TRY IT! YOU’LL LIKE IT! (Zucchini pie)

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OK, it’s Summer and this is a fabulous recipe for using up all of those zucchinis that have taken over your vegetable patch, or perhaps that your friendly neighbourhood gardener very kindly dumped on your doorstep.  This dish is great summertime fare with a tossed salad and a nice medium-dry white wine!  Consider making a … Read more

The Joan Watson Scholarship

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VICTORIA, BC – Yamaha Canada Music has announced the Joan Watson Memorial Scholarship, for first-year students entering the University of Victoria. Beginning in the fall of 2016, and continuing for the next three years, a Canadian brass player accepted to the School of Music will be eligible to receive a $1500 cash award. Joan Watson, … Read more

Scallops a la Doug

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Doug Purvis was a fellow tuba player in Toronto, and was quite the bon vivant himself.  He played for over thirty years in the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra, and we performed together in the tuba section of the Hannaford Street Silver Band for around twenty years.  This recipe is the result of hanging out … Read more

Linguine with White Clam Sauce

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Before making this, you must say the following in a sotto voce Homer Simpson voice: “Ummmmmm.  Linguine-with-white-clam-sauce. Aaghgahgahghgagh.”  Yes, there’s nothing quite like it.  I’ve had it in many, many establishments.  My recipe search has taken me from the Toronto Star’s Chef Showcase, to an old Philadelphia Orchestra cookbook, and to places on the internet … Read more

H(ail)* Caesar!

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Caesar Salad I’ve made this quite a lot over the years, and I now find that I’ve upped the garlic content quite a bit from the early days, but, from experience, I can say this; “Know your dinner guests before going nuts with the garlic!”  By the way, my favourite Caesar salad that I have … Read more

Gazpacho

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gazpacho

After years and years of making Gazpacho, from myriad recipes, I think I have come up with “the ultimate”. It combines the best from several recipes, plus a few of my own things thrown in for good measure. The “herbs and spices” tomatoes add a nice touch of seasoning not found in plain tomatoes. As … Read more

Joan Watson

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On March 12th, 2015, I lost the love of my life, my best friend and my muse.  Joan Watson was an exceptional person, teacher, musician, horn player, woman, mom and inspiration for some of my compositions. One of those compositions is Shapeshifter for French Horn and Brass Band.  Check it out here in a recording … Read more

A Case for a New Ensemble: The Organ Sextet!

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Brahms’ Horn Trio is a work for violin, French horn and piano, not a piece for three horns.  Similarly, a Piano Quartet is not an aggregation of four pianos, it’s the combination of (or a composition for) violin, viola, cello and piano.  And the Schubert “Trout” Quintet is not a …well… never mind, I’m sure … Read more

The Flintstones Tuba

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Imagine getting to play Heifetz’ violin, or Rubinstein’s piano or Casals’ cello or…..

flintstone_tuba
Living the dream at Jim Self’s house in Los Angeles.

I have to admit that I really didn’t know what to think of playing the tuba after being first handed one in 1967, but one thing was clear – this was the instrument that I heard on my favourite TV show from my youth; The Flintstones!

. In fact, I have to say that watching the reruns of those Flintstones episodes from the early 60s afforded me the opportunity really pay attention to the background music. Whoever that tuba player was, was my inspiration! Many years later I would discover that the tuba player was an LA studio musician named George Boujie, who was the go-to guy for most stuff before Tommy Johnson began his legendary career. On a visit to LA in 2007, I got to fulfill a dream and play Boujie’s CC York tuba used on MGM movie scores in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s as well as on the original Flintstones background music. (a big thank you to tuba legend Jim Self, who now owns the horn.)

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