THE FREE PRESS ENTERTAINMENT FEB$UA$Y IQ,-1997 Trumpeting in the modem age You’ll have to forgive the Prince George Symphony Orchestra trumpet players if they’re a little distracted at the moment. They have to transcribe their score from F to C or their concert this weekend will sound like mud. They have to translate every single note from one musical language to another or their trumpets would never understand it. The piece they’re playing is Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4. It’s a challenging piece and one that favours the brass section. The problem is, it was written in 1889 for a trumpet that virtually doesn’t exist anymore. “Music publishers still publish in original pitch even though the F trumpet is no longer used by conventional orchestras,” says PGSO principal trumpet player Greg Prosser. “Contemporary music, rock and jazz stuff, is written for the instruments of today. We only have to deal with transposing if we’re dealing with the classics.” Instruments like French horns, clarinets and tubas also have to transpose their parts on occasion, but the violin, cello, piano, etcetera haven’t Greg Prosser, left, and Keith Bokvlst are getting ready formance of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4. John mckenzie/kree evolved as dramatically so culty similar to the their music is virtually identical. “We brass players are always saying that we want a piece for us, and now that we’ve got one we’re a little intimidated,” says community trumpet player Keith Bokvist. “This is really going to challenge us. This is the kind of piece that some brass players here never thought they’d play in Prince George, and here they are playing it.” “This Bruckner piece is brass intensive, yeah,” agrees Greg. “It has a degree of diffi- Shostakovitch No. 5 we played last year, but Bruckner is more accessible. It sounds ‘prettier.’ But that’s coming from a brass player. A string player might say something else.” “A really neat response from the string section for this piece is a lot of groaning and shuffling of feet at rehearsal,” chuckles Keith. “They’re used to being the feature.” “Some of them will have ear plugs,” nods Greg, only half joking. “The volume will be that high, and they for Saturday’s PGSO per- Press are positioned directly in front of the horns. They can’t escape it and it’s going to be loud on stage. It’s not technically difficult, it’s appealing because of the coupling of the volume and the intensity, which is the trumpet player’s prerogative anyhow.” Guest conductor Georg Tintner is a Bruckner specialist and is eager to work it with the PGSO this Saturday and Sunday. The three trumpets -Greg, Keith and Connie Hastey - are speaking his language as well. ▼ From B1 Singer reaches dreams with support, enthusiasm “Ed wrote most of the songs and he wrote them with me in mind. You don’t lose your identity when you’re on the mind of the writer and it’s pretty special to me that those songs are out there.” It was made more special since the death of Ed Lefebvre, who worked hard for Cathy and won’t get to see the finished product. Cathy is dedicating the CD to him. Producer Darren Collier has seen Cathy through to the end of the album. Like Ed, there was something about Cathy’s talent that drew him to work extra voraciously on her behalf. There is a whole support base of people, in fact, that seems to have extraordinary faith in the young woman. When she had an acoustic showcase at 1085 Cafe three weeks ago it was packed with fans and friends. “It’s amazing. You just can’t believe it,” she says. “I think they’re doing all this work because they think things are going to happen for me. They see a potential. It’s exciting for all of us to have a common goal.” Sometimes the talk is a little too exciting. There is intimation of national radio airplay, tours, media attention and star status. This is hard to live up to, but they don’t want to sell Cathy short. The disk is too well produced to disregard it as simply a nice try. For all the slack she’s being cut because she’s local, she really does return a product that could live up to the hype. “I would drop everything in a minute to pursue this,” she pledges. “It’s the love of my life. I’m pretty fortunate that I don’t have any ties here - no children, no husband - and in this business that’s an asset.” She has plenty of other important assets as well, including her voice, her ambition and a healthy reserve of patience. The J Opening Production of the new nee (jeorge Playhouse Written ^ i>y tjeorgesi reydeau ■ A Flea In. ‘"'Her ^ Ear I Performed j. February 14 th -ZZnd (excluding Sunday (he 16th) 1 supporter of the Arts Denis