Archive for Performances

Our logo in the flesh

The cover photo for our first CD is a wolf howling at the night sky which is covered in the Aurora Borealis.  The photo just spoke “Canada” to  all of usso we agreed that would be our logo.  The wolf is on all of our merchandise and Scott and I even had it engraved on a rock with the word “welcome” for the front door of our home.
Stuart Laughton, who was in the group at the time, is an amazing outdoorsman (ask him about any North American bird and he’ll tell you every detail).  This provided fodder for endless interesting conversations while we were touring.
NOW, Stuart is the creative director of the Forest Festival (www.theforestfestival.com) each summer and this summer, True North Brass played the final festival recital for a wonderful audience of cottagers and relaxed Torontonians.  We brought Stuart in to play his harmonica and we augmented some of our charts to include three trumpets.  It was great having Stuart back with the group!
Before the concert, we met the owner of the 70,000 acres of land! now designatedas a permanent forest.  She had in tow a wolf and a couple of nice dogs.  It is illegal to own a pure bred wolf and she explained that people mate wolves with dogs and then keep mating backwards to get as much wolf in them as possible.  The wolf you see in this picture is not pure bred; sure looks that way though, doesn’t it?  He was wonderfully calm so we grabbed the chance to get a photo of our “LOGO” in the flesh, so to speak.
True North Brass with our mascot: "Tatakatu"

True North Brass with our "logo"

Almost heaven

This past Monday, TNB travelled to wild, wonderful West Virginia. West Liberty University is nestled in the picturesque green hills of the state’s Northern Panhandle, about an hour southwest of Pittsburgh. With guest trumpeter Brendan Cassin, we performed a recital featuring music from all of our CDs — well, except the Christmas CD, it’s a little early for that!

We had a great time meeting the faculty and students in the music school at WLU, and really enjoyed our brief stay in West Virginia. Of course, when we travel, we always make a point of seeking out the best traditional local cuisine, which of course led us to coffee and doughnuts at that venerable West Virginia institution, Tim Hortons… (click on the photo for a closer look.)

If you want to see some rather more scenic photos of TNB on the road, check out Al’s photo site, alkayphotos.com. There you can view Al’s fabulous photos from his various travels, including his motorcycle trip through Labrador and TNB’s residency at Music by the Sea.

Music Scores in Parry Sound

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Last week, True North Brass gave 12 performances in and around Parry Sound as part of the “Music Scores” program which is run by the Festival of the Sound and co-sponsored by the Music Performance Fund. For three days, we travelled from school to school, introducing ourselves and our instruments to the students. We performed not only in Parry Sound, but also Britt, Nobel, Wasauksing, Humphrey, Mactier, McDougall and Dunchurch. Fortunately, we didn’t have to find our own way around. Cam Murch and Jim Ferris served as our guides, and without them we almost certainly would have gotten lost and been devoured by bears. (We would have been an especially tasty treat, given our daily doses of butter tarts from Richard’s Coffee in Parry Sound, and the fabulous breakfasts at the Bayside Inn.)

On the fourth day, the students all came to the Charles Stockey Centre in Parry Sound, where we performed for them again. We really enjoyed the entire trip — I’ve played for many supposedly adult audiences that weren’t as quiet and attentive, which is especially remarkable the day before Hallowe’en! Obviously, the small communities outside Parry Sound don’t host a lot of concerts, so it’s great to be able to bring live music to kids who don’t often get that opportunity. It’s fantastic that the Festival of the Sound brings this program to them, and it was a real joy and privilege to be part of it.

Ceremonial Fanfare by Scott Irvine

In preparation for our performances, the students at St. Peter’s School in Parry Sound and Nobel Public School listened to some of our recordings and created some cool artwork inspired by what they heard. Follow the links below for two more videos!

“Downbound from Thunder Bay” from Ontario Pictures by Howard Cable

“Point Pelee” from Ontario Pictures by Howard Cable