Larry Knopp, trumpet
Marcus Goddard, trumpet
Vincent Vohradsky, trumpet
Andrew Mee, horn
Brian Wendel, trombone
Peder MacLellan, tuba
Oskar Böhme Brass Sextet in E-Flat minor, Op. 30
Leonard Bernstein Maria ( West Side Story)
George Gershwin A Foggy Day in London Town
Members of the VSO brass section are heard in the uber-romantic Sextet by the master trumpet player Oskar Böhme (1870-1938). Born in Germany, Böhme spent much of his career in Budapest and then Russia, where he was a member of the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra from 1897 to 1921. Bernstein and Gershwin provide the encores, with two songs from stage and screen.
Larry Knopp, trumpet
Larry Knopp began his career as Acting Principal Trumpet of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at the age of 20. He has also held positions as Principal Trumpet with Orchestra London, the Hamilton Philharmonic, the CBC Radio Orchestra, as well as the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and is currently Principal Trumpet of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Larry has performed and recorded with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, as well as the three tenors.
Larry completed his Master’s degree at Northwestern University, where he played in the Chicago Civic Orchestra, and studied with Vincent Cichowicz. He has finished the academic work for his Doctoral degree at the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Barbara Butler.
As an educator and conductor with a Bachelor of Education Degree, Larry has directed ensembles from junior high to university levels, and has recently finished appointments as visiting Professor of trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Northwestern University School of Music. Larry is active as a clinician throughout North America, Australia and Asia. As a faculty member at many summer festivals, Larry attracts numerous students to Vancouver, teaching at the University of British Columbia.
Larry has performed as a soloist and recitalist on television as well as CBC local and national radio, including solo performances with the Edmonton Symphony, Orchestra London, the Hamilton Philharmonic, the Vancouver Symphony, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, and the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra.
Larry is a Yamaha artist.
Marcus Goddard, trumpet
Marcus Goddard is an award-winning composer and internationally respected trumpet player with a large body of innovative work for orchestra, chamber ensemble, and solo instruments with electronics. Described by New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini as “atmospheric” and by Bill Richardson as possessing a “shimmering, translucent, winning eloquence”, Goddard’s music is influenced by and reflects the elemental forces of nature.
Goddard’s award-winning string quartets have received hundreds of performances by quartets across Europe and the Americas in venues such as Carnegie Hall and New World Center. The Archytas Quartet recently recorded an album dedicated to three of Goddard’s works for strings featuring Allaqi, Wind, Sand and Stars, and his newest string quartet, Three Wings. Goddard has composed a Violin Concerto for soloist Rachel Barton Pine, a Cello Concerto for Ariel Barnes and has collaborated with a wide variety of artists. Goddard and Mohawk-Acadian artist Lindsay Dobbin recently created a multi-media work titled Confluence that focuses on water’s power to connect and transform. A collaboration with Nisga’a artist Mike Dangeli and standing Wave Ensemble produced the multi-movement work Raven Tales. During the 2020-21 season Goddard collaboratively joined with National Geographic photographers Cristina Mittermeier, Paul Nicklen, and Yo Yo Ma to create a multi-media work honouring the wild and awe-inspiring spaces of the Antarctic.
Goddard is the Composer in Association and Associate Principal Trumpet with the Grammy and Juno Award-winning Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Composer in Residence with the Victoria Symphony.
Vincent Vohradsky, trumpet
In 2011 Vincent Vohradsky became the second trumpet with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. In addition to his position with the VSO he is a member of the Vancouver Symphony Brass Quintet, and the Vancouver Brass Project. He has performed with the Calgary Philharmonic, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Victoria Symphony Orchestra, and the Vancouver Opera Orchestra.
Vincent received a Bachelors Degree from Brandon University under the tutelage of Alan Ehnes and earned a Masters Degree from the University of British Columbia as a pupil of Larry Knopp. In 1999 and then again in 2002, Vincent was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada where he studied with Vincent Cichowicz. Vincent has a keen interest in teaching and aspires to further the musical cause in Vancouver and throughout British Columbia.
Andrew Mee, horn
Andrew joined the horn section of the Vancouver Symphony in 2012. In addition to his role in the orchestra, he regularly performs with the Vancouver Symphony Chamber Players and is a member of the Admare Wind Quintet. Andrew has participated in concerts or recording sessions with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Victoria Symphony.
He holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and Yale University. His main teachers were Harcus Hennigar, James Sommerville and William Purvis. Outside of the orchestra, Andrew loves being outdoors and enjoys as much time as possible on his road bike or snowboard.
Brian Wendel, trombone
Brian Wendel joined the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as Principal Trombone in 2017. Winner of numerous solo competitions, such as the Online Trombone Competition (2020), Alessi Seminar Asia Competition (2018) and two International Trombone Association competitions (2014 and 2016), Brian has also performed with the Seattle Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the New York Philharmonic Brass Ensemble and has appeared as a soloist with the Vancouver and Prince George Symphonies and the Juilliard Trombone Choir.
Brian has performed as a solo recitalist and worked with students at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Alessi Seminar Asia, and University of British Columbia (UBC) School of Music, to name a few, with upcoming recital and teaching engagements in Europe in 2021. In 2019 Brian was appointed as Adjunct Professor of Trombone at UBC, and has since also been an Associate Instructor for the Alessi Seminar Asia.
Growing up in the rural town of Conway, Massachusetts, Brian’s other endeavors have included piano, jazz, and composing and performing his own music. He received his Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student of Joseph Alessi, the principal trombone of the New York Philharmonic.
Stay tuned for Brian’s upcoming solo album release, and please feel free to visit his website, brianwendelmusic.com, for more details and sound bytes!
Peder MacLellan, tuba
Peder MacLellan is Principal Tuba with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and is also a sessional lecturer at UBC where he teaches low brass and coaches chamber ensembles. In the past, Peder has been principal tuba with the South Bend and Lafayette Symphony Orchestras, and was the Associate Instructor of Tuba and Euphonium at Indiana University. Before moving to Vancouver, Peder maintained a successful career as a freelance musician in the U.S. and was an active studio musician in Indianapolis.
Peder has performed throughout Canada and the United States in various chamber music settings, symphony orchestras, wind ensembles, big bands and small group jazz ensembles. A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from The University of Manitoba. Peder holds a Master’s Degree from Indiana University Bloomington and is in the process of completing a Doctorate. Peder is a Buffet Group Tuba Artist and Clinician. He performs exclusively on B&S instruments.
Oskar Böhme
(b. February 24, 1870 / Potschappel, Germany)
(d. October 23, 1938 / Chkalov, USSR)
Oskar Böhme was one of the foremost trumpeters of his day. As a composer, his output is small - virtually all of it featuring brass instruments. But his Trumpet Concerto is one of the milestones of literature from the Romantic era - deemed by some as the first such work worthy of comparison with Hummel's trumpet concerto, written a century earlier.
Böhme was a graduate of the Leipzig Conservatory and from his teens was a travelling trumpet virtuoso. At the turn of the 20th century, he could be found in the Imperial Court Opera Orchestra in St. Petersburg. He subsequently won the principal position with the Mariinsky Theatre, serving from 1903 until 1921.
Alongside his performance career, Böhme taught music and wrote several well-crafted works for brass, including the Brass Sextet (aka Trumpet Sextet) presented here , which dates from 1906. The particular musical qualities of a trumpet, with a cylindrical bore, versus a Cornet, with a conical bore, can be found elsewhere - suffice to say that the choice of particular horns used is a matter of discussion for brass afficionados. For the general public, the Sextet presents a buoyant and floridly romantic sound with four enchanting movements.
In the mid-1930s, Böhme was swept up in the "Great Terror" under which Stalin banished any artists or scientists deemed (by him) to be disloyal to the Communist party to gulags in the furthest reaches of the Soviet Union. In particular, people of German extraction were singled out. Böhme was relegated to teaching trumpet at a conservatory in the Ural mountains. He was subsequently shot by Stalin's henchmen, one of more than 750,000 victims of the brutal purge.
George Gershwin
(b. September 26, 1898 / Brooklyn NY, USA)
(d. July 11, 1937 / Los Angeles, CA, USA)
“…I viewed the morning with alarm / The British museum had lost its charm…”
Conjuring up a romantic soul adrift in a “pea soup,” walking and dancing through a wooded landscape, the jazz standard "A Foggy Day (in London Town)" was composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by his brother Ira Gershwin. It was introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film A Damsel in Distress, in which Astaire portrays an American entertainer, Jerry Halliday, who has been set on a romantic pursuit of the very English Lady Alyce Marschmorton, played by Joan Fontaine. It was the first RKO picture in which Astaire was not partnered with Ginger Rogers and, surprising, the 19 year-old Fontaine had no training as a dancer. Based on a story P.G. Wodehouse, the film was in production when doctors discovered that Gershwin had a brain tumor. The picture was released in November, 1937, four months after Gershwin’s death.
Leonard Bernstein
(b. August 25, 1918 / Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA)
(d. October 14, 1990 /New York NY, USA)
...The most beautiful sound I ever heard: / Maria. Maria, Maria, Maria…”
Leonard Bernstein turned to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as his principal inspiration for his 1957 musical West Side Story. The tale of star-crossed lovers was transplanted from Verona, Italy to the upper west side of Manhattan in the 1950s. “Maria" is sung by the lead character Tony, who is from a working-class Irish-Polish family. The girl he has fallen in love with is Maria (whose name he repeats to himself 29 times). She is a recent Puerto Rican immigrant, whose overly protective brother is a member of the Sharks, a street gang in conflict with Tony’s former associates in the Jets.
Bernstein captures that conflict in musical terms by his frequent use of an interval known as the tritone. Halfway between the upper and lower extremes of a scale lies a note that is so discordant that it demands to resolve to another note, either moving down a halfstep to a fourth or up a halfstep to a fifth. For many years, music students have used the pitches of “Ma-Ri-a” as a memory aide to successfully sing a tritone. Incidentally, the same notes are used at the opening of the animated comedy “The SIMP-sons”)
Notes: Matthew Baird
Larry Knopp, trumpet
Marcus Goddard, trumpet
Vincent Vohradsky, trumpet
Andrew Mee, horn
Brian Wendel, trombone
Peder MacLellan, tuba
Oskar Böhme Brass Sextet in E-Flat minor, Op. 30
Leonard Bernstein Maria ( West Side Story)
George Gershwin A Foggy Day in London Town
Members of the VSO brass section are heard in the uber-romantic Sextet by the master trumpet player Oskar Böhme (1870-1938). Born in Germany, Böhme spent much of his career in Budapest and then Russia, where he was a member of the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra from 1897 to 1921. Bernstein and Gershwin provide the encores, with two songs from stage and screen.
Larry Knopp, trumpet
Larry Knopp began his career as Acting Principal Trumpet of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at the age of 20. He has also held positions as Principal Trumpet with Orchestra London, the Hamilton Philharmonic, the CBC Radio Orchestra, as well as the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and is currently Principal Trumpet of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Larry has performed and recorded with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, as well as the three tenors.
Larry completed his Master’s degree at Northwestern University, where he played in the Chicago Civic Orchestra, and studied with Vincent Cichowicz. He has finished the academic work for his Doctoral degree at the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Barbara Butler.
As an educator and conductor with a Bachelor of Education Degree, Larry has directed ensembles from junior high to university levels, and has recently finished appointments as visiting Professor of trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Northwestern University School of Music. Larry is active as a clinician throughout North America, Australia and Asia. As a faculty member at many summer festivals, Larry attracts numerous students to Vancouver, teaching at the University of British Columbia.
Larry has performed as a soloist and recitalist on television as well as CBC local and national radio, including solo performances with the Edmonton Symphony, Orchestra London, the Hamilton Philharmonic, the Vancouver Symphony, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, and the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra.
Larry is a Yamaha artist.
Marcus Goddard, trumpet
Marcus Goddard is an award-winning composer and internationally respected trumpet player with a large body of innovative work for orchestra, chamber ensemble, and solo instruments with electronics. Described by New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini as “atmospheric” and by Bill Richardson as possessing a “shimmering, translucent, winning eloquence”, Goddard’s music is influenced by and reflects the elemental forces of nature.
Goddard’s award-winning string quartets have received hundreds of performances by quartets across Europe and the Americas in venues such as Carnegie Hall and New World Center. The Archytas Quartet recently recorded an album dedicated to three of Goddard’s works for strings featuring Allaqi, Wind, Sand and Stars, and his newest string quartet, Three Wings. Goddard has composed a Violin Concerto for soloist Rachel Barton Pine, a Cello Concerto for Ariel Barnes and has collaborated with a wide variety of artists. Goddard and Mohawk-Acadian artist Lindsay Dobbin recently created a multi-media work titled Confluence that focuses on water’s power to connect and transform. A collaboration with Nisga’a artist Mike Dangeli and standing Wave Ensemble produced the multi-movement work Raven Tales. During the 2020-21 season Goddard collaboratively joined with National Geographic photographers Cristina Mittermeier, Paul Nicklen, and Yo Yo Ma to create a multi-media work honouring the wild and awe-inspiring spaces of the Antarctic.
Goddard is the Composer in Association and Associate Principal Trumpet with the Grammy and Juno Award-winning Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Composer in Residence with the Victoria Symphony.
Vincent Vohradsky, trumpet
In 2011 Vincent Vohradsky became the second trumpet with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. In addition to his position with the VSO he is a member of the Vancouver Symphony Brass Quintet, and the Vancouver Brass Project. He has performed with the Calgary Philharmonic, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Victoria Symphony Orchestra, and the Vancouver Opera Orchestra.
Vincent received a Bachelors Degree from Brandon University under the tutelage of Alan Ehnes and earned a Masters Degree from the University of British Columbia as a pupil of Larry Knopp. In 1999 and then again in 2002, Vincent was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada where he studied with Vincent Cichowicz. Vincent has a keen interest in teaching and aspires to further the musical cause in Vancouver and throughout British Columbia.
Andrew Mee, horn
Andrew joined the horn section of the Vancouver Symphony in 2012. In addition to his role in the orchestra, he regularly performs with the Vancouver Symphony Chamber Players and is a member of the Admare Wind Quintet. Andrew has participated in concerts or recording sessions with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Victoria Symphony.
He holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and Yale University. His main teachers were Harcus Hennigar, James Sommerville and William Purvis. Outside of the orchestra, Andrew loves being outdoors and enjoys as much time as possible on his road bike or snowboard.
Brian Wendel, trombone
Brian Wendel joined the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as Principal Trombone in 2017. Winner of numerous solo competitions, such as the Online Trombone Competition (2020), Alessi Seminar Asia Competition (2018) and two International Trombone Association competitions (2014 and 2016), Brian has also performed with the Seattle Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the New York Philharmonic Brass Ensemble and has appeared as a soloist with the Vancouver and Prince George Symphonies and the Juilliard Trombone Choir.
Brian has performed as a solo recitalist and worked with students at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Alessi Seminar Asia, and University of British Columbia (UBC) School of Music, to name a few, with upcoming recital and teaching engagements in Europe in 2021. In 2019 Brian was appointed as Adjunct Professor of Trombone at UBC, and has since also been an Associate Instructor for the Alessi Seminar Asia.
Growing up in the rural town of Conway, Massachusetts, Brian’s other endeavors have included piano, jazz, and composing and performing his own music. He received his Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student of Joseph Alessi, the principal trombone of the New York Philharmonic.
Stay tuned for Brian’s upcoming solo album release, and please feel free to visit his website, brianwendelmusic.com, for more details and sound bytes!
Peder MacLellan, tuba
Peder MacLellan is Principal Tuba with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and is also a sessional lecturer at UBC where he teaches low brass and coaches chamber ensembles. In the past, Peder has been principal tuba with the South Bend and Lafayette Symphony Orchestras, and was the Associate Instructor of Tuba and Euphonium at Indiana University. Before moving to Vancouver, Peder maintained a successful career as a freelance musician in the U.S. and was an active studio musician in Indianapolis.
Peder has performed throughout Canada and the United States in various chamber music settings, symphony orchestras, wind ensembles, big bands and small group jazz ensembles. A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from The University of Manitoba. Peder holds a Master’s Degree from Indiana University Bloomington and is in the process of completing a Doctorate. Peder is a Buffet Group Tuba Artist and Clinician. He performs exclusively on B&S instruments.
Oskar Böhme
(b. February 24, 1870 / Potschappel, Germany)
(d. October 23, 1938 / Chkalov, USSR)
Oskar Böhme was one of the foremost trumpeters of his day. As a composer, his output is small - virtually all of it featuring brass instruments. But his Trumpet Concerto is one of the milestones of literature from the Romantic era - deemed by some as the first such work worthy of comparison with Hummel's trumpet concerto, written a century earlier.
Böhme was a graduate of the Leipzig Conservatory and from his teens was a travelling trumpet virtuoso. At the turn of the 20th century, he could be found in the Imperial Court Opera Orchestra in St. Petersburg. He subsequently won the principal position with the Mariinsky Theatre, serving from 1903 until 1921.
Alongside his performance career, Böhme taught music and wrote several well-crafted works for brass, including the Brass Sextet (aka Trumpet Sextet) presented here , which dates from 1906. The particular musical qualities of a trumpet, with a cylindrical bore, versus a Cornet, with a conical bore, can be found elsewhere - suffice to say that the choice of particular horns used is a matter of discussion for brass afficionados. For the general public, the Sextet presents a buoyant and floridly romantic sound with four enchanting movements.
In the mid-1930s, Böhme was swept up in the "Great Terror" under which Stalin banished any artists or scientists deemed (by him) to be disloyal to the Communist party to gulags in the furthest reaches of the Soviet Union. In particular, people of German extraction were singled out. Böhme was relegated to teaching trumpet at a conservatory in the Ural mountains. He was subsequently shot by Stalin's henchmen, one of more than 750,000 victims of the brutal purge.
George Gershwin
(b. September 26, 1898 / Brooklyn NY, USA)
(d. July 11, 1937 / Los Angeles, CA, USA)
“…I viewed the morning with alarm / The British museum had lost its charm…”
Conjuring up a romantic soul adrift in a “pea soup,” walking and dancing through a wooded landscape, the jazz standard "A Foggy Day (in London Town)" was composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by his brother Ira Gershwin. It was introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film A Damsel in Distress, in which Astaire portrays an American entertainer, Jerry Halliday, who has been set on a romantic pursuit of the very English Lady Alyce Marschmorton, played by Joan Fontaine. It was the first RKO picture in which Astaire was not partnered with Ginger Rogers and, surprising, the 19 year-old Fontaine had no training as a dancer. Based on a story P.G. Wodehouse, the film was in production when doctors discovered that Gershwin had a brain tumor. The picture was released in November, 1937, four months after Gershwin’s death.
Leonard Bernstein
(b. August 25, 1918 / Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA)
(d. October 14, 1990 /New York NY, USA)
...The most beautiful sound I ever heard: / Maria. Maria, Maria, Maria…”
Leonard Bernstein turned to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as his principal inspiration for his 1957 musical West Side Story. The tale of star-crossed lovers was transplanted from Verona, Italy to the upper west side of Manhattan in the 1950s. “Maria" is sung by the lead character Tony, who is from a working-class Irish-Polish family. The girl he has fallen in love with is Maria (whose name he repeats to himself 29 times). She is a recent Puerto Rican immigrant, whose overly protective brother is a member of the Sharks, a street gang in conflict with Tony’s former associates in the Jets.
Bernstein captures that conflict in musical terms by his frequent use of an interval known as the tritone. Halfway between the upper and lower extremes of a scale lies a note that is so discordant that it demands to resolve to another note, either moving down a halfstep to a fourth or up a halfstep to a fifth. For many years, music students have used the pitches of “Ma-Ri-a” as a memory aide to successfully sing a tritone. Incidentally, the same notes are used at the opening of the animated comedy “The SIMP-sons”)
Notes: Matthew Baird
