Guest Speaker Bramwell Tovey

Muriel Groves introduced the guest speaker, Bramwell Tovey. After several good jokes he gave a brief history of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. It is composed of musicians, a marketing team, volunteers, and the corporate sponsor is Telus which focuses on education. 50,000 school children each year have the opportunity to hear the Symphony. The Orpheum holds 28.000 people and last year there were 151 concerts between October and June. In the summer the maestro travels around the world as a guest conductor. There is an extensive music library composed of 87 years of accumulated books. Bramwell arrived in Canada from England in 2000 and settled in Winnipeg for 2 years before arriving in Vancouver in 2002. The piano has 88 keys and is the closest instrument to a full orchestra. As well as a conductor, he is a powerful and exciting pianist. He played Oh Canada at the opening of the meeting and a beautiful medley of Christmas Carols which included, Requiem for a Charred Skull, which he composed. He asked if there was anyone at the meeting who had a birthday in December. Clive Cocking was the only one. He called Clive to the front of the room and from the spelling of his name he picked out the musical notes from the letters. He then composed a beautiful song which ended with Happy Birthday. We had a magical half hour with a comedian, pianist, composer, and yes, a maestro. A lot of the history about the symphony I couldn't write fast enough. Notes this week by Kathryn H.