engineering. To this day, I recall so clearly a disembodied voice saying, “I would like to register in Secondary Education.” “Good! What will your majors be?” “Music and English.” I left with some papers and a tuition receipt in hand and while walking away thought, “What the heck just happened in there?” I still refer to it as my “out of body experience”. I quickly became a serious,

68 ~ Cliff Ketchum

hardworking and dedicated music education student, deflecting questions about being in music ed rather than the Faculty of Music with the response that I wanted to be a music teacher, not a musician. And while I could have taken the music degree program then a year of education, I had not set aside money for the higher Music Faculty tuition fees and required private instruction. One last thought about this story…..When I finally told my folks that I was in music education not science and pre-chemical engineering my dad was really disappointed because he worked for Cominco and would have been proud to have his son return with an engineering degree and the potential to enter management!! On the other hand, my mom, who loved music and had started me on that path, was elated.

In 1962 I did my fifth year practicum at the newly constructed Eric Hamber Secondary School which had replaced the aging King Edward High School. School boundaries were adjusted so that in addition to most King Ed students moving to Hamber, students were also drawn from Prince of Wales, Churchill, John Oliver and Tupper. Cliff Ketchum moved with most of the King Ed staff to continue teaching band at the new school to a bright and spirited group many of whom also played in the church band that Mr. Ketchum also directed. I had a very good practicum teaching English, band and general music, and because Mr. Ketchum wanted to teach English full time, I was offered and accepted in 1963 the opportunity and challenge to develop a comprehensive

ERNIE COLLEDGE ~ 69

band program. I was given a pretty free hand in growing the program and made a point of keeping principal Ken McKenzie fully informed of what and how we were doing. A significant reason for the early success in building Hamber’s program was the demographics of the new school catchment, which included many successful legal, medical, professional and business families who unreservedly embraced and supported what they saw important to their families, personally, socially and culturally.

So money was found to rent or purchase instruments and this added to the pride of being in band. In addition, Music Supervisor Fred Turner squeezed money out of his budget to purchase some of the larger, more expensive baritones, tubas, baritone saxophone and French horns. And what he could not buy he went around to other schools and found instruments that were not being used. Dennis Tupman followed Fred Turner as Supervisor and continued to support the program and increase the instrument and music budgets. We ran annual fundraising events to purchase more music for the growing number of band levels, and in 1968 concert band uniforms: maroon, EH Concert Band-crested blazers with white shirt/blouse, grey pants/skirt and electric blue ties for the guys.

My blazer was white with the EH crest, black pants blue shirt and white tie. It was a very proud event in our developing program.

During this same period we undertook the first of a series of band trip exchanges with Bothell, Auburn and Port Angeles schools in Washington State. The band director in Bothell, Bernie Ackerman, paid us one

70 ~ Gertrude Hansen

of the finest compliments ever when commenting on our section of six French horns: “We have not heard a Canadian band with such solid mid-section voicing”. His bands were the finest concert groups we had heard—and then there were his marching bands!! We also had concert visits from Kent Meridian’s Hal Sherman and Dave Bardhun. Locally, we had fairly regular concerts and workshops given by Bobby Hales and Bobby Herriot’s big bands.

In 1968 we welcomed Margaret Neill, a brilliant young teacher who replaced Gertrude Hansen who had come with the original King Ed group and had taught choir, general music and French. Margaret took over the general music and choir, some band classes and introduced a guitar program which immediately became a huge success.She was married the following year and became our much loved and respected “Mrs. Behenna”.

We had started stage band—it grew out of a pep band and then a Dixieland group that was student-initiated. And then we had the good fortune of English teacher and long-time musician Bob Calder arriving on staff and happily taking on the leadership of the stage band. He grew it in the kind of musical professionalism that most school music programs aspire to but only a few achieve. From my perspective the arrival of Margaret and Bob spelled help - bigtime.

I consider myself to be so very fortunate to have had such fine musical colleagues—and they were not all teachers! Grade 11 student Marek

ERNIE COLLEDGE ~ 71

Norman, our concert band principal clarinetist, asked one day if we could try presenting a Broadway musical. He had a plan and had already enlisted some key talent to produce and perform. His enthusiasm, charisma and obvious musical talent and leadership launched a very successful production of “The Wizard of Oz”, and the following year “The Music Man”. Marek, ably assisted by our star timpanist, Murray Walker, produced and directed both productions. My role was to conduct the pit orchestra and see that the bills were paid. Other staff members stepped up to help with costumes, makeup and set building. Following both these productions several parents came up and some wrote notes saying that they had seen professional Broadway productions that did not have the energy and “magic” of our school productions. What a huge compliment to our talented groups. Student-led productions continued [And after Marek’s graduation.] Sheldon Piercey took on the production of “The Sound of Music”, the first step in a career that now includes annual Theatre Under the Stars productions. After a few major local productions of original musical creations (more about this later), Marek’s work took him to New York for several years, writing and arranging, and now finds him a central figure in the Stratford Festival.

The highlights of 1969-70 were the fundraising events, concerts and preparations culminating in the concert band trip to Osaka, Japan, for Expo ’70. Also is Osaka with their bands were Pete Stigings (Lord Byng), Dave Dunnett (Oak Bay) and John Hooge (Sardis), the only

72 ~ John Hooge

four groups endorsed by the B.C. government. The travel, tours and immersion into Japanese culture, as well as the whole Expo World’s Fair experience itself provided life-changing perspectives and understandings for all of us. We presented major concert performances at the Canadian, Quebec, Ontario and the spectacular British Columbia pavilions. Our students were pursued by photo-takers and autograph seekers wherever they went. For so many of our group, it was truly a trip and visit of a lifetime.

Over the years, in addition to the Vancouver Schools Nights of Music, we always entered the Kiwanis Music Festival. I felt it important that our music students see and hear other groups from the Lower Mainland and around the province, and that our local elementary school music programs hear the secondary school groups that they could aspire to be a part of in a few years. These strong convictions grew out of my earlier experience with “Bandarama” as it grew in a few short years to become the Summer Centre of the Arts. “Bandarama” was initiated by then Music Supervisor Fred Turner and started at John Oliver in 196566 with teacher Ron Pajala. Renovations at John Oliver a few years later moved the bands to Eric Hamber as it was already serving as the Advanced Credit Summer School Center. From there, it took only a few summers before “Bandarama” became “Summer Music” with the addition of guitar and choir, and the demand just a year later to include various art courses at the elementary level and more advanced art and Me with my dad at my Seymour Street salon in the sixties

ERNIE COLLEDGE ~ 73

ceramic courses for secondary age students. All of this resulted in fine arts essentially taking up most of the teaching spaces and renaming it “The Summer Center of the Arts”. I served as summer music coordinator for a few years, then as “Summer Center of the Arts”principal for a few more with Gail Gannan serving as vice-principal. A truly dynamic duo! The conclusion of every summer program included concerts presented by the various band, guitar, choir and string groups along with many art displays. A never-to-be-forgotten event for me, however, was the musical theatre production of “Fiddler on the Roof”, directed by Don Briard, then teaching at Prince of Wales. He put together the whole musical—auditions, set, choreography, pit orchestra and incredible young actors—in three weeks!! No professional company would take on such a challenge—but Don and his talented crew did.

1973 brought Marek Norman back to Hamber with his original rock oratorio, “A Breath of Life”, which combined 150 voices from Fran Norman’s Churchill choirs and Hamber’s 60-piece concert band. While it included some message songs of the period, it featured Marek’s haunting and inspiring original composition “The Prophet”, based on the writings of Kahlil Gibran. Subtitled, “A Musical Quest for Unity and Brotherhood”, the considerable proceeds from this production were donated to the Save the Children Fund. A year later, several of the same Churchill and Hamber musicians were part of Marek’s next production, the totally original “Maranatha—A Universal Rock Mass” which was performed

74 ~ Dave Berger

at Christ Church Cathedral.

And with the June excitement surrounding “A Breath of Life,” Hamber music had also to prepare for the bittersweet departure of Margaret Behenna who accepted the opportunity to move to Delta Secondary. We were so sad to see her leave, but happy that she was moving to a new challenge. And then there was the virtually impossible task of finding someone to teach band, chorus and not just guitar, but really advanced guitar. But good fortune smiled once again as we found and welcomed Mary Howland—who could do all these things, and more. So all of Hamber music continued to grow and flourish.

I required surgery in January 1974 which was a huge physical setback for me—I had never been sick. A few substitute teachers came and left but fortunately Dennis Tupman was able lure Dave Berger from UBC to look after Hamber for a few months. The students really liked him and he enjoyed being in the very busy musical mix of things, so much so that he decided to return to the secondary school music classroom the following September. The following year saw a very full and busy concert schedule and exchange with Henry Wisewood High School in Calgary. I had met director Glen Farkas while we were doing Master’s Degree work at UBC several years earlier but this was the first time our performing and travel schedules allowed us to do an exchange. Like my last Hamber band exchange it was certainly special and memorable.

As an aside, after my transfer to Gladstone I was able to do another

ERNIE COLLEDGE ~ 75

exchange with Wisewood three years later.

I had been nominated by the Hamber staff and selected by the VSB to go into the administrative training program, knowing that the successful conclusion of the year-long program would mean that I would have to leave Hamber music. It was hard to think about leaving because I really enjoyed what I was doing—there were happy challenges and smiling students every day—all day. But I accepted the reality that if I was going to make a difference in another school or in education in general, I would have to give up the excellent program we had developed and accept a transfer to an east side school because, in the view of district administration, my west side experience at Hamber would not serve me well as a school-based administrator. Thus I was transferred to Gladstone and in three years was able to rejuvenate a once-proud band program and put the school back on the musical map. I then had administrative assignments in five schools before being reassigned to Hamber in 1992.

While I was aware that the Hamber music program had remained alive and well in the seventeen years I was away, when I returned and saw and heard the bands I found their commitment an striving for excellence heart-rending. Chris Robinson had replaced me in 1975 and Tom Koven joined him a few years later. They managed the many program challenges together for several years with a wonderful positive spirit— and their students reflected it. I enjoyed and relished being back at

76 ~ Les Nerling

Hamber for six years before retiring.

As I reflect on my Hamber years, I am delighted and very proud that so many of the students I had the opportunity to work with went on to become music teachers—elementary, secondary and university—and professional, performing and studio musicians locally and in California and New York. Some became directors, composers, writers and arrangers. Some continued to be actively involved in local community and church groups.

In addition to being thrilled and proud of the Chris Robinson-Tom Koven years, I was invited back and involved in the Hamber 50th celebrations in 2014. Seeing and hearing the superb young musicians under the direction of Les Nerling, Nick Francis and David Cho (then and currently) makes me proudest of all. Hamber Music is over 50 years old and is one of the very best programs anywhere—a comprehensive, definitive school music program. What has struck me most about the music program over the past twenty-five years is that while the school community demographics have changed, the values of excellence, commitment and performance by the students is very much the same as when I started teaching and developing the program in 1963.

ERNIE COLLEDGE ~ 77

5 Bob Schaefer Back Story (Oregon 1949)

When I was in grade eight my mother bought me a recorder and hearing me play a few tunes on it she started me on violin lessons. When I got to high school in grade nine I decided to take band. When I went to band class I was informed they didn’t have violins so I would have to play something else. I was a big kid for grade nine, 5 feet 10 inches tall and 165 lbs. The band director took one look at me and said, “Tuba!”As a result I played tuba all through high school and university. I attended Willamette University in Salem where I obtained my Bachelor of Music Ed. Degree in 1958. That same year I was hired as the band director

80 ~ Ray Featherstonehaugh

in a small school district between Portland and Salem called Woodburn.

I stayed there for eight years. During the summers I attended the University of Oregon where I obtained a Master of Music Ed. Degree in 1967.

I got what I thought was my dream job in a Portland suburb called West Linn in September of 1966 but it turned out to be a nightmare. The music supervisor thought you built a band program from the top down.

Two weeks into the school year he says to me, “In two weeks you will have a half time show at our first home football game.” I had 30 in the band and 6 were on the football team. It went like that for two years so I handed in my resignation in the spring of 1968.

It was a bad year to resign. There were no openings in Oregon that year. I had a friend who moved to BC the previous year and I knew a few Canadians from my U. of O. summer school days. I called my friend and asked if there was anything going on in B.C. ‘My god they are crying for music teachers,” he said. I asked him to set up some interviews. I went up on the Memorial Day weekend for four interviews: Vancouver, Burnaby, Langley and New Westminster. I got three offers in all but the Vancouver School District.

In Burnaby I would have been Kerry Turner’s understudy. I had my Master’s degree and Kerry didn’t yet have his Bachelors. I wasn’t sure how that would work. I could see some friction occurring.

In Langley, Ray Featherstonehaugh was going to demote a high

BOB SCHAEFER ~ 81

school teacher to a junior high and put me in the high school. This was exactly the scenario I had walked into at West Linn. So I gave Langley a pass and went to New Westminster.

In 1968 New Westminster had a strong band program under the directorship of Doug Pryce and he was also the district music supervisor.

My first year at New West I taught grade eight band and a girl’s choir.

When the senior students heard I was from the U.S. they said, “We want a stage band.” Stage bands were big in the US at that time. I started the first stage band in New Westminster. It was extracurricular.

I thought it would be great to have other stage bands from around Vancouver all come together. So in the spring of 69, eight schools came to our first New Westminster Jazz Festival (aka Hyack Jazz Festival) with eight bands participating. Bobby Herriott and Dave Robbins were the adjudicators. The following year we had nine bands. At its peak in the late eighties/early nineties, 75 bands were spread out over two days in two performance locations. It ran for 24 years. It was the only festival run by high school students that I am aware of. The ones in the US were all run by colleges or universities. It also featured many local and international jazz artists and groups as guest performers. Don Menza from the old Tonight Show band comes to mind along with the Thad Jones/ Mel Lewis band and many others whose names elude me. Our students ran the festival with the exception of the adjudicators and me.

Our jazz festival was always competitive. I developed a system

82 ~ Doug Pryce

where only the top two bands in each category were named along with their scores. After that there would be a list of scores with no names.

This information would be sent out as a post-festival mail out. The directors knew where they stood but it was their decision whether or not to share that information with their students. In the Kiwanis Concert Band Festival which I chair we have a Gold - Silver - Bronze rating system!

The band director can specify whether he wants to be rated.

In 1993 the Massey Theatre, where it was held, was transformed into a professional theatre and they started charging rent. The school board refused to pay the rent for the festival stating that it was not a school district event and suggesting that I fund raise for it. Faced with lack of support from the board I decided that it was, perhaps, time to let it go. The last Hyack Festival was in March 1993. At its height we had schools coming from all over Western Canada and the West Coast of the U.S. from as far away as California to perform.

I liked to take the jazz band to festivals in the US. The performance levels of the U.S. groups was usually better and it gave my students something to aspire to. The jazz band’s most notable accomplishments were: a first place finish in our category at the huge Reno Jazz Festival (the first non U.S. band to do so) in 1976 and a “Sweepstakes Band” award at the Clackamas College Jazz Festival in Oregon in 1980. There were a couple of second places along the way as well in festivals at Bellevue Wash. and Vancouver Wash.

BOB SCHAEFER ~ 83

We had a policy in New Westminster of inclusion. Every student got to go on a band trip every year. We never made big trips overseas but took more affordable trips such as to California and Utah. Doug Pryce had gone down and hooked up with schools both in Pleasant Hill (near San Francisco) and Salt Lake City. We would take our seniors (11 and 12) down to one of them, one year and another the following year. That way no student went to the same place twice but as directors we were familiar with both areas.

Turton We never left anybody behind if they wanted Ted to go on the trip. If

someone couldn’t afford to go our parents organization would somehow solve the problem. I would sometimes go on as many as eight trips in a year. There would be a senior trip and a junior trip. Then the jazz band might go to a festival and if we qualified for Music Fest Canada and went, that would be another. They added up!

I recall hearing a really good jazz band at the Reno Jazz Festival in the early days. I approached them and asked the director if he would come to our jazz festival. His name was Hal Sherman and his band was the Kent Meridian Jazz Band. They are legendary now and Hal was hugely influential in the development of the high school and college jazz band movement locally.

For many years we did the Kiwanis Festival in Vancouver and the Coquitlam Festival as well. There are quite a few trophies from these festivals with New Westminster School band’s name on them. I am

84 ~ Stan Kenton

presently the chair-person of the Vancouver Kiwanis Concert Band Festival.

When I retired Ward Music hired me as an Institutional Sales Rep because I knew all the band directors. I did it for two years. It was a real education because I got to observe a lot of music programs, some good and some not so good.

In the 1960s and 70s, Stan Kenton ran clinics all over the US. In 1975, Bob Rebagliati and I went down to one in Sacramento with three students. Based on the participant’s performance at a try out, the 500 people at the clinic were formed into 22 jazz bands. I was impressed!

There were enough teachers attending to form a teacher’s band. At one of the band’s rehearsals I had an embarrassing experience. I was playing in the jazz band on third trumpet and who walks in but Stan Kenton dragging his book behind him on a cart. He hands out the parts and we start playing. All of a sudden there are solo changes on my part which was in G Concert. Well that’s in A for trumpet. As I was fumbling around trying to make something happen Mr. Kenton was nearby leaning on the back of a bar stool. I could almost hear him thinking “what the %#@” is this guy doing. It wasn’t my proudest moment! I came away from the clinic thinking it would be a great thing to have in our area. Some research with the Kenton people led me to the fact that it would be too great a risk financially to undertake this on my own.

BOB SCHAEFER ~ 85

In 1978, Gary Guthman came to Vancouver and started a pro band.

He put together a group made up of mostly young pros. When I heard about this I wondered if he would be interested having his band be part of a big band clinic modeled on the Kenton Clinics. I contacted Gary and his manager Jerry Vineberg and they were interested. The first clinic occurred during the summer of 1979 as the Gary Guthman Jazz Clinic.

After the first year Gary moved on and Jerry Vineberg and I operated it and changed the name to the New West Jazz Clinic. Initially it was a big band clinic based on the Kenton model. Instrumentation was always a problem. There were always lots of saxes andTed never enough brass playTurton ers.

Eventually it evolved into a jazz improvisation clinic where instrumentation wasn’t as crucial. As long as there were enough rhythm instrument players it didn’t matter what the other participants played. We solved this problem by awarding scholarships to rhythm instrument players at the various jazz festivals in the area. A lot of talented young musicians attended the clinic: Diana Krall, the Jenson Sisters and numerous members of the local professional music community. In 2004, I sold the clinic to Douglas College for one dollar. It is still going today but is called ‘Jazz Intensive’ and is run by Bob Rebagliati.

6 Fred and Kerry Turner Back Story

Herb Capozzi

Today in 2015 there are approximately 100 band programs in the Secondary schools and 100 band programs in the elementary schools of Metro Vancouver. This would not have happened had it not been for a group of dedicated music educators called Music Supervisors: Alf Hewson, Fred Turner, Dennis Tupman, Earl Hobson, Pete Kinvig, Mark Rose, Doug Pryce, Sherwood Robson, Bob Rankin, John White, Grant Lapthorne, Jim Kirk, Ray Thompson, Michael Grice, Ray Featherstonehaugh, Kerry Turner, Harry Hoagy and others.

The position of music supervisor for choral and class room music

88 ~ Tom Furness

already existed in some districts before the 1960s. In the late 1950s and early 60s some districts made the decision to hire a person to develop band programs in their district. Gradually more and more districts expanded their music program to include instrumental music. Everyone wanted instrumental music in the schools: parents, teachers, students, boards and so on.

In Burnaby in 1958 Alf Hewson (music supervisor-choral) recommended a band guy to spearhead putting bands into the schools of Burnaby. His name was Fred Turner. His title was Assistant Music Supervisor.

Often these new music supervisors ran community bands. Community bands were everywhere. Fred was the director of the New Westminster and District Concert Band. Fred often brought his band down to the schools and showed the kids what a band was all about.

It was the music supervisor’s job to scout out new band directors who could start up bands. Fred brought in Wilf Manning from the east and Gordy King from Victoria. He also brought in guys like Earl Hobson, Dick McManus, Tom Furness and Harry Mazur, During Fred’s time in Burnaby several bands were started: in Moscrop, Burnaby Central and in several elementary schools. These programs were still extra-curricular and took place in the mornings, noon hour or after school.

In 1964 Fred moved to Vancouver and became music supervisor for Vancouver. [One condition of his employment was that he relinquish control of his New Westminster and District Concert Band.

FRED & KERRY TURNER ~ 89

His twenty-two year old son Kerry took on the challenge.] In Vancouver, Fred brought in guys like Ron Pajala (John Oliver), Peter Stigings (Lord Byng, Magee).

It wasn’t until the early 1960s when SITA (Secondary Instrumental Teachers Association) was formed that the momentum to put instrumental music in the curriculum actually started. SITA was made up of music educators from all over BC. They all wanted to move instrumental music from being extra-curricular to being on the timetable. Fred Turner was a driving force in this organization. Fred remained the Music Supervisor of Vancouver for 16 years.

Kerry Turner was the Director of Fine Arts in Abbotsford. Kerry took Education at UBC in 1960 and began teaching in 1963 at the elementary school level. Like his dad he was always starting bands in schools on a small scale before band became an accredited course. His first band was at Armstrong Avenue Elementary in 1963. In 1964, as mentioned, he took over from his dad as the Director of the New Westminster and District Concert Band. He was 22 years old. Kerry moved to Cariboo Hill Jr. Secondary for one year in 1965, following Dick McManus who moved on to McPherson Park. Dick took over from John Wiebe who had taken over from Tom Furness. Fred Turner had hired both. Later Dick would go on to a marvelous career at Burnaby Central. When Dick left McPherson, Kerry followed him. By this time (the late 60s) band was on the timetable. Kerry went back to UBC to finish his Ed degree

90 ~ Dave McTaggart

in 1972-3 and returned to teaching the following year at Alpha Secondary (in Burnaby) for the 1973-4 school year.

The following year Kerry accepted a position in Abbotsford as Elementary Music Consultant/Coordinator. He was responsible for staffing and curriculum development first in music only but later in art, drama, dance and music k-12 as well. A new superintendent came on board and said to him,” You should be Director of Fine Arts.” He spent the following ten years in that role and also as a liaison with the community of Abbotsford. In the latter role Kerry chaired the Abbotsford Music Festival for fifteen years. The Abbotsford Music Festival was patterned after one of the big festivals on the Prairies. In the early days it was always held on a Saturday and featured a big parade around town. Later it spread to cover Thursday, Friday and Saturday. In the mid 1980s a group of music educators formed the Pacific Coast Music Festivals Association. Kerry was an early Chairman of the group. This group had input into many of the festivals around the province. Besides Kerry there was John White, Michael Grice and Gary Rupert, Peter Stigings, Janet Warren, Lorna Graham, Beth Leullier and others from around the province. It was their feeling that festivals should be more of an educational experience and not as cut-throat as some competitive festivals often were. [They also wanted to even the playing field so the band that placed 15th would feel more a part of the festival.] This didn’t mean lowering standards. As a result festivals in the region became non-competitive from then on and

FRED & KERRY TURNER ~ 91

remain so to this day. The Abbotsford Band Festival unfortunately died a natural death when no one took up the challenge after the long time organizers retired. Due to budget cuts and a shift in ideology at the district level by 1991 the position was eliminated along with many of the programs that had been created over the years. Kerry became an elementary principal and following open heart surgery in 1997 he ended his thirtyfour year teaching career.

He continued to conduct the New Westminster and District Concert Band for a few more years until his wife took ill. He shared the position with John White until John eventually took it over full time.

Band teachers Kerry hired in Abbotsford were: Dave Fullerton, Dave McTaggart, Jeff McClelland, Lynn Seney, Gerry King, Bob Crispin, Dave McConchie, Dan Hearty and others.

Kerry’s son Brad is a fine trumpet player. He graduated from Mountain Secondary in Langley under David Michael and Mike Angell. He now directs the instrumental jazz program at Capilano University. Kerry’s daughters Kirsten and Jane are both musicians in their own right and teach at the primary level in the Abbotsford School District.

THE TEAM: Rob Karr (L) and Peter Taylor (R)

7 Rob Karr Back Story

In 1966 Rob Karr enrolled in the UBC Music Department. 1966 was the last year the department was located in the army huts. In 1967 they moved into the new music building where they are today. Others at UBC in 1966 included Bob Rebagliati and Lassie Leslie who were to become music teachers in the junior secondary schools that fed Carson.

Walton Marquis was the head of the music department at UBC. A french horn player from the Langley school district, Rob studied horn under Robert Creech, who was the first horn player with the Vancouver Symphony. His band director at Langley High School was Bill

94 ~ Leo Foster

Cummings. Bill had started the program at Langley High in 1959. Leo Foster was the jazz band director. Leo was a professional bass player in Vancouver and taught shop at the school. Brian G’froerer, Janet Summers and Jens Jenson (all french horn players) had just returned home from a European tour with the National Youth Orchestra and were enrolled in UBC Music as well. Rob ended up studying with Robert Creech at UBC and that created all sorts of opportunities for him to play. They performed the Schumann “Konzertstuck” with the university orchestra, which is a concerto for four horns. The VSO conductor, Meredith Davies, invited the horn quartet to perform the Schumann with the VSO on the stage at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in 1968. Brian G’froerer played lead. As a horn player, Rob got to play in everything because there were not many french horn players at UBC. He had twelve hours of rehearsals a week all through his university days.

In Rob’s fourth year he attended a gathering of music professionals on the fourth floor of the music building. They all had different backgrounds in music: some from the music industry, others were active players or active teachers. Rob sat in the back and listened to them all speak. One of the speakers impressed him. His name was Garth Williams. He talked about this brand new school being started up in North Vancouver called Carson Graham. He was attempting to put together a music conservatory that would draw the best students from across Greater Vancouver [Garth played violin as well with CBC Orchestra].

ROB KARR ~ 95

It was to be a specialist school. Garth was well known and had already recruited a lot of players from the VSO to start the first Vancouver Schools String Program in North Vancouver. All these VSO musicians would come in the morning to Carson to teach elementary students. After the talk was over Rob introduced himself to Garth. Garth was looking for a partner. He was very excited and it was contagious! He asked Rob if he might like to teach with him at Carson.They went for coffee and Garth said to Rob, “I want you to bring a program into the school that is new.” This new program would become a composition course called 21st Century Sound. Rob had to complete his year in the Education faculty before joining Garth at Carson. Rob did his student teaching with Brian G’froerer at Handsworth Secondary, North Vancouver. Both Rob and Brian knew they couldn’t be teachers and play professionally (because it’s hard to keep the chops up). After Rob finished his practicum at Handsworth he went on to teach music at Carson Graham. There was a lot of work for band directors in those days. Brian decided to quit public school teaching and become 3rd horn and associate 1st horn with the VSO. This is what he did for the next 30 years.

Carson Graham Secondary School For a new teacher Carson Graham was an amazing place to be in 1971 It was a senior high [grades 10, 11 and 12] and it was on the

96 ~ Kim Inkster

semester system which meant two periods in the morning and two periods in the afternoon. The two feeder schools to Carson were Hamilton Junior Secondary and Balmoral Secondary. The band director at Hamilton was Bob Rebagliati who would go on to Handsworth and develop a power house program over the next twenty-five years. The band director at Balmoral was Lassie (Leslie) Christianson. She saved the North Vancouver Elementary Band program in the 1990’s.

North Vancouver was a progressive district in those days. Jim Inkster, (who was principal at West Van High had won lots of national awards for his educational innovation), was stolen away by North Vancouver.

He became the first principal of Carson Graham He involved the aboriginal community and was a close friend of Dan George. Jim is a legend in B.C. education. He oversaw all the programs at Carson Graham including mechanics, automotive, chef training, welding, art.and music.

Carson had some of the finest artists in the country teaching art in the school:” Ted Kingan, Frank Perry and David Neuman (a past director with the National Film Board). Rob was surrounded by these amazing people as well as Garth and the VSO professionals. It was quite an environment to start ones career!

Concert band went off the semester system and became year long.

It ran in the same time slot as English. One of the English teachers was Gaber Mate. He taught English to Rob’s band students when they weren’t in band. He is well known today as the past president of the

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B.C. Medical Association. He left teaching and went into medicine.

Harry Lock was the head of the English department. He was later responsible for helping to save the Orpheum. When Carson was on the semester system students had band until the end of December and then band resumed the following September. A lot of Rob’s band students were also in the North Vancouver Youth Band. The leads were quite good! This meant that they played all year round and were on tour playing in the summer under the directorship of Art Smith. Rob was lucky!

In his first year at Carson his band was committed to playing on October 29 for the Lieutenant Governor of BC at the B.C. Trustees Association in the ballroom of the Hotel Vancouver. He was off and running! Carson won the concert band division of the Kiwanis Music Festival that year.

When Garth asked Rob to join the music program he brought him in as his assistant. It wasn’t long though before Rob had proved himself and they became partners. Garth went to Courtney and Rob needed to find another teacher. Peter Taylor had been a student at Carson and was in Music at UBC. Rob’s wife reminded him of Peter whom he had known a little. Peter came and did his practicum with Rob in 1974. He was fabulous from the start. The worked well together! They both loved what they were doing. They wanted to do it all day and all night and every weekend. They both lived nearby and they both married women who accepted that they would be gone a lot. Their wives were both

98 ~ Ralph Dyck

musicians as well. Peter and Rob decided to do something that they thought had never been done before: “Team Teach.” They both conducted every performance and they taught together in the same classroom.

One would conduct and the other would run a sectional. They figured out they could do it if neither of them took any spares. It worked. In the process they became close friends. Peter was a woodwind specialist and Rob was a brass specialist. Peter was a good piano and accordion player so he was excellent at rhythms. .

When Garth asked Rob to come to Carson Graham he said, “What

else can you add to the program?” Rob had some composition background at UBC. Garth said, “Fine. I’ll create you a course. We will call it Twenty-First Century Sound.” He named it himself. Ralph Dyck was out at UBC. Brilliant musician! He was into electronics. He set up an electronic music school at UBC. He built it. It was the only one in Canada that undergraduates were allowed to use. It was phenomenal. They got Ralph to duplicate the studio at Carson Graham. It had the latest digital equipment of the day. Rob was teaching composition. His kids could go in and hear their compositions at any time of the day. They worked out a schedule with the janitor who became a close friend. They could go in for a half hour or for an hour from 5 pm until 11 pm every night of the week. They had electronic music recitals with people like Barry Truax. He was a UBC graduate and probably one of the five top electronic music composers in Canada if not the world. Ralph charged

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the music department only about $800 for parts. Some of Rob’s kids went on to become composers like Arnie Egenfeld who teaches computer music at SFU. He had music students putting on recitals with international artists. David Neuman was hired from the National Film Board to teach drama. He staged a performance of David & Lisa in Rob’s second year. One of his students wrote a twenty minute overture that they always performed in the Centennial Theatre. It was part of David & Lisa and there was also about fifty minutes of electronic sounds used throughout the production (that were cued to the performance). It was such an exciting school to be involved in.

Peter Taylor was amazing! He was a very talented and motivated teacher. He is probably one of the finest music teachers to come out of B.C. Rob and Peter worked together for twenty years. Peter now lives in Powell River. When Peter was doing his practicum he first went to Charlie Stowell at Max Cameron High School in Powell River. Charlie Stowell created one of the most successful band programs in Canada.

He was an American who came to Powell River and told the community they had to have a band program for their kids. He always had a great concert band. He was guest band at the CMEA conference. When Peter did his practicum with Charlie, Charlie was at his peak. Charlie’s wife Nancy taught choral and she was just as good. Peter’s wife Janice grew up in Powell River.

When Peter and Rob were team teaching they decided to take their

100 ~ Frank DeMeiro

band on a band trip to Powell River. This was at the end of Peter’s first year teaching (spring 1975). They were told there was a festival going on but when they arrived they discovered there were only two bands: theirs and Charlie’s. Charlie’s band had 98 kids and was just about to go to the CMEA conference in Edmonton. Rob and Peter’s band was considerably smaller. Howard Denike was a personal friend of Charlie’s and he was the adjudicator. Charlie’s band played first. They sounded like a really good university concert band. When it was Rob and Peter’s bands turn they couldn’t believe their ears. Their kids rose to the occasion and played three times better than they had ever played before.

They had never experienced anything like it! Howard kindly said at the end, “It’s a tie,” but everyone knew he was just being kind. It was a great experience. Who knew there was such a fine band in Powell River.

Rob and Peter soon became aware that there were some pretty amazing programs down south. Whenever they had free time they would go down to the States and they met quite a few people: Pat Thompson at Green River, Frank DeMiero, at Edmunds Community College, Ken Krantz at Cascade High School, Dave Cross and Hal Sherman at Kent Meridian High school. Hal became Rob’s jazz band mentor and good friend. One time Rob went into the New Westminster Jazz Festival and Hals’ Kent Meridian High School Jazz Ensemble was playing MacArthur Park. His band played it better than Maynard Ferguson’s band which Rob had heard in Toronto the previous year. His soloist played

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the solo as well as Maynard himself. His band was swinging. Hal’s band represented the USA all over the world. Rob and Bob Rebagliati always tried to involve Hal as an adjudicator up here every chance they got. Hal created the Opera House Concerts in Seattle. Kent Meridian would be there with some special guest artist. Hal would invite Larry McVay from Mount Hood Community College and Chaffy College from California. The best university and college jazz bands on the west coast would come to perform and his high school band would back the guest artist. For years this went on.

In 1970 Rob went south to a MRNC concert in Portland. He heard Hal Malcolm and his jazz choirs for the first time. He had never heard a jazz choir before. There was Urbie Green on one side and Hal Malcolm on the other. He kept going back and forth trying to absorb as much as he could. Hal was amazing! Hal’s jazz choir was performing jazz band charts back in those days. Rob had never heard anything like it. He got together with Peter and they said, “We can do that!” So they created a jazz choir. Peter started writing charts. There weren’t a lot of charts being written for jazz choir. Hal Leonard had just started. Frank DeMiero at Edmonds Community College and Peter and Rob decided they would create a festival. They created the BC Vocal Jazz Festival. It was held in the gym at Carson Graham and it was Carson’s event. The idea was to bring in all these American groups from all over Washington and Oregon. Because of their connections with Frank and Kenny Krantz many

102 ~ Hal Sherman

of the choirs from the States came. They started a vocal jazz festival where eighty percent of the participants were American. Choirs from across B.C. started to come. Frank came up each year to adjudicate. So did Kenny Krantz and Dave Cross. They all decided that they wanted the festival to be educational and not just competitive. The competitive part would happen on its own. They held clinics. Every group got to be in a clinic with a big name artist. It was packed! They brought in guest performers like Diana Sure, the Four Freshmen and Bobby McFerrin.

Every year they went down to Edmonds Community College. Their jazz band was doing well too. They won the Surrey jazz Band festival and were invited to the Canadian Jazz Band Festival in Toronto. Their jazz choir accompanied their stage band to the festival not to compete but as the guest group to play for their luncheon. The day after they got home they received over telephone calls from directors across Canada wanting to know where to get music and so on. It was the first time outside of BC that anyone in Canada had heard a jazz choir. They wound up being the guest group at two or three more Canadian Stage Band festivals.

Vocal jazz soon got into schools but they always felt it was nice to be on the cutting edge of something new. That north/south connection they felt was really important. Phil Mattson was at their festival most years.

He wrote arrangements for Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass and his professional group, Singers Unlimited. Hal Sherman was responsible for the growth of the school and college level jazz band movement in

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the west. Hal was the sparkplug.

As if a vocal jazz festival wasn’t enough after seeing what Hal Sherman was doing in Seattle with his jazz band Rob and Peter decided to put on the Carson Graham Collegiate Jazz Festival. They rented out the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and brought up guest artists such as Gary Guthman, Bill Watrous and Ed Shaughnessy. They invited all the American groups they had met. Guest college bands included: Chaffy College, Mount Hood and Green River. Once they hosted Wynton Marsalis at Carson when he was in town playing Haydn and Hummel Concertos with the VSO. He was only nineteen and still studying at Berklee. They also brought private teachers to Carson (Instrumentalists such as: John Korsrud, Julia Nolan, Stu Barnett and Julie Begg) who taught their students in their practice rooms at the schools. . It was a busy time! They were putting on the Carson Graham Collegiate Jazz Festival, the BC Vocal Jazz Festival, running a concert band and concert choir all with regular performances. They were touring as well.

In the mid 1980s Rob and Peter took their groups on a tour to Winnipeg. They played at a Collegiate in a French school district. The whole place went nuts when their jazz band and jazz choir performed. Afterwards there were about sixty kids lined up to get autographs from their kids. They had never experienced anything like it. They often took their groups down to McMinnville in the U.S.A. They often went to Mt. Hood because they knew Larry McVay and Hal Sherman. Dave Bardhun

104 ~ Fred Stride

was a student of Larry McVay’s and wound up taking over the program from both Larry and Hal. They would direct Rob and Peter’s kids. Everyone would perform. Afterwards Rob and Peter would take their students to Seaside Oregon and play at Seaside Secondary School. Around 1990, just before Peter left Carson, they took a music tour to Thailand. They spent a week in Bangkok and then went on to Chang Mai for a week.

They rode elephants and went to snake farms. Fred Stride, a friend and Vancouver arranger/composer, arranged the Thailand National Anthem for concert band. Peter took over the jazz choir position at Vancouver City College. He was there for two or three years. His wife wanted to go back to Powell River where she was from so they moved to Powell River. He taught the jazz program at Brooks Secondary School. He was involved with Malaspina College for a time. He did his master’s degree in composition with Ian McDougall. He has since done a lot of writing for school and college level groups. In 1991 Rob too left Carson Graham to take over the music program at Windsor Secondary for the next fourteen years of his life. Whenever he took his kids from Windsor on tour he would always try to go through Powell River so he could hang out with Peter just one more time.

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8 Dave Henderson Back Story

Dave Henderson started playing trombone when he was seven in a local Salvation Army band in Scotland (Granton Branch). He stayed with the band until he was twelve when his family immigrated to Canada.

During his high school days in Penticton he didn’t play in the band. The Band was directed by Dave Hodges who later moved to North Vancouver as a language teacher. Dave was more interested in sports. After high school he took a few courses at UBC. The next summer he took two conducting courses through Kneller Hall where they train directors for the British military bands. He transferred to the University of Wash-

108 ~ Walter McDade

ington where he got involved in the marching band and that rekindled his love of marching band music. Dave’s first musical influence was the band director of the local Salvation Army band in Scotland, Walter McDade. He taught using the hunt & peck system: you make a mistake and he hunted you down and gave you a peck with his baton. There were about thirty or forty in the SA Band, many of them veterans. It was now the late 1940’s.

Dave’s first teaching assignment was at Port Mann Elementary School ,now located under the Port Mann Bridge. It was a new school. There were three women teachers and Dave. This was 1956. The school boasted one of the first woman principals in Surrey (she was of East Indian descent). Her name was Rahama Utendale and she was excellent. Her nephew played in the NHL. One day Dave was playing the piano which he had started playing at the tender age of four. The principal came in and said, “I didn’t know you played piano. I’ve always wanted to have an elementary school choir. Do you have a choral background?” “No,” Dave replied. “Just instrumental.” “We don’t have bands in elementary schools,” she declared. The next thing Dave knew it was being announced over the PA system that on Monday, “Mr. Henderson would be calling everyone together to form a choir.” The school had maybe 150 kids. The majority of them turned out for the choir. Everyone wanted to be in it. Some of the kids were fifteen and sixteen in those days. It was before social passing was introduced. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a

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Christmas concert,” Ms. Utendale said to Dave one day.

The only place in town that Dave knew that had sheet music was Ward Music on Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver. Ward’s scrounged up some Christmas music for him but as few of the kids could read music they sang by rote and put on a Christmas concert to a packed house. They had to spread it over two nights because there were so many people. The following February the superintendent came by and said, “I hear you have a choir.” “We sing together,” was Dave’s reply. “West Whalley Junior High is opening up at Easter time,” he said. “You are going to be the new music teacher.” “What could I do?” Dave grumbled. “I couldn’t tell him I was happy here, which I was.” So after Easter Dave became the first music teacher at West Whalley Junior High. It was Easter 1958.

West Whalley Junior High was a tough school in those days. September came along and there was a knock on Dave’s door. It was a fellow by the name of Reg Titcomb from Ward Music. Reg was an older gentleman: SA trained, like Dave, and who Dave later learned had an amazing collection of band music and records. “You are Mr. Henderson?” he asked. “Yes.” He went on, “I hear you play the trombone.” Dave hadn’t told anyone he played trombone. “How about forming a band?” “But I have no experience.” “I’ll help you and show you how,” said Reg. Together they called a meeting of all the parents at the school. Reg told them what they needed to do to start a band. West Whalley was not a

110 ~ Art Smith

very affluent school so Reg went back to Ward Music and organized what was probably the very first instrument rental program in the province. Reg was very knowledgeable about how to start a band. “First you have to have a bass drum. A band with no bottom is no band at all,” he said, “so you also need a tuba.” “We don’t have any money,” Dave said. Gerry Mason, the principal of West Whalley, came by to see Dave one day.”I hear you are starting a band” for sure. I guess no one had consulted him. “Yes!” “I don’t know if it’s allowed,” Gerry said. Queen Elizabeth Secondary had just started a band. Its director was cherry picking around to find kids for his band because there was no feeder system yet. So Dave formed the first West Whalley Junior High School band in 1959 and it was the first high school band in Surrey.

They put on a couple of concerts. Most of the instruments were rentals from Wards Music. For the kids who really couldn’t afford it Wards only charged them $1 a month. Dave recalls at one concert some strange sounds were coming from the vicinity of the tuba player. After the concert Dave approached the tuba player and asked, “What are you doing?”

He was eating peanuts! Dave couldn’t believe it. He had to have the tuba flushed out. Some fine lessons were learned from that first group. Dave remained at West Whalley for three and a half years.

Sutherland Secondary Reg Titcomb from Ward Music bowled on a team in North Van-

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couver with Bill Lucas the Superintendent of Schools for North Van, Harold Loucks the principal of Sutherland Secondary and the assistant superintendent. (Reg Miller I believe). Harold was upset because the North Vancouver Schools Band (led by Art Smith), wouldn’t let any of his kids play in any outside musical groups. It was not a good thing to alienate Harold Loucks. Harold was very powerful in the district.

“I want to start a band,” Harold said while they are bowling. His son played in the Kitsilano Boys Band so no love was lost with the North Vancouver Schools Band. The superintendent interjected, “No, we’ll have an orchestra.” “We can’t afford an orchestra,” Harold countered, and that was true! So they decided to form a band. “Who are we going to get to run the band?” someone asked. “I know someone,” Reg said.

Dave Henderson is teaching at West Whalley Junior High and he is at the stage at West Whalley where he is ready to move on. Reg came to Dave shortly after and asked, “Are you interested in moving to North Vancouver?” You weren’t supposed to approach people officially in other districts in those days. It may well be the same today. Dave didn’t know what head hunting was back then. “I have a job for you if you are interested. Write a note to Bill Lucas, the Superintendent of Schools for North Vancouver, and tell him you are looking for other opportunities.”

Dave wrote the letter. A few days later he got a letter back. “It’s odd that you should ask, David, because we are thinking of forming a band at Sutherland Secondary. Would you be interested?” So Dave left West

112 ~ Harold Loucks

Whalley Junior High and moved to Sutherland Secondary in 1962.

Dave Henderson was the first band teacher at Sutherland. There was no music room so they put the band under the stage in the old changing room. The ceiling was maybe seven feet high. If the boys decided they were going to take a shower after PE the water would bubble up through the drains in the floor. There weren’t very many kids at first but one of his band girls was also the first clarinetist in the North Vancouver Schools Band (which was actually a local community band). It was called “a schools band” because it drew kids from the local schools before band was accredited into the curriculum. They had to change their name to the North Vancouver Youth Band to avoid causing an explosion. Harold Loucks was going to sue them for denying a student the right to an education. The Schools Band had a rule that no member could play in any other musical organization. This meant they couldn’t play in any bands in any of the schools. Sutherland was the only school with such a program at that time. The threat was there but it is unknown whether Harold actually ever would have sued. Reg came through with instruments for Dave just as he had done at West Whalley Junior High.

They were going to need $750 to get the band program started so Harold went to the B.C. Teachers Co-op, of which he was a member, and borrowed the money. Sutherland got North Vancouver’s first school band program. Dave is very proud of it when he sees where it is today! There was no choir. One of the PE teachers was a fabulous musician so he got

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together with Dave and the staff every two years and they put on a musical. It wasn’t a Broadway musical because they cost too much money but more like Gilbert & Sullivan. Eventually Harold moved to Windsor Secondary. He was asked to go over and fix a few things. He started one September. In November Dave got a call. Harold liked to talk. “Dave you are moving to Windsor!” It was now 1968.

Windsor Secondary When Dave arrived at Windsor Secondary he expected to find a band.

What he found was a few students with instruments standing around a piano which was played by an elderly lady. They were all playing her piano sheet music in their own key. Some sound! She was doing the best she could. She moved to an elementary school where she was very happy. By the end of June, Dave had eighteen kids in his band class.

They rehearsed in one of the cement classrooms of the school. To build the program up Harold suggested Dave start kids on instruments at the four feeder schools: Burrard View, Seymour Heights, Blueridge, Maplewood. Another school, Plymouth, would be added later. Dave added to the workload as he also taught social studies as well. He received three cents a mile gas allowance in those days. He taught at those schools in the morning (8 a.m.), noon and after school ‘til four whenever he could fit them in.

114 ~ Gary Zimmerman

In 1971-72 they embarked on their first band trip to Kitimat by bus.

Bob Rankin was the band teacher at the high school in Kitimat. The Kinsmen Club in Prince George billeted the kids on the way north in exchange for a concert. They played in both Prince George and Kitimat and had a wonderful time. By the next year, 1973, the band had grown to eighty members and was becoming quite strong.

That year they were invited to be the guest band at a school in Idaho.

They stopped at a motel on the way. The boys slept on the top level, and the girls on the bottom. A problem arose. In the late evening, Dave John Meier decided to go for a walk. The chaperones were on the upper floor. When

he stepped out the door he noticed his lead trumpet player going into one of the rooms with a case of beer. Once he was inside Dave went down and knocked on the door and caught them in the act. There were a few of them. Dave called the principal, Doug Jennings, back home and asked, “What should I do?” It was a bad situation. The students had all signed pledges as had their parents “Bring them home if you wish. The decision is yours! You have my complete backing in your decision.” As it turned out two of them were Dave’s lead trumpet and lead trombone players. Dave woke up the bus drivers and asked,” How long to get back home?” “About 12 to 14 hours,” they said (There were two buses with two drivers in each). “Okay, we’re going back,” said Dave. “Okay, if that’s the way you want it,” they all said. When they arrived back in North Vancouver you could hear a pin drop inside the bus as they drove

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into the school parking lot. All their parents were there and they came and got their sons and daughters one by one. No one said a word. The students involved were suspended for a period of time. Dave has seen all the kids since who were on that trip. They all told Dave, “That sure taught us one hell of a lesson, Mr. H.” “You have to do what you have to do!” says Dave. He has never regretted it. To say the kids were all in shock would be an understatement. Stunned silence might be more like it! The four kids responsible had a hard time getting over it with their peers.

Windsor had one of the very first fine arts departments in B.C. Dave was sent back to Toronto for a week to see how to set this type of Department up and was named department head. This was about 1973.

Windsor was going through a building expansion. As a result of this and much lobbying they got one of the largest music rooms in the province.

One corner joins another room with a stage. There is an orchestra pit behind the stage. In those days Dave conducted the orchestra for some musicals in the pit. He is not sure if they still do that today. They got three or four practice rooms as well. The drama department got a new drama theatre area. Zim (Gary Zimmerman) the Drama teacher was a cousin of Ethel Mermans. She took off the Zim and he took off the merman. The staff was encouraged to join in their musical theatre productions. Laurie John was a brilliant artist who played classical guitar.

He was also an excellent set designer. The head of the science department played first violin. Staff were encouraged to take part and we had

116 ~ Roger Wekker

some actors and vocalists who took part as well. Windsor developed a strong tradition of musical theatre in those days. Today the performan ces are held at the Centennial Theatre. Dave likes student musicals because they are usually high quality and filled with youthful enthusiasm!

In 1974 Dave applied to go overseas with the Department of National Defense (DND) and was accepted. He and his family went to Germany for two years. He taught school at the Baden-Solingen Base to students and the military personnel who wanted to upgrade certain skills. He continued his love of music by playing in the Baden Rube Band, lederhosen and all. They couldn’t charge for their services because they were a military band but they were always given lots of FREE German beer. They were the only Canadian military band in Europe that were flown to Bonn on a government jet when Alexander Haig retired for a big ceremony (to represent Canada). They represented Canada in many parades and with their German repertoire they entertained at plenty of music fests and celebrations. When his two years were up he wanted to stay an extra year but he would not have been able to return to Windsor Secondary so he returned to B.C. While Dave was away Roger Wekker (who had come to Windsor to teach choral in 1973), had started a fabulous jazz choir. Roger stayed until 1977 and then moved over to the elementary strings program. Dennis Colpitts replaced Roger and he really did amazing things with Roger’s jazz choir. He took it to new heights. His concert choir was excellent. His

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jazz choir won the 1980 Carson Graham Jazz Choir Festival. Dennis stayed for four or five years and then moved to Kelowna. He led the Kelowna City Band for awhile. Doug Irwin took over from Dennis.

Dave made many trips with his Windsor bands and Music Department. He took them to Disneyland twice, to San Diego and other festival sites. He often took them into the B.C. interior and across Canada but most of all the kids enjoyed their trips to the States. It was like going to a foreign country but one where English was spoken. Around 1978 or 79 Len Townsend, a chaperone, confided in Dave that he was concerned because a percentage of the band’s fundraising money went to the administration to cover their costs. So he and a couple of other parents sat down and wrote up a constitution for the Windsor Music Boosters Association.

This was the beginning of the Association that is still functioning today.

Many of Dave’s band trips were to festivals. He liked to go down to the U.S. because he felt they were fairer in their adjudicating. In Canada he felt certain bands had an advantage over others because of their history.

He is a strong believer in “blind” adjudicating. Dave says they were always treated well at U.S. festivals. The Americans always seemed to be amazed at how far we would travel to visit their festivals. He recalled one festival they went to in San Jose. There were big American bands (100 students) at the festival from Texas. Dave’s group was small by comparison but they always received lots of positive comments. Windsor’s musical groups always did well and won their share of awards.

118 ~ Keith Errington

North Vancouver Youth Band (NVYB) From 1985 through 1991 Dave also directed the North Vancouver Youth Band. He took them on two tours of Europe. In 1985 Dave was preparing for a big family occasion to be held in Penticton. He received a call from Keith Errington, the Chairman of the North Vancouver Youth band. He lived near Dave and Dave had taught his son. “Dave, the band is supposed to be going to Europe and the director cannot go,” he told him. “We need someone to take the band to Europe and I’d like you to do it.” Dave said he would come to a rehearsal and see what he thought.

“When is the next rehearsal?” he asked Keith. “In about two hours!”

The rehearsals were all held at Highland Elementary School (where Dave’s son is now principal). The band was all set up. Dave conducted the group for two hours as he familiarized himself with the scores. Afterwards Dave said to Keith, “When do they leave?” “Monday!” Dave couldn’t leave that soon (By the way, this was Thursday). “How about if you meet the band in Shrewsbury in about a week?” They had two uniforms made for Dave, one maroon and one white. Keith picked Dave up in London a week later after a ten hour flight and drove him up to Shrewsbury. “I am going to bed,” Dave said when they arrived in Shrewsbury. “No you’re not!” Keith said. “You have a concert to conduct at the Shrewsbury Civic Centre. Dave was so tired he doesn’t recall the concert at all. They did it and it was very well received. The trip

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covered much of Yorkshire and Wales. It was a great trip! They even played “Men of Harlech” in Harlech. They’ll never forget that. They made Canadian and American tours on off years and played in many parades. They were known as “The Concert Band that Marches.”

Dave’s second major trip with NVYB was to Holland, Belgium, England and Scotland in 1988. In Holland the billet hosts were paid $10 a day per student by the NVYB. It helped finance the local band.

One memorable concert was played in a beautiful church. At the end of their concert they played “Colonel Bogey.” The church was full and they played it eight times Lots of encores! Afterwards, the mayor told Dave that Canadian troops had liberated their town at the end of WWII and they had played “Colonel Bogey.” It was very special to the Dutch.

Another time they played a concert in a band shell on the Thames. One piece they played was the “Battle of Trafalgar.” It had been arranged by the Royal Marines Band. They had shared billing with them in Portsmouth the week before. At 11:55 there were 200 empty seats. No people!

They didn’t know what was going on. By 12:05 the seats were all full.

It was a full luncheon time concert. By 12:10 the grassy area around the seats was also filled. After the concert was over three older men in the front row approached Dave. “Sir, we haven’t heard the “Battle of Trafalgar” played that well since we left the Marines Band. It was marvelous!

Will you be playing again?” Dave loved the enthusiasm Brits showed at a band concert. Another truly memorable time was marching down

120 ~ Brian G’froerer

Princes Street in Edinburgh, Scotland as part of their Music Festival. It was followed by a command performance in Queen’s Park.

Dave retired from teaching and the NVYB in 1991. He and his wife moved to Qualicum on Vancouver Island. He told me he wished he had stayed longer with the NVYB because they were a good band and now of course they are no longer around. There is a pub in Lynn Valley that sponsors a band made up of former members of the NVYB etc. and other former members can be found playing today in the Sea to Sky Wind Ensemble.

Dave Remembers: 1. Teaching Brian G’froerer’s (lead French horn player with the VSO) daughter. He says he didn’t teach her much because she was so good.

She wound up in the National Symphony Orchestra in Ottawa as lead flautist.

2. One school administrator decided it would be a good idea to combine the Fine Arts Department with the Home Economics Department. It became known as the Artsy Fartsy Department ever after and did some fine work. Dave remained as Dept. Head. That was fun!

DAVE HENDERSON ~ 121

3. The passion that so many students had to make music and the joy they had in doing it. The number of very fine musicians that I taught over the years.

4. The reception that the NVYB received all over Europe

9 Bob Rebagliati Back Story

Bob Rebagliati began his career teaching band at Hamliton Junior Secondary School in 1971. He stayed at Hamliton for 5 years. Hamilton had Grades 8,9 and 10 and was a feeder school for Carson Graham Secondary. Garth Williams taught strings at Hamilton and was there when Bob arrived. Hamilton was considered an occupational school but it also had lots of strong academic students. Bob drew students for his bands from the strong pool of academic minded students. At its height his program had about 120 students involved. He established a concert band and two jazz bands, junior and senior. Bob made two trips with

124 ~ Jim Howard

his bands: one to the Queen Charlotte Islands and another to the Reno Jazz Festival in 1973. The trip to Reno he says was like Daniel entering the lions’ den because the American jazz bands were so good. In 1975 Bob’s jazz band won the New Westminster Jazz Festival. One of the adjudicator’s at the festival was the now legendary Hal Sherman from Kent Meridian High School in Kent, Washington (For 15 years, Hal headed the Kent-Meridian Collegiate Jazz Festival at the Seattle Opera House, attracting such stellar guests as Clark Terry, Bill Watrous and Dianne Reeves. He was the first jazz educator to receive the prestigious Charlie Bird Parker Foundation Award For Excellence). “You are on the right track,” Hal said to Bob after the performance. His concert band did well in the Kiwanis Festival as well that year. [Both the Kiwanis Festival and the New West Jazz Festival were competitive festivals in those days.] In 1976 his bands won both the New West Jazz Festival and the Kiwanis Festival. That same year he took his jazz band to Toronto where they won the Canadian Stage Band Festival. This festival later morphed into MUSIC FEST CANADA in the mid 80s. By then it included concert band and choir as well. It is still run by Jim Howard. When he returned to Vancouver Bob left Hamilton. Always leave on a high note. Handsworth was beckoning!

Handsworth Secondary School

BOB REBAGLIATI ~ 125

Bob took over the Handsworth program in September 1976 and built it into a championship program through 2004. When Bob came in the program was at a low ebb with only 35 members in the concert band. One of the first things Bob did was establish a Parent’s Committee BPAC. Pat Nicholson was the Chair. Her sons Bruce and Neil were both in the band. Bruce Nicholson has gone on to be a fine bass trombone player in big bands around Vancouver. Bob continued a senior jazz band and started a junior jazz band. He also ran guitar classes and a vocal jazz group. In the 1978-9 school year Bob’s concert band with only twenty-seven players placed first in the Kiwanis Festival. “When you only have twenty-seven members everyone has to play like a soloist. There is no place to hide. They were great kids,” Bob told me. Bob borrowed a catch phrase from a mentor at Kelowna Secondary School, Brian Todd: EXCELLENCE DEMANDS DEDICATION! Bob always strived for a culture of excellence.

In 1979 his senior jazz band took first place at the New West Jazz Festival and then he took them to MUSIC FEST in Vancouver where they got a special award for excellence. It was a small big band with only 13 players but they were all stars! Renee Rosnes, Norm Fischer, Dave Stewart, Terry Madsen, Tom Colclough. Good improvisers! Bob has a recording of that band. He started recording his bands on a regular basis in 1981. Over the 28 years Bob spent at Handsworth his bands made many trips including: Whitehorse, the Saskatoon International

126 ~ Bob LaBonte

Band Festival. [At the Saskatoon Festival Lynn Skinner, one of the judges, came up to him and invited his band to be guests at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Idaho the following year. Bob knew half the band would be graduating so unfortunately they didn’t make the gig.]

In the mid 1980s Bob took his band to Utah. In 1986 his junior and senior jazz bands both won the Canadian Stage band Festival at MUSIC FEST which was held in Vancouver that year on the EXPO Stage in False Creek. In 1988 his senior jazz band placed first at MUSIC Fest in Calgary. That was the last year the competition was competitive. From then on it became based on a set of standards: gold, silver, bronze.

The Envision Jazz Festival in Surrey (started by Bob LaBonte and based on the former New West Jazz Festival) is the only festival around today which is still competitive. There are no competitive concert band festivals anywhere. The only other competitive jazz band festival is the Interior Jazz Festival in Kelowna. “While a Gold rating is still hard to get and is a good thing, it is not the best way to motivate students. A rating doesn’t excite students in the way a competition. It is unrealistic to think you can get excellence without competition does,” Bob told me.”Who would care about a football game if there was no winner! Competition takes commitment on the part of everyone and everyone has to work hard.” The back wall of Handsworth’s band room has a trophy rack full of the awards Bob’s bands won during his years at Handsworth.

More trips followed. Bob took his band to New Orleans in 1996,

BOB REBAGLIATI ~ 127

Newfoundland in 1998 and in 2000 they spent ten days in Cuba. Bob made an effort to seek out a few Cuban jazz band arrangements and teach his band to play them the Cuban way (with four drummers). Needless to say they were a big hit! For Bob’s final trip with his band he took them to New York City in 2004.

In 2002, he started commissioning works for his concert and jazz bands. For Calgary’s MUSIC Fest in 2002 he commissioned Michael Conway Baker to write a march for his concert band. It was called March Mechanique. It premiered in Calgary. In 2004 he commissioned one of his alumni Darcy Argue (now a composer/arranger with his own big band in New York City), to arrange a piece written by another alumni of his Renee Rosnes, a professional jazz pianist. For his last concert Bob flew them both in and Renee played the piece with Bob conducting his senior jazz band on stage at Douglas College.

The Innovations!

In the early 1980s Bob established team teaching for his Handsworth program. Dead tired (in 1980) and ready to pack it in unless he got some help (sound familiar?) he approached the principal. His request fell on deaf ears. “Maybe I should go somewhere else,” he said. He interviewed in Abbotsford and Summerland. His parents committee got wind of what he was doing and asked what the **** was going on. He

128 ~ Bruce Hoadley

told them he needed help and he wasn’t getting it. “We’ll see about that!” they said. They started writing letters to the principal. Bob got called into the office one day and was told, “Get them to stop. You’ll get your help.” Bob took a development day at the Portland School of the Fine Arts. They had a great program. It was a magnet school. One of their successes involved bringing their feeder schools into their secondary curriculum. They team-taught Grade’s five to twelve (elementary school teachers taught at the high school and the high school teachers taught at the elementary schools). When Bob returned to Handworth he said, “That is what I am going to do!” ” In 1981 Bruce Hoadley was hired and later on Mary Backun. After Mary left, Claire Sparks joined the team. Later Keith Woodward took over from Claire. He got Bruce Hoadley to teach in two of his elementary feeder schools and hired Mary Backun to teach in the other two. They did this for about three years.

MODULAR TIMETABLES Handsworth used a wonderful modular timetable. Because of this Bob was able to schedule small group sectional rehearsals throughout both his concert and jazz band programs. A mod was 20 minutes. He could schedule a small group for 40 minutes, a medium size group for 60 minutes or a larger group for 80 minutes. There was tons of flexibility!

[Handsworth was well known for its modular timetable in the 1970s

BOB REBAGLIATI ~ 129

and 1980s. It was like a private school. Math was booming! Sciences were booming! Fine Arts were booming! Sports were booming! Everyone was dedicated. It was an incredible place to be. The Fraser Institute Analysis one year placed Handsworth third in the province only two private schools were rated higher].

MUSIC RETREATS By now his three person music department had started up annual music retreats for seniors each fall (on weekends). For a while they used the North Van Outdoor School and then moved it to Camp Miriam on Gabriola Island. As the band program got bigger and stronger guitar and vocal jazz were dropped.

FOUR CONCERT BANDS: Eventually the program had four concert bands: Grade 8, Grades 8 and 9, Grades 9 and 10 and Grades 11 and 12. The number of players in each concert band was quite small but the quality went through the roof.

The 11 and 12 band was playing mostly at the Grade five level. Bob always maintained two jazz bands and sometimes he would organize a jazz combo if there were any over-achievers in his group.

130 ~ A hallmark program!

PERFORMANCES Bob’s bands performed at least twelves times each year. Every year there were four Junior and three Senior Nights of Music. Two in the fall, one combined night at Xmas, two in the spring, one Night of Jazz and two at the end of the school year. At the senior night of music in the fall his alumni joined in for a designated homecoming concert. His parent’s organization organized and kept an alumni list and also organized a band scrapbook [Parent meetings were held every six weeks at someone’s house and Bob was always there. His parent’s organization had its own bank account which made life easier from a funding point of view.

Well, maybe not always. When he tried to request funds through regular school channels he was often told, “You don’t need our help. You have your own money and bank account.”] There would also always be two or three Festival appearances as well and they would often play in the malls or other off-school location. It was a highly visible program.

HTL History – Theory – Listening Part of his student’s evaluation was a history test, a theory test and a listening test.

BOB REBAGLIATI ~ 131

One aspect of his program that Bob is most proud of is his success in having sectional rehearsals for all his bands and running them himself.

“You will never get the same success letting students run their own sectionals,” he told me. “They have to be run by the teacher.” Starting in 1984 Bob made regular year-end recordings: seniors first and then juniors. Those students all got a CD at the end of the school year. He did this until he retired in 2004.

10 Peter van Ooyen Back Story

I came from a musical family and was given lessons on the piano and the violin at an early age. This led me into music education as a career. Growing up in Michigan, I graduated high school in 1968. The conductor of the orchestra at the college which I attended taught violin and since I took lessons from him, I also played in the college orchestra while still in high school. I also was a member of the city youth orchestra. When I graduated from university in 1975, there was a position being offered at Surrey Christian High School in Surrey, BC. I decided to venture out to the west coast thinking I would only stay for a couple of

134 ~ Roger Wekker

years but after teaching full time for two years, I stayed until 1985 in a part time capacity while I attended the University of British Columbia to obtain my masters. I continued teaching in Surrey part-time, establishing a band program and also took a part time position teaching at Vancouver Christian Secondary School (near Grandview and Boundary)where I founded and taught a string program as well as a band program. In 1988 there was an opening to teach full time strings in North Vancouver.

The assignment was comprised of three elementary schools and Argyle Secondary. Argyle, which didn’t have a string program, had decided one year before to begin a string orchestra and that became part of my first position in North Vancouver. At Argyle, in three years, I grew the program from only one student to twenty-seven but I could see the writing on the wall. Only one elementary school was available to feed into Argyle for the string program so the possibility of building the program any further seemed remote. The band programs, on the other hand, most often drew from four or more elementary schools. There were advantages however. A number of French Immersion students from the east side of North Vancouver could attend Argyle and there were young people in French immersion who played stringed instruments. Because I saw that there would not be much growth due to a limited feeder system I took the opportunity to teach a one-year opening at the college level and direct a community orchestra in the States. I was granted a leave of absence after the 1990 school year and returned for the 1992-3 school

PETER VAN OOYEN ~ 135

year. During that time the school district had decided to drop the elementary strings and band program, A fee method of funding was established (paid for by the parents) by Bob Rankin (N.V. Superintendent of Music). My new assignment was to teach band and strings in seven elementary schools. Two years later Roger Wekker (the strings teacher) left Handsworth Secondary School and Victor Weins came in for a short time. I was assigned to Handsworth starting in the 1994 – 95 school year.

I taught strings to one orchestra in Handsworth and band and strings in six elementary schools.

Handsworth Secondary School When I started at Handsworth there was a small group (grades 8s through 12) in one string class on the timetable who had various levels of proficiency. To give the more advanced kids an opportunity to progress and to build the program, the following year I started the North Shore Youth Orchestra in the evening (extracurricular). I invited the most advanced students to join and brought in others from around North and West Vancouver. After a year, a second level was added, then a third.

After its fourth year in operation, I had enough of a support structure at the high school that the Handsworth String program grew to include three levels: junior, intermediate and advanced Chamber Orchestra. All were on the timetable. I was also able to secure the string teaching posi-

136 ~ Fraser Valley Kiwanis Festival

tion in the feeder schools, which helped to increase the enrollment in Strings.

The elementary feeder schools made a world of difference. I was able to establish a positive relationship with the elementary children and with their parents. This consisted of grade 4 beginners, the grade 5 – 6 second year kids and a grade 7 group. I soon discovered that the more advanced grade 6 and 7s needed something extra to hold their interest into high school. I came up with the idea of an after school group for the grade 7s which I called the grade 7 orchestra or GSO. It drew grade 7 students from the four different elementary schools and later added advanced players from Grade 5 and 6. They were carpooled to Handsworth to rehearse on Thursday afternoons. They loved this because they were rehearsing in a high school. They got to hear the jazz band and other groups rehearsing and it made them eager to want to join the music program when they started high school. The students usually joined Strings again in the high school ensembles. So my elementary strings program became a good training ground for my orchestras.

String Orchestra continued to find its place in the music program of Handsworth. Each year we recorded our repertoire and toured places such as Costa Rica, Disney World and Disneyland, San Francisco, Portland, etc. When I retired in 2010, Sab Kabok, my successor, continued to grow the program and is doing a fantastic job.

I also felt festivals were important and we went to at least one each

PETER VAN OOYEN ~ 137

year. Besides the Kiwanis Festival, I really liked the Fraser Valley Kiwanis Festival at Kwantlen College in Langley. It was a good motivator for the orchestras and had great adjudicators who knew string technique. It was held every May and we always attended. Whenever we were away on tour I made sure the orchestra always played in three different types of venues at some point on the tour. Typical venues were the community, the school and a park or mall (we just came in unannounced and performed). These kinds of performances give students confidence and build camaraderie.

We enjoyed going down to the Northwest String Orchestra Festival in Oregon. The competition was stiff but it gave the students a good understanding of the high level of performance in other programs. As I was from the U.S., I understood the U.S system of education, contests, and festivals. It was important for me to be a member of such professional groups as the American String Teachers Association and the National Music Educators and National Orchestra Directors Association. U.S. school music programs often depend on funds allocated by their local city or county tax bases. A gifted director and the right circumstances and support from school leaders and parents leads to a successful program.

We provided many performance opportunities. Besides the Handsworth regular concerts three times a year, I organized a yearly concert of my students from all my schools in November and invited various

ABOVE: Stanley Park An event where we performed a work calleed Bridges of Vancouver near the Burrard Street Bridge Dr. Dennis F. Tupman Photo Credits: Dennis Tupman BELOW: Mount Elizabeth High School band in Kitimat with Dennis (Band Director) standing at the far right

ABOVE: Mount Elizabeth High School Band at Expo 67 in Montreal BELOW: Showcase ‘85 500 piece elementary choir & accompanists in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre

ABOVE: Pete Stigings with his marching band at Moody High in Coquitlam.

Photo Credits: Peter Stigings

BELOW: Pete Stigings with his Lord Byng band

ABOVE: Magee Jazz Band in Banff with Pete Stigings BELOW: On the steps of the Old Magee

LEFT: Bob Rankin conducting the Handsworth Concert band in 1974 for a Sound Spectacular concert in February Photo Credits: Bob Rankin

BELOW: Bob Rankin conducting the Handsworth Choir in 1975

1975 Eric Hamber Band trip to Calgary, Alberta with Ernie Coledge.

ABOVE: Bobby Hales at Bob Schaefer’s New West Jazz Clinic Photo Credits: Bob Schaefer

BELOW: Hal Sherman at Bob Schaefer’s New West Jazz Clinic

ABOVE: Hal Sherman at Bob Schaefer’s New West Jazz Clinic

BELOW: Phil Nimmons at Bob Schaefer’s New West Jazz Clinic

LEFT: Fred & Kerry Turner Photo Credits: Kerry Turner

RIGHT: Kerry Turner at an outdoor concert

BELOW: The New Westminster Boys & Girls Band

ABOVE: Playing on the pier at Bowen Island The Carson Graham Jazz Band with Rob Karr Photo credits: Rob Karr BELOW: Carson Graham Jazz Ensemble

ABOVE: The Carson Graham Vocal Jazz Festival which Rob Karr and Peter Stanley founded

BELOW: Guest artists performing at the Festival at Carson Graham

ABOVE: Dave and the North Vancouver Youth Band at Expo 86 in Vancouver Photo Credits: Dave Henderson

BELOW: Dave Henderson with his band at Windsor Secondary in North Vancouver in 1986

ABOVE: Dave Hendersons’ first band at West Whalley Junior High in 1959 BELOW: The North Vancouver Youth Band with Dave at Harlech Castle, England in 1985.

ABOVE: Handsworth Secondary School Band in Cuba in 2001 with Bob Rebagliati.

BELOW: Handsworth Secondary School Band in New Orleans in 1996 with Bob Rebagliati.

ABOVE: Handsworth Senior jazz at the Kiwanis Jazz Festival in Vancouver with Bob Rebagliati.

BELOW: The Handsworth Secondary School Concert Band performing at Expo 86 in Vancouver with Bob Rebagliati.

ABOVE: Handsworth Strings in San Francisco in 1998 with Peter van Ooyen.

BELOW: Handsworth Strings in Banff and Lake Louise in 2005 with Peter van Ooyen.

ABOVE: 2004 Disneyworld concert by the Handsworth Strings and Peter van Ooyen.

BELOW: Los Angeles school concert by the Handsworth Strings in 2000 with Peter van Ooyen.

ABOVE: June Revue Concert in 1993 at Handsworth with Keith Woodward dressed as Aladdin.

BELOW: 2014 Banff Springs Hotel with the Handsworth Concert Band and Keith Woodward.

ABOVE: Keith Woodward with his Handsworth jazz Ensemble at MusicFest in 2007.

BELOW: The many faces of Keith Woodward.

ABOVE: Margaret Behenna took her band to Alberta in this photo Photo Credits: Margaret Behenna BELOW: 2004 Band trip to Cuba the “hot trip”. Every three years we visited somewhere tropical such as Florida, California (Disneyland), Hawaii

ABOVE: Band trip to Tunisia in 2006 with her students. This was possibly the most unique trip that Margaret Behenna ever made. She was known for taking her students to exotic ports of call!

BELOW: 2001 Kiwanis Festival in Burnaby, BC.

Christmas Concert

ABOVE: Eric Hamber Secondary School 1975. Mary Howland Ellenton top right

ABOVE: Chris Robinson with some of his students Photo Credits: Chris Robinson

BELOW: Chris Robinson in the mid 70s conducting a band class

ABOVE: Hamber Jazz Band in 2001.

BELOW: The many classroom styles of Chris Robinson

ABOVE: Tom Koven conducting in the gym Photo Credits: Tom Koven BELOW: Tom in action on the podium

ABOVE: Tom Koven with his Junior Jazz Band

BELOW: Tom Koven receiving a BCMEA Award

ABOVE: Ron with his Jayo Band 1966-67.

BELOW : A concert in the Jayo auditorium.

ABOVE: Ron playing his accordian on stage at the Bristol Hippodrome in 1953 while on a four month tour of Europe with The Kitsilano Boys Band.

BELOW: Ron Pajala playing saxophone in Arthur Delamont’s UBC Pep Band.

ABOVE: Sandy Kovens’ band Photo Credits: Sandy Koven

BELOW: Sandy Kovens’ strings

ABOVE: Sandy’s strings

BELOW: Sandy’s winds at University of Calgary

ABOVE: 1985 Mark Kowalenko and one of his award winning jazz bands at the Canadian Stage Band Festival Finals in Quebec City.

BELOW: Mark with his D.W. Poppy Concert Band at MusicFest in Calgary in 1988.

ABOVE: Mark receiving his award at the Kiwanis Jazz Festival in 86.

BELOW: Mark Kowalenko at MusicFest89 with his award winning jazz band.

ABOVE: Semiahmoo Jazz in San Francisco in 1999 with Dave Proznick.

Photo Credits: Dave Proznick BELOW: Semi Jazz at MusicFest 99 with Dave Proznick

ABOVE: Dave and his Semiahmoo jazz in Cuba.

BELOW: MusicFest 99 with Dave Proznick and his vocal jazz group.

ABOVE: Dave Fullertons’ first band class at Banting Jr Secondary with my Band Manager Don Sears. Still in touch with 5 class members.

Photo Credits: Dave Fullerton BELOW: EXPO 2000 in Hanover, Germany

ABOVE: Lord Tweedsmuir Band in Banff. This is the picture that was sent to Hanover for their application for EXPO 2000 as mentioned in story.

BELOW: Semiahmoo Jazz Band Grade 12 - 2008 with Dave Fullerton

ABOVE: Bob LaBonte with his Vocal Jazz group at MusicFest Canada.

Photo Credits: Helen LaBonte BELOW: Bob LaBonte in 1973.

ABOVE: Bob LaBonte with his concert band at Disneyland.

BELOW: Getting ready for a concert.

ABOVE: Burnsview Choir with Marilynn Turner conducting

Photo Credits: Marilynn Turner

BELOW: North Delta Concert Band with Marilynn Turner

ABOVE: Burnsview Concert Band with Marilynn Turner conducting

BELOW: North Delta Secondary Jazz Band with Marilynn Turner

ABOVE: Delta Music Makers with Curt Jantzen Photo Credits: Curt Jantzen

BELOW: Curt Jantzen and his Delta Music Makers, Ladner Market, June 2002

ABOVE: The Delta Music Makers in 1991 at Epcot Centre

BELOW: Curt Jantzen with the Mayoress of Stirling, Scotland 2007 Tour

184 ~ Lee Duckles

professional small ensembles to be headliners. I also held an annual Strings Extravaganza in March at the Centennial Theatre, inviting a professional musician to join and often using a commission composition. It is heartwarming to see this tradition continuing many years after I had retired.

Handsworth has had its fair share of band and strings alumni go on to careers in music whether it be performance or teaching. In Strings and Jazz, bassist Brandi Disterheft is a good example. She was in orchestra for the full five years of high school and later joined the jazz band under Bob Rebagliati. She started to learn the bass with me in grade eight.

Today, she is a well know bassist in New York City. Robin and Cassia Streb are other notables (from Deep Cove) who became professional violists after studying with me.

Bob Rebagliati and I were great colleagues and I learned much from him. Another very important reason for the success of my program was the great private teachers that many of my students studied with. I felt it was very important for them to have private instruction as well as the group experience. There were always professional musicians coming in to teach and help out with the program: Lee Duckles (former principal cellist with the VSO) who lives on the North Shore; Claude Giguere of the North Shore Celtic Ensemble; Carolyn Cole, former member of the VSO and Lions Gate Sinfonia; Cam Wilson from Django, and others. An interesting story regarding Lee’s dedication to the students: one

PETER VAN OOYEN ~ 185

wnter morning he was coming in to teach a workshop and I was late due to snow conditions. He started my class and rehearsed with them until I arrived.

When I retired, I held a celebratory evening and invited eight ensemble groups of professional musicians who helped in the program over the years. They all readily agreed to come and contribute their performances which also raised money to provide music programs to disadvantaged families and children: the St James Music Academy in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver and the Thrive Strings Academy. This event was a wonderful send-off into retirement.

WESTCOAST JAZZ FESTIVAL 2009

11 Keith Woodward Back Story I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Maya Angelou

My fondest feelings of mentors who guided me towards the love of music would be: Dave Pollard, Gordon Olson, Lorne Schemer, Don Murray, and Bob “Reb” Rebagliati.

The first influence of a kind teacher on me at a young age had a lifelong effect. My story in music begins as far back as kindergarten at four or five years old. The music teacher was playing piano and I was given a hand-percussion instrument to play in time with her—maracas or some sort of shaker. After the teacher finished playing she told me (in front of the class), how well I kept time with her. My first praise-worthy moment. I stuffed that memory in a safe place in my mind.

188 ~ Dave Pollard

My parents started me on piano in grade two. As an “active” child, I only lasted six months with private piano lessons. The teacher was not memorable. But some days I would spend time on the piano experimenting with melodies and chords. The second teacher of music to influence me was in grade 4. Dave Pollard had come to Windsor Elementary School in Burnaby and said, “Who wants to be in a band?”

My hand shot up fast. That was 1963. I still have the letter (printed on a gestetner machine) that I took home to my parents. He checked to make sure I had all my fingers and teeth. I told him that I wanted to play trumpet. Why trumpet? Because, at a young age, I had seen a b/w western movie on TV where the hero was playing a cornet or trumpet in a desert prison somewhere in the Wild West. I had a good feeling about that trumpet-playing hero. My dad took me to Empire Music in New Westminster and bought me (this I later learned), a really bad German trumpet for $62 plus tax. That is how I got started. I remember Dave Pollard (later a school principal) as a kind, patient, and fair itinerant band teacher who set simple rules for the team and always had a plan that we worked towards. In 1966 when I was in grade seven my parents and two other band friend’s parents had us join Gordon Olson’s Beefeater Band. More about Mr. Olson shortly.

I was attending Royal Oak Junior Secondary by then and would later go on to Burnaby South for grades 11 and 12. Mr. Wilson was the band director at Royal Oak. They had one concert band and I played

KEITH WOODWARD ~ 189

principal first trumpet in grade 8. I didn’t take band at school in grade 9 & 10 because I was travelling twice a week for Beefeater band rehearsals and private group lessons with Ken Hopkins, principle trumpet of the VSO. I thought it was a good idea at the time, but today I cannot remember anything about the other courses I took apart from band. All I remember is feeling like I abandoned my band buddies. By grade 10 a bunch of those buddies and I formed a rock band and played Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago and Tower of Power. It was called Max Wettig, after the German piano in the room where we practiced in my basement.

It’s not surprising that everyone thought our lead singer was named Max. In grade 12 that band morphed into a local band called Granville. Over the next two years we played all the local clubs in Greater Vancouver.

When I arrived at Burnaby South in September 1970 for my grade 11 year, I took band. The director was Lynne Robinson. I also took choir.

Another course I took for both years was called Instrumental Survey 11/12. Over the two years I learned to play euphonium, cello, percussion, and flute. Flute later became my second instrument (after the trumpet). Lynne Robinson played flute. Once when I forgot my flute at home.

Lynne said, “You can play mine.” It was all tarnished and looked ugly.

At that time I didn’t know that a Haynes flute was really special and expensive.

When I joined the Beefeater Band I went into the Intermediate Band. They still wore the West Point uniforms. Mr. Olson was always

190 ~ Fred Gass

person with a firm hand. There was an energy about him that was hard to explain. He didn’t say very much. He just led and you respected him.

We always knew where we stood with Mr. Olson. He was a father figure to all of us. Playing in his band offered a certain stability in our young lives. My father was the band treasurer for awhile (I found that out later in life but I didn’t know at the time). I feel that Gordon Olson was most responsible for my love of band. I was in his band the longest of any band. I still have friends from my Beefeater days that I am in contact with but none from my school band days. It was a family. I knew by the end of grade 11 that I wanted to be a band director. In 1972 after grade 12, I went to Douglas College to study music. A half-year later I felt it was time for me to leave the Beefeater Band. Gordon did a lot for me like the time, for instance he gave me a solo to play at center ice in front of a microphone at the Pacific Coliseum during a pre-game show at a Canucks’ game. He gave me lots of opportunities to play my trumpet. When I told him I was leaving he said goodbye and wished me well with my studies to become a band director. Ten years later at one of the alumni concerts at the Vancouver Playhouse, I was passing by the changing room and spotted him. His wife Louisa was helping him get ready. He was suffering from a bit of dementia by then. He was fussing with his bow tie. I was a shy guy and hadn’t really ever approached him before except when to say I was leaving the band. He was a very

KEITH WOODWARD ~ 191

spiritual person to me. He was just always there for us during those years. He imparted his knowledge to us all but not so much directly one on one. I mustered up enough courage to step inside the room and help him straighten his bow tie. It was a real tear-jerker moment. I think he said “hi,” but I am not sure. It was like a “thank you” or an “It’s okay.

We understand.” That was the last time I ever saw him or spoke to him again. He passed away six years later in 1999.

When I was at Douglas College in 1972, Randy Rayment was putting together a 9-piece swing band called Perdido. I, along with two of my Douglas friends, Fred Gass and Fred Cook, joined Randy and we went on the road. We set out across Canada for a year and the swing band played a lot of rock rooms. Christmas week & New Years Eve in the Ballroom at the Banff Springs Hotel was one of the road highlights. On our return to Vancouver we became the house band for The Cave Supper Club. Being the back-up band for Rosemary Clooney was another highlight for us. What I remember most vividly was at the end of the one-week engagement, when Rosemary gave each of us a big farewell hug and a goodbye kiss on the cheek. When the band eventually dissolved I took another year at Douglas College to complete my two-year diploma towards a Bachelor of Music degree.

I joined my Perdido friend Fred Gass who had already started developing the band program at St. George’s Senior School on Vancouver’s

192 ~ Marty Summers

west side. I spent three years working part-time with Fred at St. George’s and during that same period did five summer sessions at UBC. I had to switch to a Music Ed degree to be able to take the courses in the summer.

I left St. George’s to go back full-time at U.B.C. to do my student teaching and finished my B. Ed degree. I was lucky to have two great mentors during my two practicums.They were Marty Summers, who spent his entire teaching career at Aldergrove Secondary, and Gregg Hurst, who also spent his entire career at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary.

Right after graduation I was hired at Seycove Secondary in North Vancouver in September 1978 to teach social studies 8, consumer education 8/10, general business 12, three concert bands and one jazz band.

I don’t have many day-to-day memories of that teaching assignment. I can say that my good friend, Dan Ramsden, the guitarist from our Max Wettig Band, shared the music office with me. He probably helped me secure a position with the School Board. He would have said some kind words to Bob Rankin, the excellent district Fine Arts supervisor at the time.

The Seycove assignment would put me in contact with one amazing man: the school’s principal, Lorne Schemer. As Gordon Olson guided me with a firm hand, so did Lorne with a gentle hand. He helped me bring out the compassion towards students, people, and life that was buried inside of me. He was a life mentor for me. Some of the seeds

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he planted inside of me did not come to fruition until years or decades later. He taught by example. I remember two lateral filing cabinets in his office. One was full of files. The other contained paint, tools and cleaning supplies. The school was only two years old when I started there.

He had a firm belief that a clean and organized school reflected on the psychological state of mind of those that spent their years there. Late, on many afternoons he would scrape gum off the floor and any lockers or walls with dings would receive a dab of touch-up paint, and so on.

He was humbly respectful for being principal in a new school and he imparted this respect to everyone else he came into contact with. To him everyone in the school world was an equal—students, teachers, custodians, secretaries, superintendents, and parents. He would come up to any student at school, call them by name, and strike up a conversation about that student’s interests. He made it his honour to learn something about that student and every student in the school.

My job at Seycove lasted one year. Vander Zalm was the Minister of Education and there was a long strike. I had been the last to be hired so I was the first to be let go. I was a Teacher On Call (TOC), for the next two years. I spent four months at D.W. Poppy, the first two months with Mark Kowalenko, another childhood school band & rock band buddy from grade four. I directed the choir for the teacher on maternity leave.

In 1986, just before Music Fest, Mark got sick while returning from a

194 ~ Mary Bachun

band tour to Northern California. Back in Langley the choir director returned from maternity leave so I took over Mark’s bands until the end of the school year. I knew all of Mark’s repertoire and the following week I took his senior jazz band into Music Fest here in Vancouver on the Expo 86 site. Handsworth came first. D.W. Poppy came second.

Bryan Stovall (from Wellington Secondary in Nanaimo) came third.

Mary Bachun got the Handsworth Intermediate Concert Band up to the top at Music Fest as well. Handsworth always had an excellent band program. I remember thinking that I would love to teach at Handsworth one day. — “Where the mind goes, the energy flows.” After Don Murray retired I taught the concert band and concert choir at North Surrey Sr. Secondary and two zone elementary bands for a year. I spent many a day with Don as my mentor, learning his “old school” ways of teaching.

Years later, my way to thank Don was to have him work with and guest conduct Respighi’s, Pines Of The Appian Way with the Handsworth Sr. Winds at one of our Centennial Theatre concerts. After the North Surrey gig I taught concert & jazz band and concert & vocal jazz choir at H. D. Stafford Secondary in Langley along with two school-zone elementary bands and one ukulele class.

A year later I got a call that Bob Rebagliati wanted to interview me to see if I would be a good fit for Handsworth. A few days after the in-

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terview I got a voice mail from Bob saying, “It’s a pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted to teach at Handsworth.” I spent the next 25 years in the band office at Handsworth. Bob and I were a perfect fit for each other. We had much in common. He was the perfect mentor for me. In some ways, he was the big brother that I never had. For the first fifteen years I team-taught with Bob. Only 25% of my time was at Handsworth. The rest was in Handsworth’s elementary feeder schools.

I started with two elementary schools and then when the budget cuts came it increased to three and eventually four.

When Bob retired I spent my final ten years teaching bands by myself. The two band positions were combined into one—budget cuts, you know. I directed the four concert bands, expanded the jazz program from two to four jazz band classes, and had two years with a great 10 piece R&B extracurricular horn band that played at all the music concerts. The year after Reb retired the school administration wanted a choir, but not enough had signed up for choir. A year later, with help from our R&B singers, we had two years with a forty-piece SATB grade 9-12 concert choir. When the jazz band program started to grow I stopped teaching the choir and concentrated on the concert & jazz program There is a book being compiled on the Handsworth Music program.

See this 2004-2014 decade by way of the multitude of pictures/news-

196 ~ Edgemont Village

letters/programs/festivals/tours to China, Australia, Europe, Alaska, (and almost to Peru—except for the massive 2010 floods in Machu Picchu and Cusco which cancelled the tour two weeks before we were to travel), www.warfleetpress2.wordpress.com/ spring 2017.

Outside of Handsworth, there were many achievements with The B.C. Music Educators Association, the B.C. Band Association, the North Vancouver Band & Strings Parents Association and MusicFest Canada. I also published works for journals, conducted other school districts’ honour bands, gave professional development workshops, and adjudicated at festivals. I managed to fit in three summer sessions at the University of Victoria School of Music and received a M. Ed. Degree in Conducting. At Handsworth, there were many local, provincial, national, and world ensemble highlights: “First Place” this, “Most Outstanding” that, “Gold Awards,” and so on. But what really warms my heart is helping to co-found the North Vancouver Elementary Band & Strings Parents Association in 1992, and serve as a director until 2005. Upon my move to full-time teaching grades 8-12 bands at Handsworth, I worked closely with the Handsworth Music Parents Association to help raise money for the music program.

What I remember most fondly over the years are my feelings about those people who have become dear to me. My two team-teaching band partners have become two of my closest friends. Students and parents

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of students have become my friends, and yes, I’ve even taught students of parents that I taught. Teaching the same band students from grade 5-12 allowed me to watch each mature in their own way. All I did was mentor them through early life, and bring joy into their lives through music.

I have fond memories of the students and me playing our annual Christmas carols together in front of the shops in Edgemont Village on the Saturdays in December leading up to Christmas—bringing feelings of JOY to passers-by. The time I spent with students outside the classroom, during performances and tours, was most precious to me, as the students and I saw/heard/felt each other as ONE in life though music…

After organizing 51 band tours, 116 field trips, and over a thousand performances, I came to realize that...

“Music is a form of energy that connects to our feelings. As live music is of the NOW, it helps us stay in the present moment. For 35 years (25 at Handsworth) I always think that what I do is mentor a team of musicians. As a team, we ALL practice focusing our energy on sound as ONE. The result is a very powerful ONENESS with the present moment. My favourite teaching activity is directing students during performances because that’s when our focus is ALL at our best. I enjoyed bringing JOY to ALL by being ONE with the NOW through music.

What more could I ask of teaching—of life?

12 Margaret (Neill) Behenna Back Story

Margaret Neill was nine when Arthur Delamont brought his band into her school. She remembers watching a girl playing clarinet and thinking, “I want to do that!” She took the paperwork home and her mom remembers her coming into the room and saying, “I just joined the West Vancouver Boys & Girls Band and you have to buy me a clarinet.” She also decided around that time that she wanted to be a teacher. She joined the band and enjoyed it very much. She cannot remember ever talking to Arthur Delamont but that was probably a good thing. She sang in the church choir as well. Margaret graduated high school in 1962. She was PHOTO: 1958 Margaret playing the clarinet

200 ~ Clif Bryson

in the band from 1954 through 1962. After Delamont left in 1958, Clif Bryson took over. In September 1963, Margaret attended UBC to study Music. She remembers Victor Guy being there at the same time and they are still friends today. Ray Kirkham was there as well. Music in those days was conducted in the old building. She graduated UBC Music with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1967 and then took a year of education.

Eric Hamber Secondary School Margaret’s first teaching assignment was at Eric Hamber as a part time band/choral, grade 8 music teacher plus some English teaching in 1968.

She started a guitar program with her grade 8 class. Ernie Colledge was at Hamber the same time as Margaret. She was married after her first year teaching and was then known as Margaret Behenna.

Margaret began teaching in Ladner in 1973 at (what was then called) Delta Senior Secondary. She took over from Rob Colquhoun who moved to the brand new South Delta Secondary in Tsawwassen. She was there for one and a half years teaching guitar, instrumental music, composition and English and led the after school swing choir. She conducted the pit orchestra for “Annie Get Your Gun” and took the band and choir to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan for the Moose Jaw Band Festi-

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val. In January of 1975 she left her teaching position and joined her husband in operating a restaurant business, coincidentally, in Moose Jaw. Three years later (1978) they returned to Delta and Margaret taught guitar for one year at Delta Secondary (the two distinct schools, Delta Junior and Delta Senior had by that time amalgamated into one school, called Delta Secondary). As well, she did part-time music teaching at Hawthorne Elementary and Delta Manor between 1981 and 1983 and taught band full time at Tsawwassen Junior Secondary from 1984-85. In 1985 she was invited back to teach at Delta Secondary and was the Band Director from 1985 until retirement in 2007.

She took her kids to Prince George on a band trip that first year. One innovation that she adopted during her years at Delta Secondary was band camps for her students. The first camps were held in Squamish, Camp Kwomais in South Surrey and Shawnigan Lake. As well she organized camps for her students at Keats Island, Camp Kawkawa in Hope and West Coast Wilderness Lodge in Egmont. Band camps were affordable, mostly due to significant fundraising and the fact that she could take large numbers of students at a time. This provided an opportunity for the various levels of band to work together and professional musicians were hired to perform and teach. She took her students to band camp between her more ambitious band trips. At the end of a band camp there would always be a performance. A lot of fundraising went

202 ~ Amazing trips!

on with her program. Each of her students had his/her own music account and used fund raised money for band field trips and the purchase of miscellaneous equipment. Any money not used when the student graduated or left the program went to funding events for all students.

Her budget when she started was just under $5000 and in ten years it had been cut in half so fundraising was essential. She was fortunate she said because she had a separate capital budget for instruments. The fund raising she did with her students helped cover the many trips she took them on as well as purchasing items for the program.

The first big trip Margaret made with her band was in 1989 to England. One of their stops was Harrogate during the annual music festival.

The students marched in the parade even though they were really not a marching band. It is unclear if they even played. Her kids were really motivated because of Margaret’s caring. The trip lasted through Spring Break plus a few days. In 1994 they went back to England again. She could only take about thirty kids on these trips so that is where band camp came in handy (and trips to Seattle). Two trips a year were the norm. Besides the trips Margaret kept busy doing musicals, arranging field trips to the symphony or the Stanley Theatre, running extra-curricular jazz bands, having rehearsals before school for students going on the tours and directing the choir during lunch hours (which she later dropped because it was all just a little too much).

Her trips fell into a routine. The first year in the cycle she would

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take 80 or 90 kids to Edmonton. The next year she would do what she called a “hot” trip, going to Disneyland, Disneyworld, Hawaii, Cuba or Costa Rica. The trips were always under two weeks. In the third year there would be a big overseas trip as well as another less expensive trip close to home or a band camp so that all her students could have some enrichment opportunity. The overseas trips were memorable. In 1997 it was London and the Mediterranean. They started in London and flew to Turkey, boarded a cruise ship and visited Israel, Egypt, Cypress, Crete and Rhodes. They played in most of these places! Another tour took students to Spain and Morocco. Additional countries visited on these major overseas trips were France, Tunisia, Italy, Greece, Austria and England.

The kids she took were all her band (or choir) students but from different grades. She says she was always stressed out but I could tell she loved it! 2004 is when she took them to Cuba and her last trips were in 2007 (the year of her retirement), to Costa Rica and Disneyland.

Margaret always had a pit orchestra made up of her students which played for the musicals the school put on each year. In her time at Delta Secondary she was the musical director for ten musicals. Her favorite show was “Crazy for You.” Community support in Ladner was tremendous. One wouldn’t think it would be in a farming and fishing community but it was. Because she is soft spoken she began using a cordless mike on her lapel as the classes got larger and “noisier.” It got some strange reactions from her kids when she turned it up unexpectedly.

204 ~ Curt Jantzen

Her strength was that her kids loved being in her program because they knew she cared about them and she certainly did! She was able to convey to her kids that her class was a safe and happy place to be and develop their love of music.

She frequently took her senior band to the Kiwanis Festival and they usually won bronze with an occasional silver standing. One year they placed high enough to be invited to MUSICFEST in Toronto. She already had a trip planned so they couldn’t go. She says she doesn’t think she was exacting enough but she knows she is not a competitive person so winning music festivals was not that important to her. “Delamont didn’t instill that in me,” she says! After ten years teaching band in Delta she did feel however that she was finally competent in what she did and what she was doing. Her numbers were good as enrollment was high.

There were over 200 students in the band program with all classes taught on timetable. Brenda Khoo came on board in 2003 to take over one of the beginner bands so that helped a lot. They had eight blocks of band on timetable and twelve blocks of guitar taught by Chris Dobrovolny and Andrew Boldt. Delta Secondary was very strong in the arts and had a strong drama program and art program as well.

A few years before she retired, Curt Jantzen asked her to conduct the Delta Music Makers Concert Band for two months while he was away.

When she retired, he asked her to be assistant conductor which she has been doing since retirement. As well, he invited her to join him

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in running an extra-curricular elementary band program. She did and they both now go into the schools in October. They talk about their program and the kids sign up. The parents pay a fee. Part of it goes to the school and the rest to the instructors. They have offered this program at several different schools over the past several years but have been working at downsizing it. They now teach two large classes each week on Thursday afternoons. They have about 80 students. The classes start mid-October. There is a three week break just before Xmas and again at Spring Break. At the end of February they present their first concert and they take the older kids on a one day concert tour/field trip. The final concert is in late May. The district implemented a grade seven band program recently. Margaret and Curt thought their extra-curricular program would be of no interest but just the opposite happened. They became busier than ever.

Seems the younger ones wanted to do what their older grade 7 brothers and sisters were doing. Margaret has been involved with the program now for 8 years and Curt since 2003. It was started by Brenda Khoo.

Margaret told me when she was at Delta Secondary she would visit all the grade 7 classes in Ladner in February, shortly before course selection for high school.

She would take a few of her students with

her as a testimonial to how much they enjoyed being in her class. She would show pictures of the various trips. This recruitment along with a performance at each elementary school by one of her bands usually at

206 ~ Delta Music Makers

Christmas, helped establish a steady influx of Grade 7’s into the high school program.

The Delta Music Makers The Delta Music Makers is a travelling band. They just returned (summer 2015) from Los Angeles. Since Margaret has been playing with them she has visited the Maritimes, Scotland, Ireland, Boston, Washington D.C. and New York. The trips are 12-14 days. Curt Jantzen is their conductor. Curt also started the Ladner Bandfest.

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13 Mary Howland Ellenton Back Story

Mary graduated from Mount Douglas High School in Victoria. She started playing oboe in grade seven at Lansdowne Junior High School.

Emile Michaux (Len Michaux’s father) was her band teacher at that time. She remembers waiting several months for an oboe as it had to be ordered. She was so keen to play she went to the rehearsals until her oboe arrived at which time she caught up to the rest of the group in a couple of weeks. An older student, Lorne Dunn, started her off on the oboe, then when Robert Bergeson, an oboist took over from Emile Michaux as the band director at Mt. Doug, she studied privately with him.

210 ~ Barry Brown

She wound up going to U.B.C. in 1966 where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1970. After U.B.C. she started working for Bill Lewis Music on Broadway selling guitars and began to study classical guitar, which would later be her focus. She decided to go back to UBC in 1972 and get her teaching degree. Mary had gone through UBC Music with Marilynn Turner, Sharman King and Barry Brown. John White and Kerry Turner were in her 5th year class. She met the man she was to marry, George Ellenton, in the Delta Concert Band. They married in 1975. In 1985 she retired from playing oboe to concentrate on her classical guitar career. This included studying, teaching and performing for the next twenty years. She was a member of the Vancouver Guitar Quartet. The highlight of her career was performing with the quartet at Expo ’86.

Eric Hamber Secondary School In September 1973 Mary replaced Margaret Behenna as the band and guitar instructor at Eric Hamber. At that time the Vancouver School Board was one of the last to hire. All the students in her class had got jobs and the prospects of her working in the Lower Mainland were bleak.

As it turns out she got the job at Hamber because they needed a guitar specialist. Mary taught with Ernie Colledge. He ran the senior program

MARY HOWLAND ELLENTON ~ 211

and taught the beginner band class and Mary taught the Grade 9 band class and ran the guitar program. They had lot of really talented kids so Mary started a junior concert band which rehearsed for two hours one evening a week. Her junior concert band developed into quite a large ensemble with as many as 60 students.The kids were very enthusiastic in those days and enjoyed being in her program. When Ernie left to go into administration, Mary took over the senior program for one year and Chris Robinson came in to take over the junior program. That was a challenging year for Mary, Ernie had big shoes to fill. The following year Chris moved up to take over the seniors and Mary focused on the juniors and the guitar programs. They had a lot of talented juniors who would have to wait a while to get into the prestigious Sr. Stage band so Mary formed a junior stage band. As this was not her forte she enlisted the help of a very talented senior student, Robert Rozich. Together they took the group to the New Westminister Jazz Festival in 1978 and tied for 1st place. They were eligible to go to Winnipeg to compete in the Canadian Stage Band Festival. It was to take place in a couple of weeks so they had to organize it quickly. There was no time for fund raising.

She remembers that there were two sisters in the band so it was going to be expensive for that family. This same family gave up their family vacation so that the girls could attend. It was worth it as they placed 4th and had a wonderful experience. In 1977 the junior concert band com-

212 ~ Saul Berson

peted in the Kiwanis Music Festival and won the ‘Bandmasters Asso. of B.C. Trophy and the ‘Junior Band Trophy’ for the best performance.

There was always an abundance of talented students to come through the program: Saul Berson, Mark Donnelly, Greg Kovacs, Rudy and Heidi Petschauer, Joel and Mike Bakann and Arthur McGettrick to name just a few. Band trips in those days involved taking the senior band to Oregon or the Junior Band to B.C. destinations. On the senior trips Mary took her guitar ensemble as well. Mary developed the guitar program which Marg Behenna had started. She had classes in grade 8,9,10 and a Sr 11/12. Every guitar student was taught to read music and understand the theory. By the time they reached the senior class they could read a 5 part Berklee series ensemble piece, which included a full rhythm section. Her guitar ensemble performed at the BC Music Educators Conference in Vancouver and Langley in 1975 – 1976. They also travelled on band tours and performed in festivals. * Margaret Behenna and Mary were probably the first female band directors in Metro Vancouver. Jill Sparrow, band director at Seaquam Secondary in North Delta calls them “the trail blazers’ for the many future female directors to follow. * Eric Hamber was the site of a Summer Centre for the Arts program.

Ernie Colledge was the Principal. Mary taught the guitar classes. Many Vancouver teachers were brought in to teach the variety of classes offered. She remembers Helene McGall was one. The Centre put on a

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full musical each summer which was amazing given that it was only a four week program. * Mary sees her legacy at Hamber as having been responsible for starting the Junior Concert/Stage Band program and developing the guitar program.The 1970’s was a very exciting time to be teaching and she is glad Chris and Tom carried on what she and Ernie began. * Today in 2015, Mary has been a teacher on call for fifteen years.

She still feels she is doing her part supporting teachers through subbing when they need her. She has the fun without the worry!

Mary says she has seen the programs diminishing since 2000. It could be the scheduling or the mixing of the different grade levels in one band class or the changing demographics. “It seems to always be about the numbers,” she says. Right now it is a very challenging time for music teachers and their struggle is important because music is such an important part of a child’s education. Luckily for her she doesn’t need to worry about planning courses anymore or trips. She is enjoying spending a period now and then with kids in band class and communicating with them again through music.

14 Chris Robinson Back Story

Chris went to Queen Mary Elementary on the west side of Vancouver. On his way home from school he would pass by Arthur Delamont’s house and always hear a trumpet or two practicing. While never joining his Kitsilano Boy’s Band he honed his piano skills throughout his school years. In high school at Lord Byng Chris also played the clarinet. He had three different band teachers while at Byng in the mid sixties: Mr. Hedley, who had a military background and Jim Kirk who followed him about 1964, And for his last two years 1968-69 his band director was Pete Stigings. It was probably the first band program in Vancouver to

216 ~ Wayne Pettie

have a stage band. Chris played piano. Everyone enjoyed Mr. Stiging’s leadership and his program. There was a student from Hong Kong at Lord Byng at that time named Francis Chan who composed a piece for the senior band called “Sea Breeze.” After completing a science degree at U.B.C. he went on to earn a doctorate in Music from the University of Indiana and became a very accomplished composer. Chris’s parents were both musical. They met at the Chateau Lake Louise. His mother was the concert singer and his dad (also an accomplished pianist) the house doctor. His father was raised in Banff. Chris ended up working at the Chateau Lake Louise for ten summers as a bellhop, during and after his university years. After high school Chris enrolled in the UBC Music program. Others at UBC during those days were Wayne Pettie (trumpet), Al Lehtonen (baritone), Bob Jealous (trumpet) and Gordon Lucas (clarinet). After graduating in 1973 he took a year off and traveled to New Zealand. When he came back he went into Education. His final practicum was taken with Tom Turner (Kerry Turner’s brother) in Langley. His first practicum he did at his old alma mater, Lord Byng, with Dave Berger. Dave had been his band director at UBC (Dave Berger directed the UBC Wind Ensemble for a year after Karl Kobalensky left).

When Chris graduated he had a couple of options. He applied with the Vancouver School District and was sent for an interview to Eric Hamber Secondary. Mary Ellenton, one of the band directors at Hamber sat in

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on the interview. He was hired and that was his first and only job teaching music. He remained at Eric Hamber his whole career from 1975 – 2008.

Eric Hamber Secondary School Chris replaced Ernie Colledge and he and Mary found the next two years difficult, as Ernie was a hard act to follow. This is often the case after a much beloved teacher leaves. Mary took over Ernie’s senior program and Chris took over Mary’s juniors. Hamber at the time was a semester school so to accomodate year round performing groups both the senior concert and junior concert band met in the evenings. Eventually the school went off the semester system. Difficulties in those days were often associated with kids wanting to take so many academic courses that they had no time left for electives (hence extracurricular band). As a result senior band was moved to a time before school started. Chris’s vocal jazz program also went off timetable. His other choirs remained on.

Chris gradually got more involved in senior concert band. Mary Ellenton as well as teaching band ran a wonderful guitar program. It had been started by Margaret Behenna. Chris’ choir initially comprised 25 girls, but it grew and grew. Chris worked closely with the drama program. His first year they decided to put on Gilbert & Sullivan’s “HMS Pinafore.”

218 ~ Donnelly, MarK

Their lead tenor was a young student named Mark Donnelly who was to become a career musician, notably the national anthem singer for the Vancouver Canucks. Musicals after that became a tradition at Hamber and they put one on almost every year. The nice thing was it helped to develop the choral program. Chris taught a variety of courses at Hamber. A course called Consumer Education was introduced and every student was required to take it. This meant every student had to drop an elective. Chris decided to try teaching this new course which he soon found he enjoyed. It was a very structured and comprehensive course, which he liked. As music student enrollment grew however, and course requirement policies changed, full time music became Chris’s teaching load.

When Mary Ellenton left Tom Koven was hired. Tom and Chris would share an office for the next 25 years. They team-taught courses and had a great time working together. When Hamber under went major renovations they got a new band room and Chris got his own choral room. Both Tom and Chris were involved in everything (including the musicals) during their time together. Chris would direct the singers and Tom would direct the pit orchestra. One of their former students who had been in their jazz band, Max Todd, went over to Carson Graham for his last few years. However, he later returned to Hamber as a math teacher, quickly becoming involved in the music program. The program

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continued to grow with the addition of a string program under the direction of David Cho. During these years both Chris and Tom went on to complete a M.ED. One year Chris got an Open House Canada grant and took the band to Ottawa in the 1983-4 school year. Chris told me: they left two kids back in Ottawa on that trip. One was hospitalized due to illness, and the other missed the bus to the airport. Oh the joys of chaperoning! They took many band trips to Banff, Lake Louise and Calgary. They also loved the Oregon coast and travelled there extensively. They didn’t pursue major overseas trips. Chris and Tom regularly went in the Kiwanis Festival with their bands and choirs. They also participated in Bob Schaefer’s New West Jazz Festival, which in later years evolved into the Envision Jazz Festival. While they enjoyed preparing for competitions they were never the focus of the program. Their groups played a great deal in the community particularly in the holiday seasons: Christmas, at the mall, in hospitals etc. Tom was instrumental in maintaining a strong relationship with our feeder schools by organizing yearly concerts.

The ethnic make-up of the school changed over Chris’s 30 plus years.

With the transfer of sovereignty in Hong Kong Hamber became a much sought after school for new Chinese immigrants and this resulted in a 90 percent Asian student body. Throughout these changes Hamber remained an exciting and challenging place to teach, said Chris. There

220 ~ John Trepp

was a school for disabled students (near Hamber) where they took their groups to play. Not too long after this disabled students were integrated into the secondary system.

Practically every year they were assigned a student teacher. One great experience Chris recalls was Pete Stigings asking Chris if he would take on a visually impaired student teacher named Marilyn Rushton. Chris asked, “What do you mean by visually impaired?” Pete said, “She has no vision.” Chris says it is one of the most remarkable experiences he has ever had. He would pick up a new piece of music and play it for her or she would listen to a recording of it. Very shortly she would be able to recall the piano accompaniment as well as the SATB voicings.

The students loved her! A remarkable talent, and Chris has always been thankful to Pete Stigings for bringing her to him.

Expo 86 was a big deal! John Trepp relinquished his choral program at Magee for one year to be the coordinator of some of the entertainment for Expo 86. He went back afterwards of course. Always looking to raise the bar for his choirs and himself, John used to bring Teo Repel (a notable choir director retired from John Oliver) over to hear and critique his ensembles.

Highlights for Hamber ensembles: playing the national anthem for a Davis Cup Event here in Vancouver; performing at Expo 86; Hamber choirs singing at the APEC event at BC Place for Bill Clinton and dig-

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nitaries; performing with Leon Bibb; performing for two prime ministers (John Turner and Jean Chretien); Trumpeters Al Matheson (former band student) and Martin Berinbaum accompanying the Hamber Choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus.

Many of the Hamber music alumni have gone on to careers in music including New York drummer Rudy Petschauer, L.A. musician and agent Robert Rozich, jazz musician and historian extraordinaire Al Matheson, Toronto big band leader and trumpeter Bobby Rice, Vancouver saxophonists Saul Berson and Dylan Cramer, Vancouver Opera singers Mark Donnelly and Gina Oh, jazz singer Coco Love Alcorn, Hong Kong pop singer and actor Fred Cheng, Canadian Chinese television host and singer Benny Yau. Dennis Tupman (Vancouver School Board Music Supervisor) was very good at visiting the school principals and focusing attention on the music programs. He would remind them how lucky they were to have such a tremendous program with such committed directors. It helped!

Everyone is so busy that they do not always stop and think about these things and therefore sometimes appear uninterested. There was a lot of continuity in the Hamber music program during the twenty-five years Chris and Tom were together.

15 Tom Koven Back Story

I started playing trombone in grade eight at Sutherland Secondary in North Vancouver. I also joined the North Vancouver Youth Band. Art Smith, the conductor of the NVYB had me in the junior band for two months and then I went to the intermediate band for four months and finally the senior band. I just loved it! I went with them to Japan in 1970 and one year I went with them to Toronto. That was the year they swept the first place prizes. Art Smith was an old school kind of music teacher who really loved his music and was a strict disciplinarian which was good for us. He was an extremely passionate guy about his music.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sakura Photography

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After three years at Sutherland, I decided to move over to Carson Graham for my final year of high school. I had heard that Garth Williams had an amazing music program. Rob Karr was a rookie first year teacher at Carson that year. I graduated from high school in 1972.

During my fourth year at UBC (music department), I and a fellow student went to see the director of the symphonic wind ensemble. We told him that we had both decided not to take his ensemble in our final year and instead take “Choral Union.” We explained to him that we were both going to be school music teachers and we knew we needed to know how to teach all aspects of music especially if we ever wound up as a small town music teacher one day. As neither of us had had any choral training we felt this was an essential part of our training. He was none too thrilled to say the least. We agreed to play in some of his smaller ensembles and we all got through the year. I am mentioning this because I think it is important for prospective music teachers to get as much training as they can for their future occupation. Foresight is worth much more than hindsight and it may mean the difference between getting a placement and missing out on one because you don’t have the qualifications and/or experience.

During the one -year teacher training program in the Faculty of Education, I decided I was going to go to Carson Graham to do my first

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practicum (At UBC you got one short practicum and then one longer three week practicum). Peter Taylor, one of the music directors at Carson, told me a few months before my practicum that I would be teaching a guitar class. So I went out and bought myself a guitar. I was always just about one week ahead of the kids. There were two of us doing our practicum at Carson. The other fellows’ name was Steve Toren. My second practicum was in Aldergrove with Marty Sommers. Marty had just started a guitar class so I got a wonderful reception there as well. It pays to diversify. I remember one of my first experiences with the excuses kids give their teachers during my time in Aldergrove. One of my students comes in and say to me, “I am sorry, Mr. Koven, that I missed rehearsal. We had to pull the foal.” “What?” I said. “We had to pull the foal. The foal got stuck.” Country life!

Eric Hamber Secondary My first teaching assignment was at Eric Hamber Secondary on the west side of Vancouver. At the time it was 40% Jewish and a great school for music with a long established musical tradition. I remained at Eric Hamber for the duration of my teaching career, 33 years. When I left, the school was 40 % Asian and still a great school for music. I didn’t

224 ~ Kenny Hsieh

see any reason to change schools. The program was strong. The parents were happy. The kids were happy. The principal was happy. I joined Chris Robinson who was already established at Eric Hamber and we team taught for the next 30 years. Our philosophies were similar. In 2008, they gave us both the BCMEA Award instead of just giving it to one person as they usually do.

My first year of teaching was the most difficult. Half my teaching load was guitar and the other half was band. Because I had learned how to play guitar I was able to take over Mary Ellenton’s guitar program and this afforded me many pleasant hours of strumming with my students, teaching them new techniques, and so forth. I now know it takes about three years before you really feel competent as a music teacher.

Even so, for me, it has been a lifelong learning situation. I discovered that the most important thing (for me at least) is how the kids respond to my program and what lessons they are learning from their involvement. When I retired in 2011, my kids recreated the last scene from “Mr. Holland’s Opus” for me. Two of my students, who have gone on to wonderful careers in music (Kenny Hsieh was an assistant conductor of the VSO for a couple of years and Gary Tse is a music teacher at Semiahmoo Secondary), made excuses to get me to the school that night.

I guess they must have learned something in my class.

Trips were not a really important part of our program at Hamber.

ABOVE: Helen and Bill arriving at their wedding party at the Hyatt Hotel in a horse drawn carriage. 1985

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We went mostly on small trips to Vancouver Island, Calgary and Washington State. We thought small trips were important but I never wanted to be a tour guide to far away places. I always said to my student teachers: you do not have to do what we do but you need to keep busy and engage your kids.

I guess the most important thing to me about teaching was to try and instill in my students a love for music. After they graduated, their parents often came back and said to me one of two things: Thanks for connecting with my son or daughter. You know them better than any of their other teachers. Sometimes the students would come back and say: You taught me more things about life than any other teacher, things that had nothing to do with music: how to be a good person, how to be generous, how to share your skills. There is a story I like to tell about motivation. All through my time at Hamber we had a sound crew. They used to set up the PA system for whoever happened to need one: teachers, musicals and so forth. We were working on a musical. It was late, about 9 pm. I realized there was a dead spot on stage and we needed to string another microphone. My sound crew manager came over and I told him what we needed to do. He says like a typical teenager, “Oh, do we have to?” I was always looking for the teachable moment. I went over to a table and picked up a program which had his name in it. “See this?” I said. “It says manager of the sound crew and then your name.

226 ~ Whistler Music Festival

You decide!” He pauses for a moment and then says excitedly, “Okay, you guys, we gotta string another mike. Let’s get going.” A teachable moment! If the kids whined I would say, “There are going to be 700 people watching next week. Is that your best?” They had to realize they were doing it for themselves. I really like long term programs where you have the kids through elementary school and right up through high school. Then they really get to know you and what you expect.

In my last year of teaching I saw my budget drop from around $4,000 per year to $850. That was for band, orchestra and choir. There was a separate budget for capital expenditures but it was hit and miss. You couldn’t always get what you wanted or felt you needed. Some years were far worse than others. There is a huge difference between private and public schools. Some private schools have a music budget that equals the music budget for all the Vancouver School District schools combined. They also each have a fleet of buses. Public school programs each have to pay for their own transportation costs to and from an event.

Another story I like to tell is this: After school one day one of my former students dropped by seventeen years after graduation. He had been really a lot to handle back then. He was bigger now. I looked up from my desk and said, “Cory, is that you?” “Hello, Mr. Koven, I was driving by and I had to come in and talk to you. I am a dad now. I have three kids. I never realy understood what you were trying to say to me until

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I had my own kids. I get it. I understand now. I just had to come by and say, thank you!” That was a cool moment.

I was sure proud of my large, sequential guitar program. We did presentations for the BCMEA. I really enjoyed the classes as well. We always started off with a jamming session which gradually turned into a learning moment and then ended in a final jamming session. Band and guitar are quite different. One is a group experience while the other is not. Often kids who could not excel within a group did very well on guitar. Not everyone is a joiner at that age so guitar proved to be a way that I could engage those kids as well.

Neither Chris nor I were really competitive. We participated in a lot of festivals but not competitive ones. In 2008 however, after hearing a lot of good things about the Whistler Music Festival set up by Doug Macaulay, we decided to give it a try and we really liked it. We decided to let our groups be judged. We were rewarded with a gold rating all around. It is always nice to know where your program stands against other school programs but in our hearts we knew they were gold all the way.

Jayo Band 65-66

16 Ron Pajala Back Story

“I was taking saxophone lessons at ‘Barney’s Music,’ from one of the top saxophone teachers in Vancouver. I cannot remember his name but he was top notch. That would have been around 1952. I think my teacher mentioned to my mother that she should take me down to the Kitsilano Boys band. He thought it would be a good experience. So on Monday she took me down to General Gordon School. I took my saxophone and sat down with the band. When Arthur started the band. He usually gave the down beat and boom the band was off, immediately! I could hardly keep up and he kept looking at me. It was a frightening experience,

230 ~ PNE Parade

going from an understanding music teacher to this guy. Tears started coming from my eyes. After it was finished, I said to my mother, “I’m not going there again!” She said, “Oh yes you are!” She knew! She knew because she had heard the band playing somewhere. Once I started going, it got better. Soon I learned to read music quickly. His idea was to read a piece of music through and then go on to the next piece.

I remember one thing that I got into trouble for was I never turned the music over properly. I jumbled it up. That really upset him.”

Anytime I honked a sour note, he looked at me. I didn’t honk it again.

I was in the PNE parade.”

I started playing the accordion a long time before I joined the Kits Band. I went to Bob Dressler’s studio for accordion lessons. Bob Dressler was the accordion teacher at ‘Barney’s Music.’ They were located downtown on Granville Street next to the old Hotel Vancouver.

Later they moved to North Vancouver.”

I don’t know how Arthur knew I played the sax. Maybe my mother told him. I was doing stage shows. There was a stage show at the old Orpheum Theatre where the Sears Centre is now located. I played accordion solos on the stage of the old Beacon Theatre as well. That must have been the tail end of vaudeville.

I was in a ‘young peoples’ variety show. I can’t remember the name of it. The old Orpheum Theatre faced onto Granville Street and was located just east of the old Hotel Vancouver. The hotel was in the process

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of being torn down. The new Hotel Vancouver had already been built.

The Castle Hotel was on the other side of the street, across from the old Hotel Vancouver. He asked me to go on the 1953 band trip but my parents couldn’t afford it. He said, “Don’t worry about it.”

I was fifteen or sixteen on that trip. I was the same age as Art Tusvik. We were two of the younger boys. Before the 1953 trip, I played the accordion at a few concerts with the band around Vancouver. It was frightening. I had to get out there while the band was having a rest. He didn’t want a piece that was too long. He knew what he wanted and he didn’t want anything too heavy. I did things like, ‘The Beer Barrel Polka,’ with the bellow shake. I played well known, entertaining tunes.

On the concert stages in Europe, in the theatres, it went over big time.

The audience would clap.

I didn’t have any trouble lugging the accordion around Europe because it was well padded. He was very fussy about the instruments. That was very important! Before I went to Europe, I had to learn to march.

We marched British style, being that Arthur had been in the Salvation Army. That was a good experience. I can remember marching in the PNE parade. It was a long way up Burrard Street to Hastings Street and up to Clark Drive. The thing that you had to watch out for in those days was the street car tracks. At Hastings and Main, there was an island, where people could stand and wait for the street cars. I could see ahead that the band was dividing up when it reached Hastings and Main. I almost

232 ~ Belle Isle Strait

tripped on that island.”

I had become a big steamship and rail fan long before 1953. It all started when we lived in Britannia Beach. My dad worked in the concentrator. He was a Millwright. He worked in the town site up above.

He was quite an outdoorsman and a hunter. He would go out in the morning and come back with a deer. When we went to Vancouver, we went on the Union Steamships. So, I got really interested in the Union Steamships. I remember the first time that we went to Vancouver. We stayed in the old Orville Hotel on Hastings Street. It is still there! My parents were both born in Finland. On that first trip we were on the Lady Alexandra. I would have been about five years old. We were on the upper deck and the whistle blew. I cried but I loved it. From then on, every time I went on those boats, I had to be by the whistle. We were a very emotional family.

My dad built a house at Britannia Beach. I used to go down to the waterfront. As soon as the boat came in to Britannia Beach, I would wave.

One of the captains must have noticed me because he always blew the whistle. That became a habit. I got to go on the Lady Alexandra and the Lady Cecilia. I could tell them apart from a distance. So, I got really interested in steamboats. Then I became interested in steam locomotives.

The trip across Canada in 1953 on the steam train was great! I finally got to go on an extended rail trip. We had tourist cars and uppers and

RON PAJALA ~ 233

lowers. Anytime we stopped for longer than ten minutes, the band got out with their instruments and played a little concert on the platform for the locals. I think that our cars were right behind the baggage car.

There was the engine, the baggage car and then our two cars. Arthur had his own little compartment for himself and his wife. We practiced sectional rehearsals in the cars. We played concerts in each town. Some days we were just traveling. I would be in my upper birth at night and the train would come to a halt with a loud screech and then there would be complete silence. I would get down and go to the nearest vestibule, to see at which town we had arrived. It was interesting and we kept our playing up. I applied this practice years later on my own trips. You don’t go anywhere without playing for long periods of time. There has to be three things! You have to play as much as possible, there has to be an educational component to the tour and it has to be fun, exciting and interesting for all.

On the boat we played for the first class passengers and for the third class passengers. Because the Samaria was an older ship, we took the northern route, through the Belle Isle Strait and north of Newfoundland.

There were all these huge icebergs. On the bridge they kept watch because we didn’t want to become another Titanic. The icebergs were just amazing. Only one third of them is above the water. After that, we ran into a huge Atlantic storm. Out on the deck we would try to run from

234 ~ Tessie O’Shea

one door to another and hope that we did not get soaked by a gigantic wave. Art Tusvik and I were out in the open stern (back) deck and Art says, “Why don’t we go from here right to the back?” We took off and the next thing I hear is a bang coming from the deck. I didn’t know what to do. Art had fallen on the deck. He got up quickly and followed me back but it was very dangerous. I bawled him out for that one. I couldn’t believe that such a big ship could be tossed around so easily. When we arrived in Southampton, we sailed right through the ‘Spithead Revue,’ past two Russian ships. We were playing on deck at the time. It was during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. I wanted to take pictures of the ships but it was awkward. There was some intrigue surrounding the two Russian ships. Apparently the British caught some frogmen in the water near the two ships. The ships were the ‘Kruschev’ and the ‘Bulganin.’

Playing in the vaudeville theatres in England was great. We would play for a week in each town. There were lots of billboards with our name on them. I played the accordion on all the stages. In one town there was a ‘tassel dancer,’ named’Tessie O’Shea.’ When her act was on, us boys were always there watching. We saw the ‘Ted Heath Band’ in Blackpool. Often we would follow or would be followed by one of the Queen’s Guard bands: the Grenadier Guards or the Coldstream Guards.

It was pretty good company!

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Other highlights of the trip were: in Paris, Art Tusvik and I went to the Follies Bergere. Afterwards we went to a cafe in Pigalle and a naked lady sat on my lap. So much for the museums. We were late getting back for the bus but at least he didn’t leave us stranded. In Portsmouth the largest cruiser in the Canadian Navy, the HMCS Ontario, was in dock.

We were invited by the admiral to tour the ship.

1955 was my high school graduation year from John Oliver High School. Arthur wanted me to go on the 1955 trip but if I had I would have missed graduation. I also had my own dance band that played regularly for Scandinavian functions and the other fellows in the band would have been out of work had I gone. We played at the Swedish Park on Friday and Saturdays. After high school I went to UBC and enrolled in Education. I took history and geography. I graduated from UBC in 1959.”

I played in Arthurs’ pep band at UBC alittle. It wasn’t really my cup of tea. Funny, though when I started at John Oliver the first band I started was a pep band [chuckle, chuckle]. I had my own dance band all through university. I remember Arthur asking me to go on the 1955 trip but another reason I couldn’t go was the money that I was making with my dance band. Part of it went to help out my family. I think Arthur was disappointed that I couldn’t go.

238 ~ Tupper Secondary

John Oliver Secondary School Sherwood Robson had an orchestra but that was all they had when I started. As I said, my first band was a pep band. In 1963 I took my first trip with my own band to Rossland, BC. You were on that trip. The next one we went on was to Lillooet. Then another year we went to Jasper and Edmonton in the spring. I always tried to travel by train. We got great rates back in those days. They unhitched the train cars in Edmonton. The day we were supposed to leave Edmonton the trains were a day late because of a big snow storm. The steam hoses froze. So we had an extra day in Edmonton. I had to call back to the school and tell them that we would be a day late. When we arrived back in Vancouver, the principal, ‘Eric Kelly,’ was down at the train station with several parents to greet us. I always thought that was very nice of him.”

“Allen Lehtonen was someone you will know. He was a Finlander as well. His parents had broken up and he wound up at Tupper High School. Then he came to John Oliver. His picture is up on the wall in Tupper. He was quite a character but the band kids though, just loved him! I took my junior band to Saskatchewan one year on an exchange with Wally (Als’ nickname) at his school in Saskatchewan. He taught at a school in a small town just north of Moose Jaw. That year I managed to get our principal to agree to two trips for my band, one for the

RON PAJALA ~ 239

seniors and one for the juniors. That would have been in the late 1970s.

That was the last chance anyone had to travel that route on the Canadian Pacific.”

I took my high school band on many trips over the years. One year the senior band went across Canada to Oshawa, Ontario. My senior band actually made two trips across Canada. Our second trip was to Ottawa.

We played for Prime Minister Trudeau in the lobby of the Parliament Buildings. On the second trip we played for Jean Chretien. He came down and spoke to the band. He wasn’t the prime minister yet. Then, in 1973, I took my senior band to Europe. That was like one of Delamont’s trips. It lasted four months. There was much fund raising for that trip.

We played for Trudeau once at the Italian Centre in Vancouver. I always joked that, “After we played for him he had a hard time getting re-elected.” He was very gracious. He spoke to the band. We called ourselves the ‘John Oliver Pops band.’ We went to the U.S. a couple of times. One trip was to Portland.”

We went twice to Europe twice, once in 1973 and I forget the other year. The first trip we played in Holland. We flew to Amsterdam, then we went to Cologne, Germany. We traveled over to Paris. We played in Copenhagen. On the first trip we played for the Chancellor of West Germany. We played in Rotterdam. The parents committee arranged the trip. We had one bus with a trailer which took us everywhere. In Den-

240 ~ Jim Killeen

mark, we played for ‘ring-tilting.’ These horsemen charge with a lance and they have to run through the ring. It is a big competition in Denmark. Before the competition there is a parade and a tattoo. We marched in the parade. Then we took a boat to England. We stayed in hotels most of the time. We also went to Belgium and Ireland. We played in Hamburg and played in the Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh. We went to Glasgow and played in Victoria Park. Many bandmasters came up afterwards and shook my hand.”

Jim Killeen was the principal at Tupper High School. He asked me to come over and see if I could develop a band program. I started Tuesday night band rehearsals. Some of my kids from John Oliver came over.

As soon as they saw that the band had structure, they didn’t miss a rehearsal. There were a couple of teachers at Tupper who played. They had a spare during band rehearsal so they came over and joined us.

One was the constable for the school. He played the tenor sax. It was a smaller band than I had had at John Oliver. We went on a few trips. I retired from teaching in 1991. I taught bands for thirty-two years. That was long enough!”

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17 Sandy Koven Back Story

I was born in Mission in the Fraser Valley. From grade seven on, I lived in Chilliwack. The Evans family was very musical and Chilliwack was a great town for music. In the 1960’s, there were two professional musical theatre companies, the Kiwanis Music Festival, and many concert bands. As well, the RCF Naden Band was stationed there at CFB Chilliwack.

At an early age I started playing piano, thanks to my parents, but I always wanted to play in the school band as our family would always be jamming at family gatherings. In junior high our noted band director was Kurt DeBoer. He was from Germany and had a background in

244 ~ Dale Warr

professional opera which was great for all his band students. He was a big influence on me and my three siblings. When I reached high school the influential director was Dale Warr. Many years later, at a BCMEA conference, I told him that he was the reason I wanted to be a high school music teacher. He always chose eclectic repertoire that challenged us.

We went on short, budget-wise band trips and had old military style uniforms. It was great!

In the 1970’s there were two ways to become a music teacher in the schools. One way to go was through the Faculty of Education. The other was to audition for the Faculty of Arts – Department (later School) of Music for the Bachelor of Music program and then take one year of teacher training in the Faculty of Education. This is the route I chose as I wanted a solid background in music.

The music department was very well known internationally for its excellence in many areas. However, in a few areas it was a little conservative for its time. For example, students who particularly had a view to teaching in the future were slotted into either an instrumental or vocal stream. Some of us didn’t like that approach as we expected to be versatile as high school music teachers. We demanded and received extra credit for both the instrumental and large vocal ensembles, led by excellent instructors. Also there was no consideration for majoring in tuba, percussion, or saxophone performance and there were no jazz studies.

SANDY KOVEN ~ 245

A few of us formed the Aims, Policies and Grievances Committee which successfully brought students’ concerns to the faculty. This resulted later in performance majors for the three areas and later Fred Stride came on board to teach jazz. Friends who became music teachers were Kerri Querns (Langley), Gerry King (Abbotsford/UVic), Marty Summers (Aldergrove), Lynn McLeod Hadfield (Burnaby/Vernon).

After graduating with a B.Mus. degree in 1975 and then completing the teacher training program in the spring of 1976, I started my teaching career that fall in Kamloops at McArthur Park Junior Secondary. My program there fed into the Norkam Secondary program led by my friend, George Atkinson. My strength seemed to be bringing the struggling junior program back onto solid ground and I dived in, loving every moment of it. One of my fondest memories was when John Trepp drove the Northwest Music bus to my school to deliver music and supplies and then conducted a workshop with my fledgling choir. What a great guy he was! My accomplishments in Kamloops included being an inaugural member of the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra on flute I, starting up a district vocal jazz program and being on the first faculty of the Kamloops Interior Summer School of Music (KISSM).

I was next offered a job in Courtenay which proved to be a great experience as well. Music was prominent in all the schools in part due to the large Mennonite population and their incredible love of music. I

246 ~ Dennis Tupman

wanted to stay there for the long term but, unfortunately, declining enrolment had beuan in the province and I was laid off as the last one hired. I headed back to Metro Vancouver. Back there, however, there were no new jobs. I managed to get a non-musical job in the hospital to pay the bills and I found a French immersion school nearby where I taught band on the lunch hour. Dennis Tupman gave me support by providing the sheet music for the program. I was finally getting known in Vancouver and eventually received a permanent contract. It was at this time that I met my future husband, Tom Koven. We both directed community bands in the evening and were inaugural members of the Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble led by Morrie Backun. We did this in the evenings after long days of teaching!

In the summer of 1991 I decided to pursue a graduate level Diploma of Fine Arts in Instrumental Conducting at the University of Calgary. I had looked for a conducting program at UBC but they didn’t yet offer one. It would be another two years before our colleague, Gerry King, would offer the Masters program at UVic. The Calgary program was well noted and is still offered today. Conducting students consisted ofschool directors, heads of post-secondary music departments and military band directors who came from all over the world. The course had international appeal. For three weeks over the course of three summers, we were mentored by world class wind ensemble conductors. For

SANDY KOVEN ~ 247

those interested in a professional conducting career this program was a stepping stone toward a full Master’s degree in conducting. The courses included advanced theory, score reading/analysis, and advanced conducting. I was proud to graduate from this intensive program.

David Thompson Secondary In the fall of 1997 I began teaching at David Thompson Secondary School on Vancouver’s south east side where I stayed for the next nine years. I consider this to be the school where I did my best work. To this day I often reflect on my many happy memories there with the staff and students. I appreciated the multi-ethnicity of the school and the effort that the administration and teachers made to honor special cultural days and customs within the school population. Although I was a multi-instrumentalist, through my students I gained knowledge about a whole group of Asian instruments, including the sitar.

As well as the three classes of band I inherited a string class which eventually I expanded to two levels. In the beginning class, I used a great string method book, “String Fever,” written by my colleagues Frank Ludwig and Rob Roy. I managed to talk some of my top band students into joining the orchestra as well so that I could have a full orchestra.

This worked because I taught this class and senior band as extra courses

248 ~ Calgary Symphony Orchestra

at 7:30 a.m. I was able to rebuild a choir program by getting the students first involved in a guitar class that sang. Eventually I had two levels of guitar classes. Guitar classes are very important in a music program as they draw students who are not necessarily interested in taking performance-oriented courses over a number of years. As the guitar is so versatile, exposure to even one class will provide the basis for a lifetime of enjoyment as a solo or group instrument.

Lots of lead time and fundraising were needed at the school in order to take my students on any overnight trips. I tried to make these excursions affordable for everyone. As well as school performances on tour, I tried to expose students to professional music whenever possible. One year I took two busloads of kids to Victoria and found out that some students had never been on the ferry or open water before. While there we went to a performance of the Victoria Symphony. A few years later I took my orchestra and senior band on a six day trip to Calgary. I had pre-arranged for lessons from the Calgary Symphony section leaders while we were there. It is interesting to note that many students at David Thompson had never had private lessons on their instruments. After a few school performances we drove down to the Dinosaur Provincial Park and the Tyrrell Museum. Two days later we travelled to Cochrane, just outside of Calgary, where I had arranged a field trip to a working horse ranch with one hundred and fifty horses. As I was an experienced

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horse woman from my days in a rural setting, I had checked out this ranch in advance and thought it would be a great country experience for city kids and teachers. We rode horses all day and then had an outdoor barbeque. After dinner we changed into our concert black attire to attend the outreach concert in Cochrane put on by the Calgary Symphony Orchestra whose members had just mentored them two days before. It was a wonderful educational experience for all. Our kids didn’t play.

I registered my senior band four times for the Whistler Music Festival, and one year I received permission to also bring my Orchestra. My students were really excited because some had never been to Whistler and others hadn’t even been away from home much! This festival was run in an excellent fashion by Douglas Macauley and his staff. The whole village was filled with teenagers for a few days and it was a great place to be. I chose to not receive place standings in the festival but my ensembles received very good adjudicators’ remarks. In the adjudication process there is a category called ‘deportment’ which addresses the attitude/etiquette of the ensembles. My students always received ‘Outstanding’ in this category which made me very proud.

After a few years elsewhere I reached the magic age where I could retire early. Upon reflection, I have fond memories of my teaching career. It is particularly enjoyable when I encounter former students and we reminisce about the past.

Banff 96, D.W.Poppy Senior Concert Band with Mark Kowalenko on the right and Mike Malloy on the left

18 Mark Kowalenko Back Story

Dave Pollard taught a band program which started students in grade four at Windsor Elementary school in Burnaby. He was a regular classroom teacher who did the program on his own time. I remember Mr. Pollard wouldn’t give me my saxophone until I blew on the mouthpiece for a week. This made me quite angry. I liked the sound of the saxophone but unfortunately when I finally got it my parents thought

1997, Me with my wife Savroula and our grandkids (LtoR), J it sounded like a fog horn. One of and Mr.Dean Pollard’s favorite expressions George at our house at 2672 Point Grey Road.

which I remember to this day was “Great balls of blue-eyed blazes. I could get a better sound from a comb and tissue paper.” I was in the

252 ~ Eugene Wilson

Windsor Band from grade four through seven. Sometimes we went up to the high school and put on a concert or played for assemblies at our elementary school. Some very good band teachers came out of that school: Gerry King, Jeff McLelland, and Keith Woodward to name a few.

Royal Oak Junior High offered grades eight through ten. Our school annual was called “The Purple Haze” after Jimmy Hendricks. Eugene Wilson was my band teacher and he took the group on a tour each year.

He also involved us in numerous concerts. Don Rogers was another band teacher who came out of that program. He went on to teach at Johnson Heights in Surrey and then Mt. Baker High school in Cranbrook. My D.W. Poppy Secondary kids were hosted by Mt. Baker kids when we travelled there in 1984.

I went to high school at Burnaby South Secondary where the band and choral director was Lynne Robinson. In high school we had a complete music program. You could take band and choir plus a number of specialized music courses that prepared students well for university and teaching. One elective offered was instrumental survey eleven and twelve -woodwinds and brass/percussion. That is how I started on flute.

Being an old established school, Burnaby South owned many instruments that could be lent to students taking these courses. An additional music course called musicianship eleven and twelve was basically a music theory course. It sure helped me get through music theory 100

MARK KOWALENKO ~ 253

at UBC where, I believe, over half of my first year class dropped out.

The band rehearsed in the music room underneath the stage during the regular timetable. Woodwinds and brass rehearsed separately and then Tuesday and Thursday mornings we came together in the gym which was the only space large enough.

Lynne Robinson was an excellent conductor and the bands and choirs were outstanding. Our performances featured very challenging traditional repertoire. Part of the training at Burnaby South was also conducting and senior students were allowed to rehearse and conduct the band in concert. Gerry King, I am sure, learned a lot about conducting from Lynne. The Burnaby South Music program took a tour each year.

It did very well in the Coquitlam, Kiwanis and Abbottsford festivals as well. Other fine music teachers that came from Burnaby South while I was there were Marty Summers, Don Rogers and Gordon Clements.

In the early to mid 1970’s Don Rogers, Keith Woodward and I played in a band called Granville. We played the old clubs like Oil Can Harry’s, Bacedas, Alfies (none of which are around anymore) plus high school dances and grads. Our play list included tunes from Chicago, Tower of Power, Blood Sweat and Tears, Lighthouse, and Average White Band.

We took turns arranging the music and it was run quite professionally.

Bruce Allen was our agent and this was in the early years of his very successful career. We were in his office one day and he said “You have a good sound but you have to lose your lead singer.” At that time Terry

254 ~ Charle Stowell

Raible was doing the vocals and we liked him because he sounded a lot like David Clayton Thomas and was a great front man. Bruce said “I’ve got a new singer twho would sound great with your band.” We turned him down in favor of Terry. The new singer turned out to be Bryan Adams. Oh well, it probably turned out for the best since we had taken the year off university and were going back in the fall to pursue – I guess – more formal careers.

While I was in university I was gigging around town. I played full time at the Hotel Vancouver’s Panorama Roof. We played in a trio for 25 minutes. Then Claude Logan would come down with a slightly larger band and play for 25 minutes and we would rotate through the night.

It was a pretty easy gig and paid well as I remember. Occasionally during the evening we would all come together to form one big band.

After that I played at the Johann Strauss with a bunch of guys from the Red Barrel Room then moved on to the Four Seasons Hotel house band when it first opened. Later I began playing on the Hotel Vancouver’s Convention Floor regularly. It seemed in those days there was a big band gig every Friday and Saturday night with Brian Bolam or Vern MacLaughlin as leaders. Much playing was done with Greg Hurst and Dal Richards and numerous groups back in those day. It was great way to pay your way through university – doing what you loved.

Charlie Stowell was amazing! I was chosen to do my practicum with Charlie in Powell River. He was at the top of the list for a fifth year

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practicum. He loved to drink and eat well and it seemed that my entire stay there was a test of both knowledge and endurance. You couldn’t get a seat at his table unless you could answer a quiz question based on some obscure musical fact. “No plate until you tell me the transposition for the english horn.” He was quite a character and a very talented man. When I met him in 1978 he wasn’t teaching much anymore. He was working as a District Coordinator of Music. Charlie had passed on much of his knowledge to Jon Stromquist. Jon was an amazing music teacher as well. He had soaked up information from Charlie and put it to use in the Powell River band program. Jon was peerless in his knowledge of band and instrumental pedagogy and later I tried to emulate his refined sound that came with balancing bands from bottom to top along with a balance of cylindrical and conical bore brass instruments.

One story I remember clearly is when I first arrived at Charlie’s house.

I noticed a big garden in the back. One morning I was asleep in one of the spare bedrooms. All of a sudden, Boom! There is a shotgun blast. I woke up to see Charlie leaning over my bed and out my open window.

He had just blasted this crow out of his garden and looked quite proud of himself. Dead crows were often hung from fence posts around the garden to discourage others. I guess it was just another typical Powell River wake up call. Charlie developed the Powell River band program.

He brought in excellent band directors like Jon and Travis McDonough in order to build a tradition of excellence. I found my two week practi-

256 ~ Nancy Stowell

cum to be incredibly organized – although looking back I’m sure hiswife Nancy Stowell had a hand in this. (Nancy was a superb choral director in the district.) The practicum had multiple pages of an itinerary that covered basically every minute of the day for the entire two weeks: where to go, what to do, and when to do it. The whole Powell River music team was my adviser with Charlie at the head.

Eventually we followed the same blueprint at D.W. Poppy. We worked with the elementary band programs and after the government cuts, taught these kids ourselves. Our principals were very supportive and would pay for or share the cost of our teaching time at the feeder schools. Over the years I taught elementary band at North Otter, Otter, Lochiel, and Wix-Brown. Mike Molloy covered Peterson Road during his stay at Poppy.

D.W. Poppy Secondary I had a number of options of schools to go to in 1978. I believe doing a practicum with Charlie Stowell had a lot to do with this. I survived fifth year teacher training at UBC and my Music Education Advisor once said to me, “Don’t you want to be a big fish in a small pond.?”

Well, Langley was a big pond in those days with a very progressive music program. Against his advice I took the job at Poppy. Langley operated on a whole district approach, coordinated by District Music

MARK KOWALENKO ~ 257

Supervisor, Rae Featherstonhaugh and Assistant Supervisor, John White.

Rae worked hard at getting the best recruits from UBC to teach in Langley with Gerry King at Langley Secondary School and Marty Summers at Aldergrove Secondary already in the fold. Band was taught in every elementary school. At that time D.W. Poppy had Grades 8 through 10 but I knew it was soon going to become Grades 8 through 12 with hopefully a new band room in the planned expansion project. I believe it was in phase two of the expansion project that the new music room was completed. My principal, Dale Halcrow, gave me the opportunity to contribute an incredible amount of input into the design of the facility right down to submitting my own sketches to the architects and having them draw them up formally. There isn’t a parallel wall in the building and the acoustics are excellent.

When I arrived at Poppy there was a grade 8 band and a grade 9 and 10 band, a few guitar courses and an extracurricular jazz band. I taught a couple of math courses to have a full teaching load. Over the years the jazz band program expanded to include a grade 8 jazz band, a junior jazz band (grade 9’s), an intermediate jazz band (mainly grade 10’s) and a senior jazz band (mainly grades 11 and 12). We also had a junior concert band, an intermediate concert band and a senior concert band plus music composition 11 and 12 courses. I tried my best to establish a large choral program but it wasn’t actually my forte. The choir program was built over the years by Gerry King, Colleen Giddings, Dave Fullerton,

258 ~ Nanaimo Windjammers

Angelo Pandolfo and really came into its own under the direction of John Nikkel and Mike Molloy with the addition of the Poppy Chorale, Junior and Senior Chamber Singers and Poppy Vox (Mike’s vocal jazz group).

One of my jazz band mentors was Tommy Banks. He guided me in my younger years with extra adjudications and valuable advice. Another was Bryan Stovell in Nanaimo. He was like the godfather of jazz bands in BC. His group “The “Nanaimo Windjammers” were a constant feature in the finals of the New Westminster Jazz Festival. In the early days (and probably throughout my career) I was pretty intense and high strung. I remember him saying to me once at the New West Jazz, “Mark, breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.”It helped.

Poppy groups went on a tour each year. All students in the program would be involved in either a junior or senior tour and sometimes an extra trip to a festival or conference such as the trip to Quebec City for the Nationals (pre-MusicFest) in 1985. Senior tours included: Ottawa, Toronto, four trips to Banff for the Festival of the Arts, five trips to California and six or seven trips to MusicFest in various cities. The California tours were particularly loved by the students. Over the years I had made some contacts with music teachers in towns on the way: Roseburg, Salem, Eugene, Cottage Grove, Santa Rosa. We would come and stay for a few days and put on concerts at their schools and their feeder schools then head on down to the next stop for more of the same.

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Disneyland would offer the opportunity for more concerts and, of course, the rides and attractions. To save money on accommodation we took a 24 hour straight haul back to Langley. Three teams of drivers were used to get us home safe and sound. I got to know some amazing teachers in the U.S: Jeff Scott in Roseburg was one, Stan Fields in Cottage Grove was another. Our kids enjoyed getting to know their kids and vice versa.

Sometimes a festival was the ultimate destination on tour. Once in Santa Jose, California, we won a trophy for the best music program in the festival. It was so large it was taller than a number of our students and had to ride home in the bathroom of the bus.

We always seemed to do well at music festivals. I remember the junior and senior jazz bands winning the Surrey Jazz, the Kiwanis Jazz, and the New Westminster Jazz Festivals a number of times and receiving Gold Awards at MusicFest. Over the years the senior concert band received many Gold Awards at the Coquitlam and Kiwanis Music Festivals as well as at MusicFest. These were truly talented, hardworking kids who took pride in their group’s performances and the tradition established by previous Poppy students.

In addition to the tours and festivals the groups had a very busy schedule at Poppy. Each year included a fall, Christmas, spring and Final Concert/Awards Ceremony which were well attended by parents. Elementary concerts and sometimes visits by the elementary band students were scheduled. Poppy students seemed to be the best recruiters for the

260~ Lynne Robinson

program at course selection time. There were also district band, jazz band, choral, and vocal jazz nights where students could see their peers from other schools perform. The whole school seemed to get involved in the musical productions of Dracula Baby, Annie, Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story and Grease. Our Music Parents Auxiliary organized fundraisers for the program and all the money went into individual student accounts to help pay for their tours. I don’t know what we would have done without those hard working groups of parents. One of the highlights of the year was the Rollathon, and later the Musicathon. The Rollathon consisted of roller skating all night at the old Stardust rink in Surrey and cultivating blisters on your feet. The Musicathon was basically the same but playing and singing and getting blisters on the lips.

Great times!

Poppy wasn’t a big school, usually around 1000 students. The jazz students had to be enrolled in concert band to qualify for the jazz band and the same was true of vocal jazz students and concert choir. There was also a large crossover between band and choir with some students being involved in as many as four or five groups. I know this was a major contributing factor to the strength of the program. The students became well-rounded musicians during their years at school. I considered myself more of a traditionalist than an innovator. Electronic music technology was beginning to make an appearance but frankly I didn’t seem to have much of an aptitude for it and the kids were already way

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ahead of me. I left them to their own devices and stuck with a traditional program.

After graduation many of the kids went on to become music teachers or music directors. Some became professional or semi-professional musicians and a number have found music related careers. I am extremely proud to have been associated with all the students from the Poppy Music Program.

Over the years I seemed to develop the reputation as the jazz band guy. In fact, I worked hard with the Poppy concert bands and they developed into some of the best groups that Poppy has ever produced. They were modeled after the Powell River concept (conical and cylindrical bore balance and complete instrumentation).The traditional repertoire of the New Westminster and District Band (Kerry Turner) plus my high school, Burnaby South (Lynne Robinson) provided a guide for my selection of music. I made it a point of listening to other groups in festivals and learning from them. One, in particular, was Bob Rebagliati‘s groups from Handsworth. They always had a refined and controlled sound. At Poppy the instrumental jazz program flourished as a result of a strong traditional concert band program and the vocal jazz because of the traditional choir program. I believe a program cannot be built and developed without concentrating on the traditional groups and I would love to be remembered as much for Poppy’s concert bands as its jazz bands.

Problems continue today with running a music program. I feel a

262 ~ Cam Gesy and Les Dukowski

major loss was the elimination of the District Music Supervisor positions. It was like cutting off the head and allowing the body to die. Supervisors advised the school programs and coordinated district events that made these programs stronger. These people were qualified to actively recruit new music teachers. The problem of maintaining the elementary programs came as a result of cuts to education. Elementary principals simply could not afford the cost of a band specialist and the cost of the program that went with it. In fact secondary schools were feeling the same pressures. Also, with the additional courses made mandatory by our government, students had less room to fit in elective courses. It is a miracle that secondary school music programs actually survived. I am in debt to the forward thinking administrators at Poppy (particularly Cam Gesy and Les Dukowski) for setting up and maintaining a system in which my students could take credit music courses outside of the timetable. This enabled them to take all their required courses within the timetable. Furthermore, myself and all the teachers who taught with me and our students owe a debt of gratitude to Poppy administrators throughout the years. Not once did we have to fundraise for the instruments, music, repairs, equipment or supplies that were required in order to run the program. Your support was incredible. Thank you!

After twenty years teaching concert band and jazz band at D. W. Poppy, enough in the way of stress and strain, I switched to math and retired in 2009.

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Dave in Cuba with his award winning Semiahmoo Jazz Band

19 Dave Proznick Back Story

Dave was playing with the Dave Douglas Quartet at the Sheraton Hotel in Edmonton when he read an ad in a local newspaper (the Herald in 1974) for a band director in Surrey, B.C. “Come out, we’ll take you,” Pete said. No interview, just a phone interview. Dave had been married a year. It was Pete Kinvig who had placed the advertisement. At first Dave said, “No but maybe I will give you a call next summer.” “I cannot guarantee you the position will be available.” So Dave gave notice to the band on a Wednesday, left Saturday night, arrived in Surrey Monday and Tuesday morning was in the classroom.

266 ~ Lorna Graham

Dave Proznick started teaching music in the Saskatchewan school system in 1962 when he was eighteen, right out of high school. He had been playing in a small combo from the age of fourteen in the small community of Wynyard, Saskatchewan. It was an Iclandic/Ukranian community near Yorkton. The parents of the small town were pushing to get band into the schools. Because he was known as the music kid he was hired for the job. After one year, he quit and joined the Navy. He wound up at Naden in the fall of 1963-64. He had been playing trumpet since the age of nine (ten years) but they said, “We don’t need trumpets.

Here is a clarinet.” So he started to learn the clarinet taking private lessons with a staff sargeant. He did it for one year and hated it so he asked to be released. He had signed up for seven years. He got an honorable discharge. The good side was he learned to play all the woodwinds: clarinet, alto saxophone, flute, tenor and baritone saxophone. He worked in a bank for a year and then decided to go back to school at the University of Regina where he enrolled in their Bachelor of Music program. He conducted the university choir.

After a year, he left in 1966 and worked for R.J. Staples as the Assistant Music Director for Canora. He just wanted to be out in the field and involved in music. The following year he became the Assistant Music Director for Yorkton, Saskatchewan. He developed the slogan: “Success in music means success in life!”

Dave realized that the skills involved in playing a musical instrument

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are the same as life skills. He worked in Yorkton for three years. His job was to introduce elementary school music into all the elementary schools. He used an American program called: “Making Music Your Own..” The country schools all had sweet old ladies in dresses that weren’t going to get down on all four and quack like a duck so Dave did! He received a good budget. He bought a record player. Once every two weeks he demonstrated the program in the classroom. There were a lot of, “Who does this young fellow think he is telling me what to do?

I have been teaching for twenty-three years!” Dave believed that every student deserves an exposure to music. You had to be creative to teach grade seven farm boys. He played them sound tracks from the movies and asked them to tell him what the scene might be.

When Dave arrived in Surrey he spent five years teaching band at Newton Junior Secondary School. He developed a three level guitar program and also taught choir. In 1980 he became the Music Director for Princess Margaret Secondary. He worked on a letter of permission.

It took him eight years to get his certificate. Each summer they had to advertise his position. He was the lowest paid music teacher in the country. In the early days he would react to teaching band at 7 am by saying, “When the science teacher teaches his course at 7 am, I will too!” All the band directors in those days had to fight for what they got. Others who were in Surrey the same time as Dave were Bob Labonte, Bob and Lorna Graham and Ted Gergley.

268 ~ Ted Gergeley

Semiahmoo Senior Secondary (1961- 1990) In 1986 Dave Proznick was recruited away from Princess Margaret Secondary in Surrey where he had been teaching for the previous five years to teach band at Semiahmoo Senior Secondary. He had a grade eight concert band and a grade nine concert band. There was also a choir director. A Mr. Baker was the band director before David arrived.

Ed Youngburger was the principal.

Dave took his bands to Music Fest 86 which was held in Vancouver that year because it was the year of Expo 86. They played on the stage in the rain in False Creek. He was always attending clinics trying to make his bands better and better. David’s bands played in the New West Jazz Festival where he met the now legendary Hal Sherman (Kent Meridian High School, Kent Washington). Hal was an adjudicator at the festival.

White Rock Junior Secondary (1961 - 1990) In 1986 Dave Proznick (in addition to teaching at Semiahmoo Sr. Sec.), ran an extracurricular jazz band and concert band (Grade 9 & 10) at White Rock Junior Secondary. Ted Gergeley was the VP at White Rock Junior and already led a jazz band during normal hours. Ted Gergeley came from Nelson. Officially the VP, Ted spent most of his time in the band room because he loved music so much.

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Semiahmoo High School (1990 - present) By 1990 when both schools came together as Semiahmoo High School, Dave Proznick had built a highly successful, award winning band program. In the 1990s one of his band parents who was a lawyer and had three sons in David’s jazz bands found the band a benefactor. His line of work was the placement of money. He knew a developer in the area who offered $35,000 a year for five years to build his band programs.

The money could be used for whatever they needed.

As a result Dave was able to make five major trips with his bands plus a lot of smaller ones. The trips were to: New Orleans, San Francisco in 1999, Reno, Cuba in 2001 and they also went on a jazz cruise.

Dave didn’t do this single-handedly! Kevin Lee was a student attending North Surrey Secondary and played trumpet in their band when David arrived on the Surrey scene in 1974. The two hit it off and when Dave heard that Kevin had gone back to school he hired him and Henry Christian as well as others after they graduated.

Over the years Dave’s own kids went through his band program. Jodi Proznick played bass and later went to McGill University. Kelly Proznick is now the band director at Vincent Massey in New Westminster.

Tim Proznick is a drummer. He graduated in 1999 and played in the honor jazz band. He later went on a scholarship to Humber College in Toronto.

270 ~ Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival

One of Dave’s teaching techniques was to develop lots of self directed combos: pick your music, pick your players, pick a time, book a room and ask for opinions if you wish. When he took his older band kids to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Idaho he would usually have from 12 to 14 entries. It was the same thing with Music Fest. The first time he met Diana Krall was at the Idaho Festival. He had a travel agent in town who always booked him a block of rooms at a Motor Inn in Moscow where all the stars stayed: Ray Brown, Lionel and his band members.

To get his kids into traveling, he always took his 9th graders first to the Okanagan on an over-nighter to teach them how to behave on the road. grade 8s didn’t travel. When he took his grade 10, 11 and 12s they rented two buses. In Idaho they always brought back drum sets, trumpets and instruments. There was so much corporate sponsorship down there that they were giving instruments away. Today he says it is not the same. Due to budgets the winning band doesn’t play to large crowds of 10,000 people anymore. There are not as many corporate gifts either.

Once David’s son Tim played a solo that lasted eight minutes (five minutes was the limit). The adjudicators were quite upset. David thought he was going to be fired!

Lots of kids (including his own) who have gone through his program have gone on to careers in music. Probably the most famous, though, Dave says would be Derek Charke. He wrote 47 pieces of music for

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Dave’s band when he was still a student at Semihamoo. CISL (radio station) offered a $10,000 scholarship (cash & equipment). Derek won it! It was a talent contest. He is now a composer at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. Derek went to North Texas and then the Royal Academy of Music in London. When David retired in 2003 Derek wrote him an Inuvik Song. He couldn’t travel to Surrey so David’s daughters put together a small band made up of students David had run summer clinics for him at Courtney-Comox, Pentiction and Kwantlen: Cam Regan, Dennis Essen, Brad Turner.

For twenty years Dave ran two and one week summer jazz camps for his students. Phil Nimmons used to run the Courtney-Comox camp.

None of them exist anymore. Courtney-Comox is still going strong but as a local island school.

In 1995, Dave’s band program won Jazz Report Magazine’s (a Toronto magazine) award for “High School Jazz Program of the Year.”

That same year he won the B.C. Music Educators “Outstanding Music Teacher award (Secondary).” Over the years his bands won several Outstanding High School Jazz Musician awards from DOWNBEAT magazine. His students won awards as well. In 1993 the MUSICFEST General Motors Award went to Jodi Proznick. Two Yamaha Rising Star awards from MUSICFEST CANADA went to Kavan Manson and Jillian Lebeck in 1996 and 1997 (Both are now jazz recording artists). At the Mid-West Clinic for music teachers in Chicago in 1997 Dave won

272 ~ Dagan Lowe

the John Philip Sousa “Legion of Honour” award. He received invitations to bring performing groups to the Mid-West Clinic in Chicago and the IAJE Conference (Jazz Educators) in Miami in 1998 and 1999.

In 1998 David won the Paul Harris Fellowship award from the Rotary for work with youth developing leadership skills through music programs in the community. In 2001 he received the Outstanding Community Contribution –Arts-Education-Culture award from the White Rock-South Surrey Chamber of Commerce. In 2003 won the prestigious Keith Mann Outstanding Band Director Award. This is a memorial plaque given to one director only in all of Canada each year. It was started in 2002 by MUSICFEST Canada in honor of Keith Mann, a director who died in 2002. In February of 2007 David was inducted into Envision Jazz Festival’s “Hall of Fame” in the “educator” category to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the festival. In 2010 David received the SURREY TREASURE AWARD for leadership and service in the arts in Surrey for the past 38 years.

In 2015, Dave remains very active adjudicating festivals, administering and teaching at summer jazz camps, substitute teaching, directing musicals and working as a clinician. For more than thirty years he has been the music director for the United Church and the choral instructor for the “White Rock Singers” and “Six O’Clock Jazz.”

Semiahmoo is the only school in Canada to have two band directors

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win this prestigious Outstanding Band Director Award. Dave Fullerton who took over the program after Dave and retired in 2012, also won it in 2011 for his involvement with MusicFest Canada.

Today, Dagan Lowe is the Department Head. He runs the band program at Semiahmoo High School with the aid of Kevin Lee and Greg Farrugia (Teacher of IB Music).

Just before this book went to press (October 2016), Dave was awarded an honorary doctorate by Kwantlen University in Surrey for a lifetime dedicated to teaching music. I hear he will now be known as Dr. Proz to all!

20 Dave Fullerton Back Story

I grew up in North Kamloops when there were very few paved roads.

Cattle were driven past our front door and they would stick their heads through the fence rails to grab their last mouthfuls of grass on the way to the stockyards, the railway and on to the dinner plates of the nation.

It was a hockey town with rinks in everyone’s backyard and even in the school yard. So, my friends and I skated before breakfast, recess, lunch hour, after school and then after dinner under flood lights. I wish I had practiced an instrument like that. They say boys don’t like to sing but I did and so did all my friends, including the ones who made it into the

276 ~ Ray Thompson

NHL! I sang at school and at church. Though under protest, I took piano lessons from a kindly old lady who now, upon reflexion, looked very much like Queen Victoria. Thanks, Mom. I remember a day at elementary school when they administered the Seashore Musical Aptitude Test. Twenty kids were offered free violin lessons with the Principal and annoyingly, it seemed at the time, I was one of them. Our Principal had succeeded in being a rather scary man and as such I was rather disinclined to accept any volunteered time with him, Seashore Test notwithstanding. However, when they told me I would have to miss Math class Monday mornings to do this, I do recall saying yes immediately. So, I took a year of violin lessons with the Principal, ironically or perhaps as a sign of the times, he was also the person, later that same year, from whom I took firearms training. I remember clearly how he laid the guns across the front desks of my grade seven class room. At the end of the course they loaded us into the back of an open pickup truck and drove us out to a local church west of town. The target range was in the basement of that church.

When my family moved down to the coast I thought nothing of signing up for choir eight. My teacher was Mr. Peter Stigings, now “the venerable” for sure in his “Rookie Year” no less. The School was Sir Frederick Banting, a school that would have such significance for me later. I remember Mr. Stigings placing a sheet of paper before me, and

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in his low voice asking me to write down which band instrument I wanted to play. Still confused that I wasn’t going to be singing, I wrote “trumpet,” because it was the only instrument I thought I could spell without embarrassing myself. So the hockey playing singer, reluctant violinist and pianist becomes a trumpet player.

A couple of years and three band teachers later, I was at Centennial Secondary, a school with 2600 students and, at 1100, a school possessing the largest graduating class in the province. My Director was Mr. Ray Thompson. Two of my classmates, Jim Bryson and Mike Angell, went on to become career band directors as well. Upon reflection, their choice would not have been a surprise to any of our bandmates, but I think they would have been surprised to hear that I would become one.

I don’t remember being a great trumpet player though I was one of the three in Bugler’s Holiday and one of the four trumpets perched high in a corner of our gym for Remembrance Day observances. I understand this became a tradition and one that has lasted to this day. I was also a member of a featured vocal group.

But I wanted to be a scientist. After graduation in 1969 I was accepted at SFU as a Science Major. The university was a hotbed of political intrigue in those days. Soon after arrival all the Arts students were behind self erected picket lines and my Linguistics Teaching Assistant, for reasons now long forgotten, went on a hunger strike. All my Science

278 ~ David Whitely

courses went ahead as scheduled. No self respecting “Science Major” wore flowers in their hair. I was not, it turned out, to be inspired by my studies and I decided to make a change. These days they call it a “gap year” but back then it was called “a year back-packing in Europe”.

However, I was reasonably certain that if I took a year off, I would never come back to attend school of any sort. Truth was, I didn’t really like school much so I thought I’d best study something that would inspire me to really dig in.

I auditioned to the Music Department at UBC in 1970. I realize now how lucky I was to be admitted although I knew the first day that I was at home. I loved the music, loved the people and spent every lunch in the Music Department Theatre listening to daily concerts. That time at UBC spawned an amazing number of people who became prominent in both educational and professional circles: Gerry King, Keith Woodward, Mark Kowalenko, Marty and Karen Summers (all from Lynn Robinson’s program at South Burnably Secondary). Also there were Bob Rebagliati, Dave Michel, Mike Angell, Jim Bryson. Fred Stride and Mike Revely (who would go on to found the first jazz band programs at UBC and Capilano College respectively). Brian Lillos went on to be an outstanding secondary music educator and then a founding father of the Humber Jazz program. David Whitely, Dave Pickell, Chris Millard and Tom Keenlyside have had pro careers in Vancouver. Hardly

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“stellar” in this crowd, I did, however, discover my ears were at least “decent” and I survived to get my degree in 1974. Due to an unlucky happenstance with a dental accident I was unable to continue with trumpet and spent two years singing, first with Choral Union under Dr. Hugh McLean and then with the University Singers under Jim Schell. I studied voice with James Frankhauser. I would have to say now that my choral experience at UBC was the highlight of my experience there. I am still a singer at heart I guess. In those days no one ever talked about being a teacher but when grad approached, most of my friends headed to the Education Dept. for a professional year.

I did my month long February practicum at Killarney Secondary with Al Weins and Gary McGill. I taught Al’s complete instrumental load and all of Gary’s choral classes (half load). It was “sink or swim” so I bought some “teacher clothes,” a car and jumped into the deep end. It was daunting. All the bands were very large and the room not well treated for sound. In those days Killarney Secondary had the highest rate of juvenile delinquency of all the schools in Greater Vancouver though I don’t remember ever really sensing that in my classes.

Ken Osterreicher, later a colleague, was a grade 12 student that year. I came home exhausted and frustrated most days but felt that the Killarney band room held more “life” than anywhere I had ever been. It was huge energy and hundreds of personalities all coming “at you.” I was

280 ~

“hooked.” I decided then to become a band teacher. I learned later that Al and Gary had told UBC they didn’t want a student teacher that year.

I owe so much to them for taking me.

Upon completion of my professional year Dennis Tupman aggressively pursued me for David Thompson Secondary in the Vancouver School District. He seemed to be so confident that I would be able to teach band 8-12, choir 8-12, guitar 8-12 and then a full slate of the dreaded “General Music”. Intimidated? Yes. I think I would probably have burned out by Christmas. Dennis went on to become Canada’s most authoritative and passionate spokespersons on behalf of Music Education. I still cringe each time I think that I said no to that man.

Luckily, it was a time of plentiful opportunities with many interviews and job offerings. I was offered a job in Coquitlam at Sir Charles Best Secondary. I had interviewed at Sir Frederick Banting that same day and, hard to believe now, was cheeky enough to suggest to the Assistant Superintendent that he speak to the Principal there before going any further. Twenty minutes later he phoned back and offered me that job.

Banting was my old alma mater and I didn’t really want to go back to where I had once been a student preferring rather to strike out on my own, but the school’s timetable was truly remarkable. Upon acceptance, I became the first former student to return “on staff”. I never thought to check until recently but thanks to Google I now know that “Welcome

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Back Fullerton” began on September 2, 1975 a full seven days before Gabe Kaplan played the lead role in the TV series “Welcome Back, Kotter” (John Travolta’s debut).

The timetable: I had my grade 8’s every second day and my 9’s and 10’s everyday all year long. No one has that now. Students in virtually every B.C. school take 8 courses. At Banting they took ten. This meant one or two music courses could be taken concurrently with the normal full slate of 8 courses. There was no elementary band in Coquitlam so it was an explosive start for sure but it offered lots of control over instrumentation and a chance for strong unification of basic concepts. I was assigned guitar 8 as well but from the first day planned its demise. There were four classes of grade 8’s. By the end of my first year, 3 Guitar 8 blocks and 1 Band 8 block transformed into one guitar 8 and three band 8 groups. To make sure that there could never be a return to the previous system I offered the guitars as a gift to another school, the only condition being that they NEVER GAVE THEM BACK! I had taken over a terrific program from Vic Kliewer. The Grade 10 students instantly knew I was a complete rookie. Most were kind. Some were not. Vic had been pretty good and they knew it. The 9’s came on board. The 8’s were all mine. I won a festival category that very first year in 1976. It was a miracle accomplished by a very special group of kids. We played in the “Beginners Seven Months or less” category in

282 ~ Janine Webster

the Coquitlam Music Festival and we were pitted against several very seasoned band directors. It started me off in good standing with colleagues at the school, and made me feel that perhaps I could do this.

Recently I travelled to Tasmania and stayed with a member of that first band at Banting. Upon arrival she walked up to me, gave me a big hug and said, “Hi, Mr. F. I still don’t practice.” I said, “Sue, you don’t need to practice. I taught you how to read.” I arrived in Hobart on a Wednesday afternoon and with a borrowed saxophone was in rehearsal with her community band that evening. Three days later I was marching with Sue and her band on Anzac Day. As was common then my first band trip was an exchange style experience. The school was Valley View Jr. Secondary in Kamloops with Dick Dickens as director. I learned so much from him: what a band is supposed to look like and how a band conducts itself on tour. Those were huge lessons. Thanks, Dick. RIP! I remember the day they left. In the corner of my band room, waiting patiently to depart was his grade nine oboist, Janine Webster. Today, Janine is close to retirement now. She is a multi award winning colleague in the Chilliwack School District.

Banting’s timetable allowed me time to learn my craft. Frank Roemer, my Principal, taught me what a supportive administration was truly like.

He used to tell me, “You can’t teach them if you don’t get them in the timetable. Golden words for any band teacher. He also said,”Dave, you

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have to speak a lot more on the microphone at your concerts.” I was shy….then.

I had an unknowing mentor in my early years that I would like to acknowledge. It was Dave Dunnett, legendary music educator at Oak Bay High School. I married one of his top students and as experienced music educators know, your top students “get” it all, even probably things they shouldn’t. I have both utilized and spread the “methods and wisdom” of one of Canada’s finest music educators. Thanks so much Dave ….and Megan.

For many years Banting were regular winners (and non-winners) in the Coquitlam and District Music Festival, the Vancouver Kiwanis Festival and the New Westminster Jazz Festival. We competed against ensembles directed by Bob Rebagliati, Bob Schaefer, Gerry Quan, Curt Jantzen, Mike Angell, Jim Bryson, Pat Kostyk and Bob Crispen.

I learned so much from listening to Gerry King’s bands when he was at Langley Secondary School. I was hosting the concert band classes of the CDMF at my school and after my 7-9pm Tuesday evening rehearsal I wandered down to the gym to see who was there. Gerry’s band was about to begin the Show Category. I had no idea an ensemble could look or sound like that. I could hardly breathe for twenty minutes. Dr. Wayne Gorder’s Wind Ensemble at Western Washington University, Hal Sherman’s Kent-Meridian Jazz Ensemble, David Dunnett’s Tour Band

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at Oak Bay Secondary. John Trepp’s chamber choir. - these were inspiring groups and I am grateful to them. I have so many colleagues to thank and so many Festival organizers to thank as well for giving all of us a chance to hear such groups. Bob Schaefer’s Hyack NW Jazz Festival and Bob Labonte’s Surrey Jazz Festival provided pivotal experiences for learning. We really need to hear our colleagues’ work and, in my option, nothing makes you or your students pay attention more than having a “winner” declared. It tells you who to pay special attention to. As I have heard Kevin Lee say to his students, ”Memorize the sound”.

I did not personally have any real jazz background. In university I played in Bob Labonte’s “Raw Sewage” but it was more “Chicago” and “Blood Sweat and Tears” than Count Basie. When I started doing jazz at Banting I bought tunes that had demo recordings and endeavored to make my group sound like them. In 1979-80 I had an ambitious group.

We listened together to that silly plastic recording of “Nice and Easy” on an old crappy turntable and kept trying it again until we thought we had it. I will never forget the intensity of that group. From placing second to last the year before, I will never forget the numbness I felt sitting in my seat in the Massey Auditorium and hearing my group named First Place. We had 10 days to raise the $13,000 to accept the invitation to the Canadian Stage Band Festival in Ottawa….and new charts to learn.

Back in the day few bands were given invitations to the Nationals. Ban-

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ting did it in 1980, ’82 and ’84 and became a jazz leader in Coquitlam District. I helped initiate the District Jazz Festival and was honoured to be called back to adjudicate with Alan Matheson.

I recall one event very well. Charlie Stowell (who taught at Max Cameron Secondary in Powell River) gave a talk at the B.C.M.E.A. He spoke on and on and on….talking at length about each instrument, about balancing instrumentation, about levels of discipline….on and on. On the way out I overheard one young colleague say to another, “Well, that was sure a long boring piece of crap.” My right hand was cramped from all the notes I had taken. He was giving “perspective and scope”. I was ready to hear….They were not.

Another big influence on me was Hal Sherman of Kent Meridian fame, whom I consider to be my jazz band mentor. I signed up for the Directors’ session at the New West Summer Jazz Clinic run by Bob Schaefer and Bob Rebagliati. Three of us spent a week with Hal, three hours a day. In school I was the kid who sat at the back and didn’t ask questions. It became apparent to me that the other two weren’t going to ask any questions so I stepped out of my box and up to the plate. I asked a million questions and yes, some days I’m sure I tested Hal to the limits of his patience, but did I ever learn from him! A couple of years later Hal was the guest director for the BCMEA Honour Jazz Band. I jumped at the opportunity to serve as co-ordinator hoping that I would have a

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chance to see him in action. It’s one thing to hear the finished product and to hear the stories but it’s worth gold to watch a master at work starting from scratch and ending up with pure magic.

I developed a number of my signature concepts while at Banting: “the four minute counting test”, “jazz is an accented style, “wedges and footballs”, “delay”, “stick with the stick”, student service through a band executive, a band social calendar and a band sound crew. The tradition of the Tuesday night rehearsal for grades 9&10 and its mandatory attendance regime started here. It was “show up or die” for over a quarter century and those rehearsals were, by far, the most outstanding and inspiring of the week.

I wanted the challenge of teaching my students past Gr10 so in September 1984, after nine years at Banting, I accepted a job at D.W. Poppy in Langley. I spent a great year with Mark Kowalenko but having run my own program for so long I found it very different indeed. Thanks to Mark for all his patience.

In the spring of 1985, I received a call from my friend Bob Crispen in Abbotsford. There had been a sort of “mutual admiration” about our bands’ sound for a number of years. Bob and his family were moving to Arizona where his wife was from. He asked me if I would take over his program at Abbotsford Junior Secondary. George Perry, later Abbotsford’s Mayor, was the principal. He assigned me five band blocks

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with two spares adding “You got what you wanted, Fullerton, now produce.”

In my second year (1987) my jazz band gave his school a First Place at the Canadian Stage Band Festival, the last year in which a “winner” was declared. Words I will never forget him saying to staff, “Fullerton’s bands have filled a trophy case this year. He has brought more hardware into the school than the entire PE department combined.” I sank under the table. AJSS were the Provincial Football Champions that year with a linebacker row that averaged 210 pounds! Much of our success was due to an outstanding young tenor sax player in my band. His name was Terry Deane. During his time in my program he offered leadership in addition to musicianship. He expanded my listening and challenged my ears. At thirteen years old he sounded like he’d played in jazz clubs for 25 years. After his Gr 9 year he was offered the lead tenor position with Dave Bardhun’s All American Collegiate Jazz Band for its six week European Tour. His fellow “Turk” that he used to practice with was Seamus Blake. I play sax now largely because of him.

Abby Senior Secondary was located just across the football field and we “shared” Gr 10 students between us. I discovered that George wanted a winning music program to help keep his top gr10’s from being “lured” across the field to the Pre International Baccalaureate program….and it worked but it was the undoing of the music program. The

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9’s stayed for Gr 10 but when they did leave for Gr 11, the bonds were too strong for the grade behind them….and they left with them. My success was to be my own undoing.

I received a call from Curt Jantzen telling me he was leaving his school to become the new music helping teacher for Surrey and would I like to take over the band program at Cloverdale Jr. Sec. He told me the school would be amalgamating with a rebuilt Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary. With a scheduled completion in three years I would have an opportunity to design the new music complex. With Abby Jr. in shambles I jumped at the opportunity. However, three years became six.

There were huge “challenges” with design and construction. I am very proud, however, to say that six new Surrey schools show signs of my original design. Thanks to Mike Angell and Mark Kowalenko for their suggestions and sending blueprints from their recent constructions at Walnut Grove Secondary and D.W.Poppy. Curt Jantzen was our “fearless leader” in Surrey until he retired and was also co-chair of the Envision Jazz Festival with Bob Labonte. Curt possessed an uncanny ability to survive when colleagues in similar positions throughout the province were being declared redundant. Thanks Curt!

It was a tumultuous time when we finally moved in. The amalgamated Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary grew from 18 music students to 285 students filling 330 performance spots. With additional staff staunchly

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refused, I relied on students to run some of the after school rehearsals.

My principal offered that “students have much more im-portant courses to take in high school than band”. The new band room was not finished until well into the school year. In the old band room we suffered months of “chilly” rehearsals until my convincing threat to convene classes in the cafeteria prompted a proper diagnosis of the problem. It seems that during the demolition of part of the old school they had cut the natural gas line to the old band room furnace. The furnace was running all the time, furiously blowing outside air into my band room.

During this time a colleague and friend, Joe Crosara, taught our feeder programs and strongly promoted the LTSS program sending me a hundred enthusiastic kids each year. I can’t thank him enough. He did the same for Semiahmoo. The need for additional staff continued to grow and I was pleased to work with three colleagues over the next six years. Lois Martinson, Tom Kellough-Pollack and Jade Gurlak joined the LTSS music dept. team, each for two years. They were great years with tours throughout western Canada and to Disneyland. We did band camps with guest conductor Don Murray, legendary director who had taught at North Surrey Secondary. Don holds the Order of Canada for his work with young musicians. For several years there was a “love affair” at band camp between Don and my students as he worked his “magic.” “Pines of the Appian Way” with Don Murray at the podium

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will never be forgotten by my any of us.

An unforgettable memory was when we performed the “1812 Overture,” complete with pyrotechnics. We did this “indoors” with a pyrotechnician licensed to do this safely. I recall glancing around at my principal just before the downbeat. She looked like she was glaring at me….though I think she was actually seeing her career flashing before her eyes.

In 1999 we applied to and were accepted by a German government program to perform at Expo 2000 in Hanover. I had sent them an audio recording plus a photo of the band with a spectacular mountain backdrop taken at the Rocky Mountain Music Festival. How Canadian was that? I thought…and perhaps shades of the Bavarian Alps? There was huge excitement…huge fundraising for two years.

Our host band was from Havixbeck, Germany and though called a “Youth Band” we learned upon arrival that their principal clarinet was 28 years old and had a law degree. We also learned that their community facility had a pub in the basement and that they considered it bad luck “not” to have a beverage to celebrate every rehearsal and every performance. Despite this difference of age and circumstance, the groups connected well as did my students with their host families. After the initial ten days in Havixbeck the departure of the two bands for Hanover and Expo 2000 was very emotional. Even after 16 years I understand

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that there is still lots of contact. Our show went extremely well, we were assured by the technical crew, drawing in and keeping 1500 spectators on a rather cool Tuesday night. I was given a copy of the telegram sent to Ottawa stating that “the entertainment ranking of the Canadian Pavillion has risen from very low to one of the top three at the Exposition, all the more amazing because it was accomplished by a group of amateur high school musicians from Surrey B.C.” I was very proud.

We were assigned a hostess from the Canadian Pavillion and I soon learned she also worked for a government funding body called Heritage Canada. I lamented to her that a few of our members were unable to come with us due to financial concerns. She was embarrassed when I explained that the strongest financial supporter of these young musicians was, in fact, the German rather than the Canadian government.

Once she heard the band play she went to work. The next day, after our Jazz Band performance, (attended by Canada’s High Commissioner), we were given a “Red Carpet” reception at our Pavillion. While the students were singing “O Canada” with tears in their eyes and autographing a Canadian flag bearing only our signatures and those of Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, I was ushered into a back room. They informed me that I would be applying for a grant from the Canadian government and that it was already approved in the amount of $20,000! I think I had tears in my eyes. Truth was, we always

292 ~ Envisions Jazz Festival

offered financial help to our members. No one was left behind for financial reasons. I had been just trying to make a point.

Drastic reduction in enrolment caused by the construction of two new schools prompted me to follow my strongest “feeder neighbourhood” to the new Sullivan Heights Secondary with its 1100 seat state of the art Bell Performing Arts Theatre. It was, however, a case of “out of the fat and into the fire”. Disastrous administration and disastrous timetabling almost ended my career.

I joined Kevin Lee and Greg Farrugia at Semiahmoo Secondary in September of 2003 as the third music teacher. I was assigned concert band eight. It had 138 members and met each class in “complete ensemble”. I had never experienced this and it was a real shock to try to teach skills under those circumstances. It is a credit to those students and the traditions in place that it was as successful as it was. I taught Math 8 for three years and developed a course called “Vocal Arts” that essentially was “American Idol”. For three years I put on full evening cabaret nights featuring 25+ solo singers, most of whom couldn’t sing one line of “O Canada” on their own before signing up for this course.

It’s so different from what I had done up to that point. I think a course like that could be offered in many BC schools where a conventional instrumental or choral program is difficult or not possible.

Kevin and Greg moved on and Dagan Lowe came to Semiahmoo.

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For six years he and I ran one of Canada’s strongest music programs.

Semi had been and continued to be a top contender and multiple category winner at the Envisions Jazz Festival and at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow, Idaho. It was a real thrill when my 2010 Jazz Band 12 won Category AAA and was featured on the “big stage” at the Kibby Dome.

At MusicFest that year the Jazz Combo was chosen to perform at the Directors’ Reception. The big band caused a stir performing Maria Schneider’s “Wrgly”. There were lots of questions from colleagues. During many of those years Semi had more members accepted into the National All Star Jazz Band than any other Canadian school.

As well, up to a third of the members of the High School Jazz Intensive (associated with the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival) came from Semi’s band room. MusicFest 2011 saw 275 Semiahmoo musicians in 10 ensembles earn 9 gold awards and 1 silver. I was told by Jim Howard, Executive Director of MusicFest, that Semi’s Senior Wind Ensemble, at 115 members, was the largest high school band ever to appear at MusicFest. They achieved a Gold Award in Category B500 and the adjudicator who ran their clinic confided to me that the entire panel was unanimous in their wish that they had a “Platinum Award” to present to our band. I was so proud, especially since 90 members of the 115 were still in Grade 10! I called them “The Miracle Band.” They met in

294 ~ Benefactor Tours

“complete ensemble” as well. I was unexpectedly but gratefully chosen as the recipient of the Keith Mann Memorial Award given annually to one music teacher at the festival.

We toured every year: to Disneyland many times, to the Banff Festival, “to Benefactor Tours” for JazzBand 12 (every year), and often to MusicFest Canada. In 2012, JB12 went to the Las Vegas Jazz Festival where we shared the stage with the host band from the Performing Arts School. That band, with membership drawn from the surrounding population of over 2 million, were better than us but not remarkably so. Most of that Semi band had been best friends since kindergarten at Bayridge Elementary! I have always been a very strong proponent of the “the neighbourhood school”.

In 2011 Dagan and I took 156 students to New York. It was a truly amazing experience for all of us. A triumph of David Dunnet’s “Three Rule” in that no one got lost or mugged.

My final duty as a full time band teacher was to conduct the “1812 Overture”…yes…complete with pyrotechnics.

Years ago, Curt Jantzen interviewed me as part of his graduate work.

He asked why I taught music. My answer, he told me, very much surprised him. I told him it was to help kids grow up and develop strong character, that music was only “the medium”. I also enjoyed watching my students build friendships that I have now had a chance to see last into their adult lives.

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I have been in this business now for 41 years and I still don’t really think of myself as a “teacher”. Rather, I’m a person who, remarkably, has been allowed to be at the helm of a bunch of young people, lunging headlong with them towards musical expression and learning, developing along the way, all the musical and life skills so critical to that pursuit. As much as I don’t ever remember wanting to be a teacher of any kind, let alone a music teacher, I look back now and seriously wonder what else I could have done that would have engaged me so completely for these past four decades. I’ve always thought that if I had pursued some sort of “desk job” …..I would have been asleep by morning coffee break …..and fired by lunch time.

21 Marilyn Turner Back Story

In June of 1960, Tom Furness, a stellar Band Director at McPherson Park Junior High in south Burnaby, had all his future grade 7 band students visit the school so he could check out our embouchures and assign us instruments. He said to me, “You’ll play the trumpet.” The trumpet and I made an instant connection which, in turn, led to a lifelong journey filled with both a multitude of opportunities, and wonderful friendships. I was also introduced to band trips. One of our custodians, who obviously had a military background and extreme patience, put us through our paces as we prepared to march in parades in both the Edmonton and California. He also made sure I had the correct versions of

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“The Last Post” and “The Rouse” when I started playing them in grade 10. Most recently, I had the honour of playing them in the Holten Canadian Cemetery in the Netherlands while on tour with the Delta Concert Band.

In 1962, when I was in grade 8, Rafael Mendez, one of the world’s most accomplished trumpet players, performed a live concert at our school. It was definitely an ear-opener and propelled me to strive to develop my own playing via a variety of trumpet repertoire and recordings.

My dad had a big record collection including some by the renowned big band trumpeter Harry James and others, so I also started to develop a love of big band music and jazz. We had interesting discussions/debates about trumpet players in general.

Throughout my grade 7 -10 years at MPJH (grade 10 was move from senior high to junior high in 1963), my trumpet-playing technique benefited tremendously via all the transcriptions of orchestral music. Fortunately, we had very strong bands that could play them due to a combination of leadership, student determination, and absence of electronic devices! I learned my chromatic scales playing the last movement of Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony.

In 1964, I went to Burnaby South for grades 11 and 12. Grant Lapthorne was the band and choir director. Again, we had some very strong players, including Wes Foster who eventually became Principal Clari-

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netist in the VSO. I got my very first introduction to playing in a pit orchestra for musical theatre productions. During my university years, I was playing in MUSSOC productions as well as almost all the musicals in town.

After graduating in 1966, I decided to enroll in Music at UBC. I almost went into P.E. and, indeed, continued to play volleyball but realized that my heart was more into Music. It was definitely a challenge learning a broader range of music subjects but they proved valuable in the long run, as did the opportunity to learn to play orchestral music in its original form. In 1969, I auditioned for and was accepted into Canada’s National Youth Orchestra. Future Music Educators Mary (Howland) Ellenton (Eric Hamber Sec., Vancouver), Bob Rebagliati (Handsworth Sec., N. Vancouver), and Rob Karr (Windsor Sec., N. Vancouver), and Heather Duggan (Vancouver Is.) were also in first year Music at U.B.C. For a number of reasons, I decided to take some time away from university. I continued to teach trumpet privately, and help develop and play in a variety of music ensemble. After six years and a lot of soul searching, - and encouragement from my Dad! – I decided to complete my Bachelor of Music degree then enroll in Music Education. My best practicum took place at New Westminster Secondary with sponsors Doug Price, Gerry Quan, and Bob Schaefer (also plays trumpet with me and tuba in the Delta Concert Band). I got my Teaching Certificate

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in 1981. My Master of Education degree was completed at U.B.C. in 1992.

The strong foundations established starting with Band in my grade 7 year (1960-1961) and the wealth of experiences in subsequent years, greatly influenced the goals I set for myself and my students when I became a Music Educator. I also think the fact that I was playing my trumpet in bands and orchestras, made a huge difference with my students because they knew I was aware of life on both sides of the podium.

In 1981 when I graduated from the teaching program at UBC, I was ecstatic to finally get a response to all my applications. I was hired by Arnie Backer, the principal at Delview Junior Secondary, and an avid guitarist so I had lots of support. We still have a connection via “BackerTurner Overdrive”, a group that we formed to play in a school talent show; there was Arnie on guitar, Dorothy Watts (counselor) on piano, Kerry Babiuk (science teacher) on banjo, Colin Vint (drama teacher) on vocals, and me on trumpet. Arnie, Dorothy, and I, along with retired Music Educators Cathey Tyler (Chalmers Elementary; Burnsview Secondary), Paula Gelmon (Delta elementary schools), Steve Hannah (Seaquam Secondary), Margaret Behenna (Delta Secondary), and euphonium player, Brant Mitchell (retired science teacher; member Delta Concert Band) have resurrected the group to play at Delta Retired Teacher Association luncheons. Great fun!

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My predecessors at Delview were David Hunt and Steve Austen. Possibly because Steve was an avid guitar player, the guitar classes thrived but band eventually went downhill. There wasn’t even a picture of the band in the yearbook. I had to learn guitar so I could keep the guitar classes thriving, but also made sure the Band students were well taken care of.

Due to a relatively small school population and timetabling restrictions, my Band numbers were small so I had to add Math, Social Studies, and Business Ed. to complete my teaching assignment. In order to provide more opportunities for students, I started both an extra-curricular Jazz Band and Choir. Band enrollment grew after I started an extra-curricular, grade 7 feeder school band that came to Delview in the morning. Our first band trip was an exchange trip to Courtney , followed by many trips to Edmonton/Calgary/Drumheller/Banff.

In addition to working with some outstanding students, I had the good fortune to work with a stellar group of staff members. Our Chapter of the “To Hell With the Bell Club” still meets every September and often in March as well.

Two of my students, Nichole Desy, and Janice Binding, have become Music Educators.

I also had the good fortune to meet Fred Turner via three of his grandchildren who were in my bands and choirs at Delview. Seeing Fred

302 ~ Jim Tempest

also played trumpet, I was often asked over the years, “Are you Fred Turner’s daughter?”. I replied, “No, but we figure we must be ‘outlaws’ seeing we both have relatives from Yorkshire, England.” Another grandson, trumpeter Brad Turner (son of Music Educator, Kerry Turner), has become well-known in the local jazz scene. Now I’m sometimes asked, “Are you Brad Turner’s mother?”

In 1994, a posting offering more Music classes within the timetable came up at Burnsview when the current Music Director, Don Davidson, decided to become an Administrator in the District. Though it was a very difficult decision to leave my students and colleague at Delview, having been there for thirteen years, I welcomed the opportunity to teach more Music subjects within the timetable to a larger number of students.

Burnsview had the benefit of a strong feeder school (Cathey Tyler at Chalmers Elementary), and a French Immersion program that drew very motivated students from other catchment areas. Again, jazz band was extracurricular but I had three levels of Band, guitar and choir on the timetable. Due to timetabling restrictions, I had to teach Math some years to complete my teaching load but I continued to enjoyed good numbers in my music classes. I also ran a Beginning Band for Grade 7 students via Delta’s Continuing Education so these students were able to go directly into the Junior Band when they enrolled at Burnsview. As always, band and choir trips continued to Alberta. However, in 2001,

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we got involved with “SEVEC”, an organization based in Ottawa whose mandate was to facilitate trips from one part of the country to another.

In 2001 we had the good fortune to be sponsored for an exchange with a Band from Pictou, Nova Scotia. SEVEC also sponsored a subsequent exchange with a band in Whitehorse, Yukon. The sponsor teacher, Rebekah Bell, now teaches Music in Maple Ridge.

Don Davidson had also taught Band at Seaquam Secondary when it opened. Don’s predecessor at Burnsview was Leanne McKerlich.

Don took over when Leanne became Choral Director at North Delta Secondary. After a long career at NDSS, Leanne took a year off then became Music Director at Sands Secondary in Delta until she retired a few years later Again, though I had to bid adieu to a great staff and a fine contingent of Music students, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to finally work with senior (grade 11 and 12) students, most of whom had started Band with me in grade 7. After over thirty years as a highly regarded Music Educator (29 at NDSS; previous years in Abbotsford), Phil Ayers decided to retire. He had built up a comprehensive array of Music courses that included Band 11/12, Stage/Jazz Band, Guitar, and Music Composition 11/12. Along with Drama Director, Colin Vint, and Choral Director, Leanne McKerlich, Phil had also fostered a long tradition of outstanding Musical Theatre productions which I also inherited. What a treat it

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was to conduct “Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “Wizard of Oz” in a real pit!

Via a project I took on when I retired, I learned that both the Band program at NDSS and the tradition of musicals had been started in 1960

by Dr. Ernie Dawson (who was also an organist at a church off Alma St. in Vancouver). He was followed by Mary Ramsey, and Susan (Dugdale) Bryan. After I retired in 2007, Lia Wolfe (an ND grad and mother of four music students) became Music Director. Lia retired this year (2015). I am extremely sad to report that, due to the “numbers game”, there is no band at NDSS this year, the first time this has happened since band was introduced in 1960! Demographics is a major factor. Thankfully, Jeanie McKay (former Music Educator at Delview and Delta Secondary) is teaching a semester of guitar at ND this year, and is seeking ways of resurrecting the tradition of Music excellence.

A tradition of alternating musicals and trips each year meant that I only took students on one trip during my time at ND. What a great trip it was though! Fifty students from both Visual and Performing Arts (mostly my long-time band students) combined for a trip to Cuba, my most ambitious student trip ever. We shared the stage with music students at their schools in which music was the main focus; a carry-over from the days when the U.S.S.R. was very influential in Cuba. We were very impressed by the quality of their performances which were mostly

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improvised or learned by rote seeing they couldn’t afford to buy printed music. They were very grateful to receive all the instruments and supplies we took to them. What a eye-opener for all of our tour group in so many ways.

I likely would have continued to teach at NDSS for at least another five years had it not been for “Reconfiguration”, a School Board scheme in which the three junior secondary schools that had fed into NDSS (Delview, Burnsview, Sands) were converted from grades 8-10 to grades 8-12, thereby depleting the population of North Delta Secondary and causing not only a shift in demographics, but also the cancellation of a wealth of electives designed for a usual population of students in the thousands at ND. The long tradition of trophy-winning football teams also disappeared. In order to save a Band at ND, I had to run a class of eighteen grades 8 through 12! I was used to classes of at least sixtyfour grade 11/12 students. Teachers at the other three schools benefited because they finally got to retain and work with students in their grade 11 and 12 years. Due to small numbers in all our bands, we decided to combine all our students in what we named the “North Delta All-Star Junior & Senior Bands” so students could experience what it was like to have full instrumentation. After two very successful but very time-consuming and logistically-challenging concerts, we decided to focus our energy on our own schools. A year later, having had “the rug pulled

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out from under me “ after devoting so much of my personal life for twenty-six years based on what I deemed to be unsound educational practice, I decided to retire.

The Problems The nature of the administrators making the decisions is very important. Some administrators believe in band and will protect the programs while others will not. If you don’t have 25 students signed up some will not run the program. However, even if there may be only 23 kids, they are still part of the school community and deserve access to band courses. As too often happens, despite the best research in support of their value, Music courses are considered expendable.

Another problem we face is that, when numbers are low – as happened with “Reconfiguration” in north Delta - Band teachers often put more pressure on themselves in order to save their courses – and jobs!

– by running a band course containing multiple grades and levels of ability. Certainly, teachers in other areas would scoff at the idea. Also, teachers of elective courses are forced to compete with one another for students. The best performing arts programs are developed in schools with a large population, 1000 to 1500 students.

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Over 1000 students have gone through my programs over the years.

I still run into them from time to time. Some are teachers. Some still play; some with me in the Delta Concert Band. I recall walking into an adult beginner band rehearsal prior to coaching the brass section and discovering a former student/now music educator learning a new instrument, and a former student’s mother learning to play her daughter’s saxophone. One student in particular who was in my bands, choirs, and social studies class at Delview many years ago, became a colleague at North Delta Secondary where she continues to teach, and has involved me in her family gatherings. She and her mother, who attended every concert, sing with me in the Delta Community Choir.

When I was compiling the history of the Performing Arts at North Delta Secondary, I learned via yearbooks, programs, and photos that many of my music students at the junior secondary level continued to be very active in music when they were in grades 11 and 12.

Judging by conversations with students, along with comments written in my annuals over the years, they appreciated both the camaraderie as well as the high level of performance we achieved together. Hopefully, their positive experiences will influence their children’s decisions when it comes to course selection and chosen paths in life.

22 Bob LaBonte Back Story

Bob was born in Vancouver and moved to Nanaimo where he went to high school and developed a love for music. He played in what was probably the first rock band with an accordian/cordovox on the island.

Along with his brothers who all played musical instruments and managed by their mother, they played gigs all over the island including every New Years in Parksville. He took private lessons from a Mr. Crawford. When he graduated high school in 1969 it was off to Europe for the summer. Upon returning he enrolled in the Music Ed. department at UBC and lived in the basement of his grandfathers’ house.

310~ Pete Kinvig

At U.B.C. he realized there was no jazz band so he decided to start one with another music student Dave Fullerton who would become a life long friend. It wasn’t really a jazz band. They played rock music: Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears and R&B. They called the group Raw Sewage. Bob travelled back to Nanaimo each weekend to play gigs and work for his father. Bob graduated U.B.C. one year before his friend Dave Fullerton in 1974. Dave told me: “When we were in our professional year Bob came back with a group from his first school Whalley Jr Sec. He was like “Lazarus returning from the dead”. We were like green soldiers before their first battle witnessing a comrade fresh from “the front”. I remember two things…..how rough their sound was…. and how proud and enthusiastic Bob was. We watched in awe. Would we do as well…..or even survive?”

Bob was hired right out of U.B.C. by Pete Kinvig (Superintendent of Music for Surrey). In those days you could choose which school you wanted to teach at and Bob chose West Whalley Junior High School.

He spent ten years at West Whalley and during that time got the music department up and running. During his time at West Whalley he took his students into many festivals where they often won. He attended MusicFest and made trips with his students to where ever there was a festival. The ones he liked best were: The Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Idaho and one that was held at Disneyland.

BOB LABONTE ~ 311

One day while Bob was in the cafeteria at West Whalley he came up with the idea to start his own jazz festival. There was a need for one so Bob started what became known to all as the Surrey Jazz Festival. Over the years the Surrey Jazz Festival became very popular and grew and grew in stature. It eventually became too big for Bob to handle on his own so the school board stepped in and a sponsor was hired. Today the festival is known as the Envision Jazz Festival. The Surrey Jazz Festival was held each February in the Surrey Arts Centre.

After ten years at West Whalley Bob moved to Guildford Park Secondary where he taught music for another ten years. Bob called it, “The ten year itch.” He continued to build a program at Guildford. He always had a policy of leaving no kid behind and made sure they all got to go on his trips if possible. When Fleetwood Secondary opened the principal at Guildford asked Bob to come with him to Fleetwood so he did.

Sullivan Secondary was attached to the Bell Performing Arts Centre, so when Bob moved after another ten years it was to Sullivan. He wanted his students to experience what it was like to play in a state-ofthe-art theatre. While at Sullivan Bob collaborated with Shirley Clements (dance teacher) on a production of Westside Story. [Shirley was recently a guest on the Ellen de Generes Show with her students at a Hip-Hop competition.]

312 ~ Laurae McNally

When Bob was at Sullivan three departments went on a tour to New York City. They attended a master class at Lincoln Centre. Bob was praised by someone for how good his group was. The fellow asked Bob if he would like to bring his students to a band rehearsal the next day that he was attending. “Which band?” asked Bob. “Bruce Springsteen,” the fellow replied. Unfortunately they had to play at the United Nations the next day and couldn’t come.

In 2005 Bob won a MusicFest Hall of Fame Award. He was most proud of that award. His father had wanted him to go into business so when he won that award it meant alot to him.

Bob retired after ten years at Sullivan. Retirement however didn’t last as Bob continued to TOC (Teacher on Call) for a few years and eventually taught two more years at Frank Hurt Secondary.

The principal at Frank Hurt, Gloria Sarmento was very supportive of Bob’s music program. The parent’s of his students were amazed at what he was able to accomplish with their students. Bob had a winning way and method when it came to working with young people. Another big supporter of his programs in Surrey was Laurae McNally, the Chair of the Surrey School Board. She is still today, in 2016, a school trustee.

Bob started taking his students up to Whistler for a retreat each November. It was an intensive workshop with professional musicians.

There would be a concert at the end given by the pros for the students.

BOB LABONTE ~ 313

It was very successful and motivated his students to get ready for the Surrey Jazz Festival the coming February. It felt like they had been to a master class.

During the summer of 2012 Bob was planning on resuming his teaching at Frank Hurt Secondary when he passed away suddenly while on a trip to the US. When his students at Frank Hurt heard the sad news they all wore black arm bands for a week. Bob taught music in Surrey for 37 years. He was well-loved by all his students and his wife Helen told me she is often recognized by former students who stop to say hello.

Music was Bobs’ life. He was very good at what he did. One time on a trip to Newport Beach (California) Helen told me they stayed at the Sutton Hotel. Every Saturday night there was a jam session in a small club. There were two seats free in the front row. The musicians asked for someone to come up and sing with the band. Bob was a good singer as well as a keyboard player. He wound up singing “My Girl” with Richard Street, one of the original members of The Temptations.

Bob saw Tony Bennett one time in the lobby of a hotel in New York City. He approached him and said, “Do you remember the time you performed in Nanaimo? There was no dressing room so my dad let you use our trailer.” True story!

- from an interview with Bob’s wife, Helen LaBonte, 2016

23 Curt Jantzen Back Story My mom started me on piano lessons at five years old, in Vancouver. In 1957 we moved to Los Angeles where I started violin lessons.

I attended Westchester High School, which I learned later was considered one of the top 10 high schools in the USA in all disciplines: sports, arts, academics. I got involved in as much music as I could, joining the orchestra, choir, and marching band. I learned the clarinet because the violin is not a marching instrument. When we moved back to Vancouver in 1963, I enrolled in Magee Secondary for grade 11 and 12. The band teacher at Magee was an old trumpet player named Harry King. He only had a small band but he loved putting on musicals: Gilbert & Sullivan.

For some unknown reason a sousaphone arrived at our band room. A PHOTO: Lto R, Curt Jantzen with Bob Buckley and Dal Richards on the right

316 ~ Jim Kirk

brand new sousaphone and we didn’t have a marching band. There was probably money left over at the end of the year and it had to be spent on something. So I learned to play the sousaphone because no one else was interested. When I filled out forms in grade 12 indicating I wanted to become a music teacher, Fred Turner came to the school and talked to me. I was pretty impressed. Here was a busy guy who came to the school just to talk to one student who wanted to be a music teacher.

I took some time off and got married and we had our first of three boys. My wife has been extremely supportive. She is my right arm. She plays tuba in my band. When I started my adult band in 1983, she said, “What do you want me to play?” “Well, nobody signed up for tuba, haha-ha.” So Jhandie has been our stalwart tuba player ever since, in the Delta Music Makers. All the way through my teaching career she came to every concert, never missing one, and helping out at all the festivals too. A lot of wives of band teachers never come to their concerts. I guess that is why we are still together. Our three sons and eight grandchildren are equally committed to their various tasks, learning this trait from my wife. We have three wonderful daughters-in-law too. Our sons were involved in band, of course, during school, but none has chosen it as a career. Some of the grandchildren are proving very musical, too, with four of them playing in my various bands right now. What a treat for Grandpa!

CURT JANTZEN ~ 317

My education involved two years at Vancouver City College at the old King Ed campus at 12th & Oak and then going to UBC full time for my third year 1969-70. I started teaching in fall of 1970. All you needed back then was three years. Can you believe it! I went full time to UBC for only one year and then I did my fourth and fifth years part time and it took forever (summers and evenings). It took me twelve years in all to complete my Bachelor’s then years later I completed my Master’s of Administration, twenty years after starting my teaching career.

Jim Kirk showed up at UBC one day in spring of 1970. He was the music coordinator for Coquitlam. He spoke to my class and impressed me a lot, speaking with passion and fervor. He hired me. He wasn’t around very long, as his personality clashed with the administration. The next time I saw him he was renovating barbers’ chairs. What a waste!

When Jim Kirk hired me I immediately started a grade 5-7 band program in my elementary school. That was Baker Drive Elementary. I was the grade 4 and 5 classroom teacher and taught band in the mornings at 7:45 before school. The parents all got on board and the kids seemed to love it. I taught band for two years, having no idea that Jim Kirk was protecting me from the Coquitlam Board. The board had earlier made a decision, unbeknownst to me that they would not support any elementary school band programs. So here I show up and start one all on my own, without asking anyone.

318 ~ Don Murray

Word got around and a group of New Westminster band directors, (Doug Pryce, Bob Schaefer and Gerry Quan), who needed an elementary band teacher came and recruited me. I spent seven years teaching grade seven band at all the elementary schools in New Westminster. I was the circuit rider guy. During those years we had terrific band programs from grade seven through grade twelve. Some years we would go into the Coquitlam Festival and win in every band category from elementary to grade twelve. The Coquitlam Festival was an old festival with categories for everything including musical theatre. It disappeared sometime between 1984 and 1988.

After New Westminster, I had remarkable success teaching at two junior high schools in Surrey - L.A. Matheson and Cloverdale- from 1980 through 1988. In both cases one-third to one-half of the student body became involved in the band program. In 1988 the Surrey School Board hired me as the District Music Coordinator for Surrey, taking over from the retiring Doug Doddington. Doug had taught at Princess Margaret in Surrey prior to becoming the Music Coordinator. Another name from that era: Don Murray was at North Surrey at that time, and was a legend.

His wife Gwen later worked with me in the office as the Elementary Core Music Coordinator. Don took bands to Europe before anyone else was doing it in the public schools.

I was hired to be the grade 7 to 12 instrumental music guy. One

CURT JANTZEN ~ 319

of my first tasks was to decide what we were going to do with elementary instrumental music. I said, “Band is the answer, right across the district.” When we got it set up, we had a band director in every school in Surrey. I didn’t do it by myself - I had a helpful supervisor. That was only part of the district support for music and the arts. Besides Gwen and me, there were two people in dance, and one in art. Another fellow was the drama coordinator. Then there was a teacher named Al Pichler.

Al did nothing but put on musicals in the elementary schools, organizing ten per year in ten different elementary schools that involved the entire student body. He had a way with kids that enabled him to do that quite well. He is still doing it today in retirement and he is my age. So there was a lot of support for the arts in Surrey in those days, contrary to public perception.

Eventually most of those support jobs were eliminated and their responsibilities fell on my desk. I became the K-12 music, art, dance, drama, and choir guy! I didn’t know anything about dance or art, and certainly not drama. I retired at age 55, because the “politics of cutbacks” were straining my health as my supervisor and I continually juggled balls in the air. My wife told me to retire. I wanted to stay two more years and get a better pension, but she said, “You will be dead in two years.” I retired in 2003 with ulcers and other medical problems. I have now been retired for thirteen healthy years. After the first year and a

320 ~ Mighty Fraser Big Band

half of retirement I got bored and went back to my roots teaching elementary school band in Delta, as an extra-curricular program, along with conducting my adult band, the Delta Music Makers. In that year and a half, I’d get up, read the paper, have breakfast, get dressed and it was time for a beer. I couldn’t do that any longer, so I got busy again.

I am proud to say that the district-wide grade 7 band program that I started in Surrey is still going strong today. Unlike some other districts, Surrey now has a strong grade 7 band tradition. We managed to get all the principals on board. It was optional for the students yet we still managed to get an 80% participation rate. Parents recognized the value of the program. We would send 3000 band kids into the high schools each year. Other programs that I instigated are also still going strong in Surrey.

As a band director, adults were always saying to me, “Can you teach me to play a musical instrument?” So I started an adult beginner’s band through Delta Night School. They loved it and stayed with it. Today the band, the Delta Music Makers, is almost 35 years young and we play mostly level four music. In 1988, five years after we started, I took them on their first trip to Disneyland. We had a ball. It’s legendary now after 35 years. I still have nine of the original members in the band, that’s loyalty and perseverance! Today there are 68 musicians, and every rehearsal is a lot of fun. We have good instrumentation. People

CURT JANTZEN ~ 321

always come up to me and say, “I have more fun playing in your band than I have ever had in any other band.” It’s because we don’t take ourselves too seriously. I always say, “Look, we are not the VSO.” We play as well as we possibly can, look for incremental improvement and have fun doing it. Margaret Behenna became my sssistant conductor in about 2006, and what a team! We are taking the band to Budapest/Vienna/ Prague in September 2017. Our previous trip was to Los Angeles in 2015, performing on a cruise ship, at San Diego, and at Disneyland. In 1992 we went to Orlando, and 2002 the Maritimes. Everyone pays their own way. The band loves to travel because there is a musical purpose.

We made trips overseas as well, two to the British Isles and one to Germany, Switzerland and Austria. One memorable trip was to Washington DC, Boston, and New York, where we performed onboard the Aircraft Carrier Intrepid on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Along the way I also started a stage band, because several of the Delta Music Maker adults wanted that jazz experience. Also set up through Delta Continuing Ed., we called it Third Stage. Being too busy to continue with it indefinitely, because I was working on my Master’s Degree, I turned it over to Dave Fullerton, who was drumming in the band at the time. After a number of years, and a couple of different directors, it became the Mighty Fraser Big Band. I’m proud that a few of my Delta Music Makers continue to play in it, people who were adult

322 ~ Brian Ellis

beginners under my teaching.

When I grew tired of retirement a friend came to me and asked me if I would teach her elementary school band program on Tuesday afternoons in Delta. I had my adult band on Tuesday evenings so it worked out perfectly. It was right back to my roots for me and I loved it. I realized I had wasted 15 years in the office. Not really; I accomplished a lot as a district coordinator. A lot of things that I set up are still in place today. My band-teaching friend ultimately decided not to come back, so I carried on with the elementary program here in Ladner. Principals from other elementary schools in Delta started calling me. I talked it over with my wife and soon we had four or five schools on board. I was a private contractor. I didn’t want to work for the school board. I charged the parents $295 a year for teaching their son or daughter in band. Margaret Behenna joined me when she retired from Delta Secondary School. These days we have cut back and only have two bands at Hawthorne Elementary in Ladner. We go around to all the schools though in Ladner and recruit. We tell them to find their way over to Hawthorne Thursday after school if they want to play in a band. The band teacher at Delta Secondary loves us.

After Margaret and I had been doing this for a few years, the Delta School Board decided to implement a grade 6-7 band program in all the schools in Delta. They had never done that before. We like to think

CURT JANTZEN ~ 323

that our successful program influenced that decision! Today there is an instrumental music program in every school in Delta. When they did that, Margaret and I switched our focus to grades 4-5. We now have between 75 and 100 kids each year. We eventually want to retire but we are having fun and it supplements our retirement income. We get to set our own calendar which is a pretty good one: no band in December, no band in March, no band in June and we don’t start until October. Margaret takes it for three weeks and then I take it for three weeks. We both teach together when a concert is coming up, twice a year.

I had gained a lot of experience in organizing band festivals, and realized that there are as many as thirty or more community bands in the lower mainland of BC, but never do they come together. One day I called Bob LaBonte, a friend and colleague in Surrey. He had started the Park City Concert Band which was a community band of mostly parents of his kids. I asked him if he wanted to get together with my adult band, the Delta Music Makers for a June concert. Also invited were the Delta Concert Band and the Richmond Community Band. We had so much fun people asked us if we would do it again the following year, so we all agreed. We formed a committee of like-minded folks from my band, and we called the event the Ladner Bandfest! Brian Ellis and I went to discuss it with Mayor Lois Jackson, and she has been a huge supporter ever since. The following year we had 10 bands participate. In the third

324 ~ Naden Band

year it became a two day event with fifteen bands. The next year it rained so much that it went back to being a one day event. But the following year it took off and we now have around twenty-five bands participating from all over BC, plus a couple from Washington State. The Naden Band even comes over from Esquimalt. The Ladner Bandfest is now run by a committee of Delta Music Makers who work hard to maintain the joyfulness of the event.

I guess organizing a festival comes naturally to me. That is what I did as coordinator in Surrey: organize festivals for all grades 7 through 12.

There were thousands of kids participating each year, not just in band, but also choir, drama, art. It was great, and gave me a lot of experience.

2017 will be the 13th year of Ladner Bandfest. It is not competitive; bands just come and play for 40 minutes, then listen to each other and enjoy the park. Except for that one year, we’ve always had amazing weather, knock on wood! It’s the only time that you can hear bands from the other communities. Bands are meant to be heard.

I had a fight with the music stores when I was in the board office.

Keynote was the music store in Surrey. The proprietor went to a school board meeting and complained about music stores from outside the district coming in and setting up exclusive contracts with our schools. Keynote was being cut out of the business. It was passed down to me to fix the problem. I realized that not only was our local shop being aggres-

CURT JANTZEN ~ 325

sively cut out of the business after years of loyal service, but that some of the companies were bringing in substandard instruments for rentals.

It gave me a chance to tackle this long-standing problem of poor instruments getting into the hands of our students. Surrey was a huge district with 3000 kids every year starting band in grade seven and then heading into high school. I got a group of band teachers together, including Bob LaBonte, Mike Lord, and others. I told the music companies that we were going to control the field by doing district rental nights, and asked the companies to submit the instruments they wanted to bring.

We hired VSO musicians then covered up the brand names of each instrument. There were about 100 instruments of all types: anything that the companies wanted to rent to our Surrey kids the following September. The VSO musicians played them all, and filled out a form for each instrument, ticking many boxes and giving their opinion of playability.

Additionally, we asked Willy Heesaker to give his opinion on maintenance and longevity. Willy had been a legend in the instrument repair business in Vancouver for decades.

From all of this our committee created a list of instruments that music stores were allowed to bring to our three rental nights. The list became known as The Surrey List, and many BC school districts began to use it. Some music companies were not happy about it, but they all managed to carry some instruments that were on the list. We held the

326 ~ ENVISION Jazz Festival

rental nights in north, central and south Surrey on three different nights.

The stores were no longer allowed to give individual band teachers incentives, blocking out the competition, nor were they allowed to bring sub-standard instruments. We had 3000 kids come out to the rental nights so it was big business, and I felt that we owed it to our parents to protect their kids from paying too much or renting poor instruments.

When I first arrived in Surrey in 1980, Bob LaBonte instantly became a good friend of mine. I had never taught at a high school and he had the high school program next to me in West Whalley. He would lend me equipment when I needed it. He had some really good bands in those days. In 1979 he received a gold award at the Canadian Stage Band Festival which is what it was called before it was changed to Music Fest Canada. Bob wrote arrangements for his jazz band as well. He had come to the Vancouver area from Nanaimo.

Bob was responsible for starting the Surrey Jazz Festival which he patterned after Bob Schaefer’s New Westminster Jazz Festival or Hyack Festival. Bob LaBonte inspired a lot of us in Surrey to bring our bands together. The festival was held at various venues including Queen Elizabeth Secondary, then the Surrey Inn, then the Surrey Arts Centre. When I went into the office in ‘88, I was told to work with Bob on the financing of the festival. Dave Proznick, Dave Fullerton, Marty Summers, and other teachers formed a very strong committee. The festival grew and

CURT JANTZEN ~ 327

grew and became a fixture on the calendar and Bob LaBonte was the man responsible. Today it is called ENVISION Jazz Festival. The school board hired a sponsorship specialist and she brought Envision on board with a fair amount of money to put into the festival every year. It is still going strong today. Way to go Bob!

Arthur Delamont started taking his boys to Europe in 1934. His trips were three, four and one was even five months long. “How did he do it?” The boys had June, July and August off and he added a month on each end: May and September, such was the prestige of him and his band. Everyone wanted their son to play in his band. Read about one of his trips (the 1953 vaudeville trip) in Hearts, Minds and Souls, Ron Pajala was in his band. Today music trips are only a few days. https://issuu.com/metroguides

Index Symbols 1970 World Exposition in Osaka 41 21st Century Sound 95

A Abbotsford Music Festival 90 Abbotsford School of Fine Arts 11 Abby Jr. Secondary 288 A Breath of Life 73 Ackerman, Bernie 69 Adams, Bryan 254 Aimes,Ted 7 Alaska 196 Alcorn, Coco Love 221 Aldergrove 225 Aldergrove Secondary 192 All American Collegiate Jazz Band 287 Allen, Bruce 253 American String Teachers Association 137 Amsterdam 239 Angell, Mike 91, 277, 278, 283, 288 Argue, Darcy 127 Argyle Secondary 55, 59, 134 Arthur Delamont 169 Arts BC 24 ArtsCan 24 Atkinson, George 245 Austen, Steve 301 Australia 196 Austria 203, 321 Ayers, Phil 303

B B.C.M.E.A 9, 285

B.C. Music Educators “Outstanding Music Teacher award (Secondary) 271 B.C. Teachers Co-op 112 Bachun, Mary 194 Backer, Arnie 300 Backun, Mary 128 Baden Rube Band 116 Bakann, Joel and Mike 212 Baker, Michael Conway 127 Baker Drive Elementary 317 Balmoral Secondary 96 Bandarama 72 Bandmasters Asso. of B.C. Trophy 212 Banff Festival 294 Banff Springs Hotel 191 Banks, Tommy 258 Banting Jr. Secondary 49 Bardhun, Dave 70, 287 Bardunn, Dave 103 Barnett, Stu 103 Barney’s Music 231, 232 BCMEA 45, 229 BCMEA Honour Jazz Band 285 BC Schools Band and Orchestra Conferences 66 BCSITA 7, 8 BC Vocal Jazz Festival 101, 103 Beefeater Band 188, 189, 190 Begg, Julie 103 Behenna, Margaret 74, 210, 212, 217, 300, 321, 322 Behenna, Margaret (Neill) 199 Bell, Max 117 Bell, Rebekah 303 Bella Coola 22 Bell Performing Arts Theatre 292

330 ~ Index Bennett, Tony 313 Berarducci, Joe 55 Berger, Dave 74, 216 Bergeson, Robert 209 Berinbaum, Martin 32, 221 Berklee School of Music 103 Berson, Saul 212, 221 Bibb, Leon 221 Bigsby, Harry 18, 19 Bill Lewis Music 210 Binding, Janice 301 Blake, Seamus 287 Blueridge Elementary 113 Bolam, Brian 254 Boldt, Andrew 204 Boston 206, 321 Bothell, Wash. 69 Brand, Geoffrey 44 Bratakos, Napoleon 62 Brenda, Khoo 205

Calder, Bob 70 Calgary Symphony 248 Calgary Symphony Orchestra 249 California 101 Campbell, Kim 33 Camp Kawkawa 201 Camp Kwomais 201 Camp Miriam 129 Canada’s High Commissioner 291 Canadian Jazz Band Festival 102 Canadian Stage Band Festival 47, 126, 211, 287, 326

Canyon City 21 Carson Graham Collegiate Jazz Festival 103 Carson Graham Jazz Choir Festival 117 Carson Graham Secondary 55, 59, 94, 95, 98, 101, 224 Cascade High School 100 Castlegar 7 Briard, Don 73 Catholic Hall 38 Bristol Hippodrome 169 Centennial Theatre 99, 116, 184, 194 British Isles 321 Central Junior 19 Brock Hall 8 Chaffy College 101, 103 Brooks Secondary School 104 Chalmers Elementary 300 Brown, Barry 210 Chan, Francis 216 Bryan, Susan Dugdale 304 Chancellor of West Germany 239 Bryson, Clif 200 Charke, Derek 270 Bryson, Jim 277, 278, 283 Charlie Bird Parker Foundation Award For Budapest/Vienna/Prague 321 Excellence 124 Burnaby 31 Cheng, Fred 221 Burnaby South Secondary 188, 252, 261, Chicoutimi 22, 23 298 Chilliwack 243 Burnsview Choir 180 China 196 Burnsview Concert Band 181 Cho, David 76, 219 Burnsview Secondary 300 Chretien, Jean 221, 239 Burrard View Elementary 113 Christ Church Cathedral 74 Christian, Henry 269 C Christianson, Lassie (Leslie) 96 C.M.E.A. 9, 24

INDEX ~ 331 Churchill Secondary 73 Clackamas College Jazz Festival 82 Clark, Donny 30 Clements, Gordon 253 Clements, Shirley 311 Clingman, Alan 32 Clinton, Bill 220 Clooney, Rosemary 191 Cloverdale Jr. Secondary 288, 318 CMEA 99, 100 Colclough, Tom 125 Cole, Carolyn 184 Colledge, Ernie 65, 200, 210, 213, 217 Cologne 239 Colpitts, Dennis 116 Colquhoun, Rob 200 Cook, Fred 191 Copenhagen 239 Coquitlam 39, 280 Coquitlam and District Music Festival 283 Coquitlam District Jazz Festival 285 Coquitlam Festival 83, 318 Coquitlam Music Festival 282 Coquitlam School District 40 Costa Rica 136, 203 Cottage Grove, Oregon 259 Courtenay 245 Cramer, Dylan 221 Creech, Robert 93, 94 Crete 203 Crispen, Bob 283, 286 Crispin, Bob 91 Crosara, Joe 288, 289 Cross, Dave 100, 102 Cuba 127, 203, 269, 304 Cummings 7 Cummings, Bill 94 Cypress 203

D D.W.Poppy Concert Band 172 D.W. Poppy Secondary 193, 194, 252, 256, 257, 286, 288 Dalcroze, Emile-Jaques 10 Dave Douglas Quartet 265 David & Lisa 99 Davidson, Don 302, 303 David Thompson Secondary 247, 280 Davies, Meredith 94 Dawson, Dr. Ernie 304 Deagle, Finan 65 Deane, Terry 286, 287 DeBoer, Kurt 243 Delamont, Arthur 33, 199, 200, 215, 231, 237, 239 Delta Concert Band 210, 299, 323 Delta Manor 201 Delta Music Makers 204, 316, 320 Delta Secondary 201, 205, 300 Delta Senior Secondary 200 Delview Junior Secondary 300 De Miero, Frank 100, 101 Denike, Howard 7, 8, 18, 48, 100 Department of National Defense (DND 116 Desy, Nichole 301 Dickens, Dick 282 Director of Fine Arts in Abbotsford 89 Director of the New Westminster and District Concert Band 89 Disney Land 136 Disneyland 203, 294, 310, 320 Disney World 136 Disneyworld 203 Disterheft, Brandi 184 District Music Coordinator for Surrey 318 District Secondary Night of Bands 45

332 ~ Index Django 184 Dobrovolny, Chris 204 Doddington, Doug 318 Donnelly, Marc 212, 218 Douglas College 85, 127, 190, 191 DOWNBEAT magazine 271 Dr. Proz 273 Dressler, Bob 232 Duckles, Lee 184 Duggan, Heather 299 Dunnett, Dave 30, 71, 283 Dyck, Ralph 98

Errington, Keith 118 Esquimalt 18 Essen, Dennis 271 Europe 196 Expo 2000 290 Expo 67 22 EXPO 86 126 Expo 86 24, 194, 220

F

Farkas, Glen 74 Farrugia, Greg 273, 292 Featherstonehaugh, Ray 33, 80, 87, 257 E Ferguson, Maynard 100 Fields, Stan 259 East Kootenays 65 Finland 29 Edgemont Village 197 Fischer, Norm 125 Edinburgh 120 Fleetwood Secondary 311 Edith Cavell Elementary School 37 Edmonds Community College 100, 101, Foster, Leo 94 Foster, Wes 298 102 France 203 Edmonton 27, 100, 238 Francis, Nick 76 Frankhauser. James 279 Egenfeld, Arnie 99 Frank Hurt Secondary 313 Egmont 201 Fraser Valley Ki-wanis Festival 137 Egypt 203 Fromager, David 46 Ellen de Generes Show 311 Fullerton, Dave 49, 91, 257, 273, 275, 310, Ellenton, George 210 321, 326 Ellenton, Mary 216, 217, 226 Furness, Tom 88, 89 Ellenton, Mary Howland 209, 299 Empire Music 188 G England 7, 19, 202, 203 English, Dr. J.F.K. 17 G’froerer, Brian 55, 94, 95, 120 Ennis, David 49 Gabriola Island 129 ENVISION Jazz Festival 327 Gannan, Gail 73 Envision Jazz Festival 126, 219, 311 Gary Guthman Jazz Clinic 85 Envision Jazz Festival’s Hall of Fame 272 Gass, Fred 191 Envisions Jazz Festival 293 Gelmon, Paula 300 Eric Hamber Secondary 72, 200, 210, General Gordon School 231 216, 217, 225 Gergley, Ted 267 Eric Hamber Secondary School 68 Germany 321

INDEX ~ 333 Giddings, Colleen 257 Giguere, Claude 184 Gladstone Secondary 38, 75 Golf, Ted 43, 46 Gorder, Dr. Wayne 283 Gough G. F. 18 Graham, Lorna 90, 267 Grand Forks 40 Grant, Roland 19 Granville 189, 253 Grau, Julian 38 Greece 203 Green, Urbie 101 Green River 100 Green River College 103 Greenville 21 Grey Cup Torchlight Parade 40 Grice, Michael 87, 90 Grieves, Frederic 37 Guildford Park Secondary 311 Gurlak, Jade 289 Guthman, Gary 85, 103 Guy, Victor 200

H H. D. Stafford Secondary 194 H.M.C.S. Naden Band 66 Haas, Chris 50 Habkirk, Sharon 39 Hadfield, Lynn McLeod 245 Halcrow, Dale 257 Hales, Bobby 70 Hamilton Junior Secondary 96 Hamliton Junior Secondary School 123 Handsworth Intermediate Concert Band 194 Handsworth Secondary 55, 59, 125 Handsworth Secondary School 124, 135 Handsworth String program 135 Hannah, Steve 300

Hanover, Germany 290 Hansen, Gertrude 70 Harrogate 202 Hartley, Gary 31 Havixbeck, Germany 290 Hawai 203 Hawthorne Elementary 201 Hearty, Dan 91 Hedley, Mr. 215 Heesaker, Willy 325 Henderson, 107 107 Henderson, Dave 59, 111, 112 Henry Wisewood High School 74 Herriott, Bobby 70, 81 Hewson, Alf 87, 88 Highland Elementary School 118 High School Jazz Intensive 293 Hoadley, Bruce 128 Hoagy, Harry 87 Hobson, Earl 8, 19, 31, 41, 48, 87, 88 Hodges, Dave 107 Hoffman, Irwin 38 Holland 239 Hooge, John 71 Hopkins, Ken 189 Howland, Mary 74 Hsieh, Kenny 226 Humber College 269 Humber Jazz program 278 Hunt, David 301 Hurst, Greg 192 Hyack Jazz Festiva 46, 81 Hyack NW Jazz Festiva 284

I I.S.M.E. 9 IAJE Conference 272 Idaho 114, 126 Inkster, Jim 96

334 ~ Index Interior Jazz Festival 126 Ireland 206 Irwin, Doug 117 Israel 203 Italy 203

J Jantzen, Curt 204, 205, 206, 283, 288, 294, 315 Japan 223 Japan, Osaka 41 Jazz Intensive 85 Jazz Report Magazine 271 Jealous, Bob 216 Jennings, Doug 114 Jenson, Jens 94 Jenson Sisters 85 John, Laurie 115 John Oliver High School 237 John Oliver Pops band 239 John Oliver Secondary 72, 238, 240 John Philip Sousa “Legion of Honour award 272 Junior Band Trophy 212

K Kamloops 7, 11, 282 Kamloops Interior Summer School of Music (KISSM) 245 Kamloops Symphony Orchestra 245 Kaplan, Gabe 281 Karr, Rob 49, 55, 59, 93, 103, 104, 224, 299 Keats Island 201 Keenlyside, Tom 278 Keith Mann Outstanding Band Director Award 272 Kellough-Pollack, Tom 289

Kelowna 126 Kelowna City Band 117 Kent-Meridian Collegiate Jazz Festiva 124 Kent-Meridian Jazz Ensemble 283 Kent Meridian H.S. 101 Kent Meridian High School 70, 124, 268 Kent Meridian High school 100 Kent Meridian Jazz Band 83 Kenton, Stan 84 Kerr, Marilynn 20 Kerrisdale Arena 12, 14, 45 Kerrisdale Arena Nights of Music 45 Ketchum, Cliff 68 Khoo, Brenda 204 Killarney Secondary 279 Killeen, Jim 240 Kimberley 65 Kimberly 7 King, Gerry 91, 245, 246, 252, 253, 257, 278, 283 King, Gordy 31, 88 King, Harry 315 King, Sharman 210 Kingan, Ted 96 King Edward High School 37 Kinsmen Club 114 Kinvig, Pete 87, 265, 310 Kirk, Jim 87, 215, 317 Kirkham, Ray 200 Kitimat 20, 22, 23, 54, 114 Kitimat Village 20 Kitsilano Boy’s Band 215 Kitsilano Boys Band 111, 231 Kiwanis Concert Band Festival 82 Kiwanis Festival 124, 137, 204 Kiwanis Music Festival 72, 212, 243 Kliewer, Vic 281 Knapp, Bryan 48

INDEX ~ 335 Kneller Hall 7, 19, 107 Kobalensky, Karl 216 Kodaly 10, 31 Korsrud, John 103 Kostyk, Pat 283 Kovacs, Greg 212 Koven, Sandy 243 Koven, Tom 75, 213, 218, 219, 221, 223, 246 Kowalenko, Mark 193, 251, 278, 286, 288 Krall, Diana 32, 85, 270 Krantz, Frank and Kenny 101 Krantz, Ken 100 Krantz, Kenny 102 Kristjanson, Bill 28 Kwantlen College 137

L L.A. Matheson Jr. Secondary 318 LaBonte, Bob 126, 267, 284, 309, 323, 325, 326, 327 Ladner BandFest 206 Ladner Bandfest 323 Langley High School 93 Langley School of Fine Arts 11 Langley Secondary School 283 Lansdowne Junior High School 209 Lapthorne, Grant 48, 87, 298 Las Vegas Jazz Festival 294 Lax Kw’alaams 24 Lebeck, Jillian 271 Lee, Dr. Robert E. 20 Lee, Kevin 269, 273, 284, 292 Lehtonen, Al 216, 238 Leonard, Hal 101 Leslie, Lassie 93 Leullier, Beth 90 Lighthouse Districts 59 Lillooet 238 Lillos, Brian 278

Linklater 33 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival 126, 270, 293 Lochiel Elementary 256 Lock, Harry 97 Logan, Claude 254 London 203 London (England) Wind Ensemble 44 Lord, Mike 325 Lord Byng Booster Society 41 Lord Byng Secondary 41, 215 Lord Byng Secondary School 41 Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary 288 Los Angeles 206, 321 Loucks, Harold 111, 112 Lowe, Dagan 273, 292 Lucas, Bill 111 Lucas, Gordon 216 Ludwig, Frank 247 Lupini, Dr. Peter 49 Lynne, David 39

M Macaulay, Doug 229 Macauley, Douglas 249 MacDonald, Ann 49 MacLaughlin, Vern 254 Madsen, Terry 125 Magee 43 Magee Music Society 43 Magee Secondary 42, 44, 315 Malaspina College 104 Malcolm, Hal 101 Manitoba 27 Mann, Keith 272 Manning, Wilf 88 Manson, Kavan 271 Maplewood Elementary 113 Maranatha’ A Universal Rock Mass 73 Marquis, Walton 93 Marsalis, Wynton 103

336 ~ Index Martinson, Lois 289 Mason,Gerry 110 Massey Theatre 82 Mate, Gaber 96 Matheson, Al 221, 285 Mattson, Phil 102 Max Cameron High School 99 Max Cameron Secondary 285 Mazur, Harry 88 McArthur Park Junior Secondary. 245 McClelland, Jeff 91 McColl, Barb 43 McConchie, Dave 91 McConnell, Rob 102 McDade, Walter 108 McDonough, Jon and Travis 255 McFerrin, Bobby 102 McGall, Helene 212 McGettrick, Arthur 212 McGill, Gary 279 McKay, Jeanie 304 McKenzie, Ken 69 McKerlich, Leanne 303 McKinley, Gar 7 McLean, Dr. Hugh 279 McLelland, Jeff 252 McManus, Dick 88, 89 McMinnville, Wash. 103 McMurdo 7 McNally, Laurae 312 McPherson Park Junior High 297 McTaggart, Dave 91 McVay, Larry 101, 103, 104 Meikle, Bill 49 Memorial Arena 8 Mendez, Raphael 298 Menza, Don 81 Merman, Ethel 115 Metlakatla 22 Miami 272

Michaux, Emile 209 Michaux, Len 209 Michel, Dave 278 Mighty Fraser Big Band 321 Millard, Chris 278 modular system 56 MODULAR TIMETABLES 128 Molloy, Mike 256, 258 Montreal 22, 23 Moose Jaw 55, 200 Moose Jaw Band Festival 200 Morocco 203 Moult, Dr. Wally 46 Mount Douglas High School 209 Mount Elizabeth Secondary 54 Mount Hood College 103 Mount Hood Community College 101 Mrs. Behenna 70 Murray, Don 187, 289, 318 Murray, Gwen 318 Music Educators’ Society of Canada 24 MUSIC FEST 125, 204 MUSIC Fest 127 MusicFest 201, 258 293 Music Fest 86 193, 268 MUSIC FEST CANADA 124 MusicFest Canada 32, 49, 83, 196, 294 MUSICFEST General Motors Award 271 MUSSOC 299

N Naden 266 Nanaimo 309 Nanaimo Windjammers 258 National Orchestra Directors Association 137 National Symphony Orchestra 120 National Youth Orchestra 94, 299

INDEX ~ 337 Neill, Margaret 70 Nelson 40 Nerling, Les 76 Neuman, David 96, 99 New Aiyansh 21 Newfoundland 27, 127 New Orleans 126, 269 Newton Junior Secondary 267 New West Jazz Clinic 85 New West Jazz Festival 219, 268 New Westminister Jazz Festival 211 New Westminster 7, 8, 46, 81, 83 New Westminster and District Concert Band 88

North Vancouver Music Educators Association 55, 56 North Vancouver Schools’ Band 112 North Vancouver Youth Band 97, 223 North Vancouver Youth Band (NVYB) 118 Northwest Music 44, 245 Northwest Music Festival 20 Northwest String Orchestra Festival 137 Noth Vancouver District Music Supervisor 56 NVYB 119, 120

O

Oak Bay 71 Oak Bay High School 31, 283 New Westminster Jazz Festival 81, 100, Oh, Gina 221 124, 258, 283, 326 Oliver 40 New Westminster Jazz Festivals 259 Olson, Gordon 187, 188, 190, 192 New West Summer Jazz Clinic 285 Ontario 28 New York City 71, 127, 184, 206, 294, Open House Canada Grant 219 321 Opera House Concerts 101 Nicholson, Bruce 125 Oregon 79, 137 Nicholson, Neil 125 Orff 10, 31 Nicholson, Pat 125 Orlando 321 Nikkel, John 258 Orpheum Theatre 97 Nimmons, Phil 271 Osaka, Japan 71 Nisga’a 21 Oshawa 239 Ostereicher, Ken 59, 279 Nolan, Julia 103 Norkam Secondary 245 Otter Elementary 256 Normal School 18 Norman, Fran 73 P Norman, Marek 71, 73 Pacific Basin Invitational Music Festival 48 North Delta Concert Band 180 Pacific Coast Music Festivals Association North Delta Secondary 303, 307 90 North Delta Secondary Jazz Band 181 Pajala, Ron 72, 89, 231 North Delta Secondary School 300 Pandolfo, Angelo 258 North Otter Elementary 256 Panorama Roof 254 North Surrey Secondary 269 North Vancouver Elementary Band & Strings Parents Association 196

338 ~ Index Paris 239 Park City Concert Band 323 Parliament Buildings 239 Paul Harris Fellowship award 272 Perdido 191 Perry, Frank 96 Perry, George 286 Petschauer, Rudy 221 Petschauer, Rudy and Heidi 212 Pettie, Wayne 216 Pickell, Dave 278 Piercey, Sheldon 71 PNE Forum 45 Poland 29 Pollard, Dave 187, 188, 251 Port Coquitlam (sister city) parades 40 Porter, Doc 38 Portland 136 Port Mann Elementary Schoo 108 Port Moody High School 39 Port Moody May Day Parade 40 Port Simpson 22 Potter, Rex 7 Powell River 7, 31, 99, 100, 104, 255, 261, 285 Price, Doug 299 Prince George 31, 201 Prince of Wales Secondary 41, 73 Prince Rupert 22 Princess Margaret Secondary. 267 Princes Street 120 Proznick, Dave 32, 265, 266, 326 Proznick, Jodi 269, 271 Proznick, Kelly 269 Proznick, Tim 269, 270 Pryce, Doug 83, 87, 318

Q Quan, Gerry 283, 299, 318 Quan, Greg 50

Queen’s Park 120 Queen Elizabeth Secondary 110 Queen Elizabeth Theatre 94, 103 Querns, Kerry 245

R Raible, Terry 254 Ralston, Rory 27 Ramsden, Dan 192 Ramsey, Mary 304 Rankin, Bob 24, 53, 55, 87, 114, 135, 192 Rayment, Randy 191 RCF Naden Band 243 Rebagliati, Bob 55, 59, 84, 85, 93, 96, 101, 123, 131, 184, 187, 194, 195, 278, 283, 285, 299 Reconfiguration 305 Reeves, Dianna 124 Regan, Cam 271 Reno 269 Reno Jazz Festival 82, 83, 124 Repel, Teo 220 Revely, Mike 278 Rhodes 203 Rice, Bobby 221 Richards, Mary, Helen 10 Richmond Community Band 323 Robbins, Dave 81 Robinson, Chris 75, 211, 213, 215, 219, 221, 226 Robinson, Lynn 278 Robinson, Lynne 189, 252, 261 Robson, Sherwood 55, 87, 238 Rocky Mountain Music Festival 290 Roemer, Frank 282 Rogers, Don 252, 253 Roloph, Peter 26 Rose, Mark 39, 87

INDEX ~ 339 Roseburg, Oregon 258 Rosnes, Renee 125, 127 Rossland 238 Rotterdam 239 Rowley, Charles 37 Roy, Rob 247 Royal Oak Junior High 252 Royal Oak Junior Secondary 188 Roy Rob 26 Rozich, Robert 211, 221 Rupert, Gary 90 Rushton, Marilynn 220 Ryerson Fall Concert 45

S S.G. Willis School 18 Saanich School District 42 Sacramento, Ca. 84 Salem, Oregon 79, 258 Salmo 40 Salvation Army 53 Salvation Army band 107, 108 San Diego 321 Sands Secondary 303 San Francisco 136, 269 Santa Jose, California, 259 Sardis 71 Sarmento, Gloria 312 Saskatchewan 29 Saskatoon International Band Festival 125 Schaefer, Bob 46, 79, 219, 283-4, 285, 299, 318, 326 Schell, Jim 279 Schemer, Lorne 187, 192 Scotland 107, 206 Scott, Jeff 259 Seaquam Secondary 212, 300, 303 Seaside Secondary School 104

Seattle 101, 103 Selkirk Senior High School 66 Semiahmoo High School 269 Semiahmoo Senior Secondary 268 Seney, Lynn 91 SEVEC 303 Seycove Secondary 192, 193 Seymour Fine Arts Building 38 Seymour Heights Elementary 113 SFU 99 Shaughnessy, Ed 103 Sherman, Hal 70, 83, 100, 102, 103, 104, 124, 268, 283, 285 Shew, Bobby 44 Shorthouse, Tom 49 Shrewsbury 118 Sight and Sound Music 20 Singers Unlimited 102 Sir Charles Best Secondary 280 Sir Frederick Banting 276 Sir Frederick Banting Jr. Secondary 39 SITA 7, 9, 89 Skinner, Lynn 126 Slind, Dr. Lloyd 9 Smith, Art 97, 111, 223 Sommers, Marty 39, 225, 245, 253 South Burnably Secondary 278 Spain 203 Sparks, Claire 128 Sparrow, Jill 212 Specialty Featured Arts Program 11 Squamish 201 St. George’s Senior School 191 St. Paul’s Lipid Clinic 281 Staples, R.J. 266 Stewart, Dave 125 Stigings, Pete 71, 89, 90, 215, 220, 276 Stigings, Peter 37 St James Music Academy 185 Stonier, Bill 44 Stovall, Bryan 32, 194, 258

340 ~ Index the B.C. Band Association 196 Stowell, Charlie 31, 99, 100, 254, 255, The B.C. Choral Federation 33 256, 285 The B.C. Music Educator’sAssociation 196 Stowell, Nancy 99, 256 Stratford Festival 71 The Boss Brass 102 Streb, Robib and Cassia 184 The Castle Hotel 233 Stride, Fred 46, 104, 278 The Delta Music Makers 206 Strings Extravaganza 184 The Four Freshmen 102 Stromquist, Jon 255 The Fraser Institute Analysis 129 Sudermann, Gail 49 The Kitsilano Boys Band 169 Sullivan Secondary 311 The Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival 310 Summer Centre for the Arts program 212 The Maritimes 206 Summer Centre of the Arts 72 the Maritimes 321 Summers, Janet 94 The Mediterranean 203 Summers, Marty 192, 257, 326 The Naden Band 324 Summers, Marty and Karen 278 The National Youth Orchestra 54 Sure, Diana 102 The North Vancouver Band & Strings ParSurrey Arts Centre 326 ents Association 196 Surrey Christian High School 133 The Prophet 73 Surrey Jazz Festival 259, 284, 311, 326 The Summer Center of the Arts 73 SURREY TREASURE AWARD 272 Thompson, Pat 100 Sutherland Secondary 110, 111, 112, 224 Thompson, Ray 87, 277 Sweeney. Sister Floret 10 Threshhold to Music 10 Switzerland 321 Thrive Strings Academy 185 Titcomb, Reg 109, 110 T Todd, Max 218 Tom Furness 297 “The Open House Canada Project 47 Taylor, Peter 49, 59, 92, 97, 98, 99, 103, Tom Lee Music 44 Tonight Show band 81 104, 225 TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival Toren, Steve 225 Toronto 102, 204 293 Townsend, Len 117 Team Teach 98 Trail 7 Tempest, Jim 302 Trepp, John 44, 49, 220, 245, 284 Terrace 20, 21 Trowsdale, Dr. Cam 32 Terrace Music Festival 20 Trudeau, Prime Minister 239 Terry, Clark 124 Tse, Gary 226 Tessie O’Shea 236 Tunisia 203 The Abbotsford Band Festival 91 Tupman, Dennis 17, 44, 46, 48, 54, 69, 74, Theatre Under the Stars 71 87, 221, 246, 280

INDEX ~ 341 Tupman, Dr. Dennis F. 7 Vancouver School Board Nights of Music 5, Tupman, Frank 17 12, 14, 45 Tupman, Ruth 20 Vancouver School District 41 Tupper High School 240 Vancouver Schools Nights of Music 72 Turkey 203 Vancouver Youth Symphony 38 Turner, Brad 91, 271, 302 Vanier Auditorium 8 Turner, Fred 7, 8, 41, 69, 87, 88, 89, 301, van Ooyen, Peter 133 316 vaudeville 236 Turner, John 221 Vernon 7 Turner, Kerry 24, 48, 80, 87, 210, 216, Victoria 7, 8, 17, 23, 31, 209 261 Victoria College 18 Turner, Marilynn 210, 297 Victoria High School 18, 19 Tusvik, Art 233, 237 Victoria Symphony Orchestra 66 Tyler, Cathey 300 Victoria University Band 19 Vineberg, Jerry 85 U Vint, Colin 303 VSO 38, 95 U.B.C. 8, 32 UBC 54, 55, 67, 98 UBC Music 200 UBC Music Department 93 UBC Wind Ensemble 216 University of Oregon 80 University of Victoria 23 University of Victoria School of Music 196 Utendale, Rahama 108

W Walnut Grove Secondary 288 Ward Music 44, 84, 109 Wards Music 110 Warr, Dale 244 Warren, Janet 49, 55, 59, 90 Washington D.C. 206, 321

Watrous, Bill 103, 124 Webster, Janine 282 Weins, Al 279 Valley View Jr. Secondary 282 Weins, Victor 135 Vancouver 25 Vancouver Christian Secondary School Wekker, Roger 116, 135 Welles, Neil 39 134 WESTCOAST JAZZ FESTIVAL 186 Vancouver City College 104, 317 Vancouver District Music Supervisor: 41 West Coast Wilderness Lodge 201 Western Washington University 283 Vancouver Guitar Quartet 210 West Vancouver Boys & Girls Band 199 Vancouver Junior Symphony 38 Vancouver Kiwanis Concert Band Festi- West Whalley Jr. Secondary 310, 311 West Whalley Junior High 109, 111 val 84 West Whalley Junior High School band 110 Vancouver Kiwanis Festival 283

V

Vancouver Playhouse 190

342 ~ Index Wettig, Max 189 Whistler Music Festival 229, 249 White, John 24, 48, 87, 90, 91, 210, 257 Whitely, David 278 White Rock Junior Secondary 268 Wiebe, John 89 Willamette University 79 Williams, Danny 27 Williams, Garth 94, 95, 96, 98, 123, 224 Williams Lake 30 Wilson, Cam 184 Wilson, Eugene 252 Wilson, Sherry 26 Windsor Elementary 251 Windsor Elementary School 188 Windsor Music Boosters Association 117 Windsor Secondary 59, 113, 115, 116 Wix-Brown Elementary 256 Wolfe, Lia 304 Woodward, Keith 128, 187, 252, 253, 278

Y Yamaha Rising Star Awards 271 Yarwood, Ralph 7, 66, 67 Yau, Benny 221 Yokohama 41 Yorkton 267

Z Zimmerman, Gary 115

ATTENTION MUSIC DIRECTORS! MAKE 2016 THE YEAR OF THE SCRAPBOOK.

Assign one of your students to collect photos, newspaper clippings, concert programs, tour info and other things over the course of the school year and save it in a filing cabinet, box or make a scrapbook You can even give the student a title. Make them the PR MANAGER for your music program.

If they are really keen get them to go out and collect material from your elementary feeder schools.

WHY? Because THE SCHOOL MUSIC BOOK PROJECT is coming!

THE SCHOOL MUSIC BOOK PROJECT

The SCHOOL MUSIC BOOK PROJECT brings together a scrapbook on your school music program and an alumni list on FACEBOOK and raises funds for your music program. When the book is completed the alumni purchase a copy.

WARFLEET PRESS is working on two books right now!

The first SCHOOL MUSIC BOOK compiled under the project is on Handsworth Secondary in North Vancouver.

WHY HANDSWORTH? Because so far they are the only school we have come across where one of their past directors (Bob Rebagliati) assembled 12 scrapbooks But what if we don’t have scrapbooks you ask? Then you start collecting material today. Eventually you will have enough material for a book.

To learn more check out our FACEBOOK page at: https://www.facebook.com/schoolmusicbookproject/

There was a time in recent British Columbian history that an enlightened government understood that learning music (whether voice or instrument) at school was a vital part of a well-rounded education. Governments in those days supported and funded a wide variety of musical courses throughout the province. These courses were taught by welltrained, dedicated teachers to thousands of students who felt that their lives were immensely enriched by participating in them. Most parents supported these programs and many got involved. They knew, as their children did, that making good music with other people is a pleasure (and sometimes a thrill like no other) and that studying muic develops self-discipline,cooperation with others, and listening and reading skills. It is a great pity that those days of government support have gone. Since 1992 the B.C. government has steadily cut back funding for music programs. This book will give you some idea of what music education has to offer young people and why it would be a sad mistake if the B.C. government were to continue with its present policy. Chris Best, who has written several important books on the legacy of Arthur Delamont and his many bands (including the Kitsilano Boys Band) has assembled here the stories (told by themselves) of twenty-three talented British Columbian music teachers whose lengthy careers span the enlightened years of government support and the benighted years of cut-backs. These teachers are for the most part retired and do not fear to speak out bravely and openly about what has happened in music education. This book has some important messages.