Hi there and welcome to Notes from the Stage,
a show from the musicians of the Calgary Philharmonic.
We're the people playing our hearts out every
week of the orchestra season. I'm Adam Zinatelli.
Usually I play first trumpet in the Calgary Philharmonic,
but today I'm your host and I'm here with our
brand new second horn player in the orchestra,
Peter Clark. Hi, Peter. Hello. How are you doing?
I'm great, thank you. My heart is pounding. Oh,
I don't bite. I don't think there's a reason
to be nervous here. You're among friends, you
know. I'm here so that we can get to know you
a bit. And as one of the brand new players in
the orchestra, I'm still getting to know you,
too. You know, we've been working together for
a few months now, but, you know, I feel like
we've barely scratched the surface. Yeah, yeah.
We're like strangers. But you know, like, when
you move, well, we'll get into this. Calgary
isn't such a far -flung place for you. No. But
when you move to a new city to start an orchestra
job, one of the great things about it is you
sort of get this free family here. Yeah, and
everybody's been very, very welcoming. It doesn't
actually feel like it's been that new, which
is, yeah, strange to say. Yeah, so you're an
Alberta boy. I am. Yeah, tell us about that.
Well, I'm from, I say I'm from Gunn, Alberta.
It's kind of one of the closest municipalities
to where I grew up. I grew up on an acreage.
My dad built a house near Lac -Saint -Anne. which
is about an hour west of Edmonton. Strangely
enough, as luck would have it, I moved back out
there during COVID. I bought a tiny little cabin
under my mother's advice. And I've sort of been
living in a cabin in the woods for the last five
years. Wow, that's amazing. I didn't know that.
I should ask, with this summer's fires, is everything
okay at parents' home and your cabin? Yo, yeah,
everybody's fine. We've had some, there's been
fires close by. There's been some smoky, smoky
weeks. Yeah, I think everyone in Calgary knows
that as well. Yeah, I mean, it's everywhere.
So I'm not the only one. But yes, everybody is
fine. I have a bunch of family that lives in
and around Edmonton for all intents and purposes.
I usually tell people that Edmonton is where
I'm from. Sure. Although being in Calgary, it's
not so far away. People will understand some
of the places outside of the city. Yeah. So growing
up outside of Gunn, how did you find your way
to the French Horn as something that you wanted
to do for a living? That's really funny you ask.
Somebody in the orchestra just yesterday asked
me that same question. I don't know how unusual
an answer it is, really. My parents, they're
both musical. My dad used to play piano. One
of my earliest memories actually is of him at
his old electric keyboard in the house we lived
in when I was a kid, playing Beethoven's Pathetique
Sonata. And my mom is an absolutely fabulous
singer, has sung in church every weekend my whole
life growing up. and would always get asked to
sing at funerals and weddings and things. Neither
of them became professional musicians but come
from a musical family and it was important to
my parents that we took piano lessons and so
we would drive sometimes half an hour there and
back to a piano teacher's house in Carvel or
before that in Alberta Beach. We had a piano
teacher in elementary school at our at Ridge
Valley Elementary School for a short time. And
so that was important to them. And then we started
taking band class in high school. And we had
a really exceptional band teacher at our high
school, which maybe is unusual for a rural setting.
You know, there's something so special about
a band teacher. I think they have such a unique
opportunity to make a huge positive impact in
a kid's life. It's sort of a special, impressionable
time. you know, we're learning to play these
instruments. We're sort of learning who we are
as people growing up. And a great band teacher
can make such an amazing difference. Who was
your band teacher? Let's give your band teacher
a shout out. My band teacher was Mr. Tom Sommer,
and he unfortunately is no longer with us. But
yeah, he was an exceptional band teacher. And
we really took him for granted, actually. It
wasn't until I was taking music classes at the
U of A in Edmonton. when Mr. Sommer came, he
took one of his PD days, one of those days to
come to the university and sort of audit some
of the music classes and ensembles there, which
was not what he was supposed to be doing, but
he sort of lobbied the school board to be able
to do that, and he visited a couple of the classes
that I was in and that's when it really struck
me how special of a guy he was, how good of a
teacher he was. And I never realized that when
I was in high school. I feel sort of badly about
that now. Yeah, I can think of teachers I worked
with when I was younger and I did not understand
the quality of instruction that I was getting
at the time. Holy moly. For sure. Well, that's
great. So you were playing the French horn in
school band. Yes. You developed a love for it,
obviously. Yes. And where did it take you after
high school? Interestingly enough, Or maybe not,
interestingly. Who am I to say that anything
I'm saying is interesting? However, I didn't
go into music when I started post -secondary.
Okay, I didn't know that. I did take some horn
lessons in high school with Mary Fearon, who
was my first horn teacher and wonderful teacher
in person in Edmonton. And I did all the things,
like I went to band camp, music camp Alberta.
But when I went to university, I was under the
impression that music was something I should
just do as a hobby. Like it wasn't a smart thing
to choose as a career. I maybe didn't... I maybe
naively thought that it wasn't something I could
do or was available to me even. So I... Went
to the U of T with a first year scholarship University
of Toronto University of Toronto. Sorry I went
to the University of Toronto for my first year
of University to take intro to architecture Oh
and Which was only a couple of classes I ended
up taking a variety of different courses there
in my first year before I transferred back to
the U of A after that year I was kind of homesick
and I didn't know what I was doing and I didn't
think I could survive there after my first year
without a scholarship, so I came back home and
I switched into art and design. I wanted to keep
that door open to architecture. I was on the
wait list for math and engineering courses and
art courses and didn't end up getting into most
of them and ended up taking a lot of art history
and worked my way into a music minor. I didn't
fully switch into music until about my third
year, I think, at the U of A. My fourth year
of post -secondary. Sure. But you were always
into design, art, aesthetics. You know, what
I realized in those three years of university
was that I wasn't good at anything. I'm lucky
I realized that I wasn't good at anything except
for music and except for horn playing. I was
always in the ensembles. Even at the University
of Toronto, I auditioned for the wind ensemble
there and got in and I did the same thing at
the U of A when I came back and started taking
first and second year music courses, like year
training and stuff like that, and was always
excelled at those. And it feels good to be good
at stuff, you know? Absolutely. And so that was
always validating. I realized that the moments
that I enjoyed the most out of anything that
I ever did were in youth orchestra and in the
university orchestra ensembles and stuff like
that, and in chamber groups. And the fact that
I was decently capable at those things was helpful,
for sure. You know, I went from getting Cs and
Ds in university to just getting As without having
to try too hard. So yeah, that kind of made me
realize that maybe that's what I should be doing
instead. I didn't like doing any of the other
stuff. Yeah. Yeah, I think we're really lucky
being able to do what we love and, you know,
obviously what we're good at. Definitely. You
know, to make it our living, to make it, you
know, sort of our life's work. You know, I always
say you have to be really good and you have to
be really lucky in order to find yourself in
an orchestra job. So for sure. I thank my lucky
stars every day. Yeah, I feel incredibly grateful.
I've never felt more grateful actually than I
have this year. And I've been a freelancer now
for quite a while, and I've tampered, you know,
I've put my foot into other domains. It's funny
because I never really, for a while, as a freelance
horn player, I almost haven't considered my whole
identity to be... as a horn player. You know,
I've had to contemplate it being other things
and at times a horn player and this or a horn
player or that. And I got to the point where
I actually didn't expect to ever win a job with
an orchestra. The funny thing is that you can't
give it up. I just couldn't stop playing horn
anytime that I think about trying to do something
else. And I've known a lot of people who I went
to school with who have gone into law or have
gone into some other career path who were exceptional
musicians. When I think about doing that for
myself, I just can't imagine it. Or I imagine
myself sitting in front of a book trying to study
law or something and I can't see myself there.
I see myself falling asleep at my desk, you know?
a sense of identity, you know, being a horn player
and something else. Maybe now you feel with a
job, full -time job in an orchestra, you feel
a little more, maybe you feel you have a little
more permission to think of yourself as like
a horn player as a more holistic thing, right?
But I'm so fascinated by this because we as musicians
can't help but identify with our instrument,
with our role, with our art, right? Because it's
not a job that you stumble into. You have to
be very intentional about pursuing a career,
doing what we're doing, and it's not something
that you can, you know, leave at the office,
right? You know, we do most of our work at home
preparing, practicing, taking care of our playing,
developing ourselves as, you know, thinking artists.
I can't speak from any experience of what it's
like for someone on the outside as far as their
own personal identity and how that relates to
their work. But for us, that's a very real thing.
Definitely. For sure. I'm not sure if this is
on topic, but I was reading one of your older
blog posts yesterday. Oh no. Oh yeah, I'll skip
all the really embarrassing, horrible things
that you said. But you said something that I've
maybe too late, but only recently begun to resonate
with, which is about recovery as a brass player.
Sort of chop management and managing your health
and your sleep and all that kind of stuff. which
is something I never really thought too much
about in the past, but have recently just in
the last year, year and a half, started taking
better care of my physical health. You know,
I'm not going to make you tell me how old you
are, but I know for me, in my dotage of my late
30s now, like my body does not behave like it
did when I started my job here in Calgary, you
know, like the workload hasn't changed a great
deal. there were things that i could get away
with when i was younger that i can't anymore
and i have to take better care of my body and
i certainly need to recover better i don't recover
nearly as quickly as i used to right i used to
be able to just like mistreat my chops all day
long and then do it again the next day you know
if i do that now i pay for it and you know that's
day to day it's week over week that can really
be like a year -long kind of problem to dig yourself
out of like two seasons ago i recorded a cd and
then last season I really needed to have a long
-term chop management plan to kind of get myself
out of that fatigue because that recording was
over several months and the preparation and all
that stuff. I really put myself in a hole and
I'm really happy with the album but I knew that
I needed to actually have a plan to recover from
that and I'm glad I stuck with that because this
season I'm feeling really energized. So what
have you discovered about this? It's okay you
ask how old I am, first of all. I am 21. I went
through university really fast. I'm kidding.
I'm 33. And what you said reminds me of a video
I saw I think with Ryan Reynolds who said, it's
a lot different to fall on concrete face first
when you're 20 than it is when you're 30 or whatever.
Yeah, I had a realization I think when I turned
30, that I was getting out of bed every morning
and my body felt... sore and stiff and I just
thought like I'm too young to feel like this
Yeah, right. I don't know and I could spend the
rest of my life just feeling worse and worse
or I could just start doing something about it
and I started to wasn't long after that that
I bought a bought a bike and Started to prepare
to do the MS bike tour. I was kind of interested
in doing that. My dad has multiple sclerosis
and it seemed like also in addition to being
a really meaningful pursuit to be a really worthwhile
like physical challenge. So I did that and in
last year I started lifting weights and going
swimming and just trying to take care of my body
more. And my horn playing actually has been benefiting
from that quite a bit and not just Not just physically,
but mentally. Because we're artists, yeah. We're
also craftspeople. What we do has to exist in
meat space, you know? And if you take care of
your tools, as in your body, you're going to
be able to get your ideas out of your head more
effectively. That's for sure. For sure. That
might be something that people who aren't in
the music industry don't maybe realize. that's
all part of it. It's something that people in
the trades definitely understand. For sure. I've
definitely started to think about like physical
activity and exercise as part of my job, I suppose.
Yeah. That's something you said in your blog,
to go back to that, was just about giving yourself
permission to take a day off once in a while
or to, if you have a heavy week with the orchestra,
to you know, to balance that out with with light
practicing at home or vice versa. Yeah, these
aren't my original ideas. No, of course not.
I mean, I'm sure they've been thought of a million
times by a million different people, but I'm
not a huge like I'm not a huge reader. I may
be lazy in the way that I don't look deeply into
this stuff as much as I should until I've experienced
it. Well, I mean, lazy, perhaps intuitive might
be a better word, right? If there's a problem
that some people have and they're playing or
anything like that, if that's not a problem you're
facing, you can only understand the solutions
to that problem to a certain degree, right? That's
a very kind way to put it. Thank you for giving
me that credit. Oh, yeah. Oh, you're welcome.
But I mean, obviously, you are finding solutions
for problems for potential challenges as they
arrive, right? We have access to so much information
now on the Internet and with our colleagues.
And now you've got a whole new pool of colleagues
with a whole new bunch of ideas. about music
and being a professional musician and taking
care of yourselves and surviving through a long
career when the information that we need is available
to us, we're set up for success. Right. You know,
there's another thought that I could add to this
discussion, I suppose, which is that I had a
teacher in Montreal who had told me once that
I should start practicing like five hours a day,
which to me, you know, I felt like I had been
practicing a lot while I was in school already,
but in and amongst your other tasks, you know,
in your other classes and things. He told me
this like a few days before my excerpt exam.
And I took it to heart and I started to, I really
burnt myself out for those few days and I went
into my excerpt exam, thankfully passed, but,
you know, really felt terrible. Like my face
felt awful going into that exam. And obviously
because I'd just been... Spent the last four
days with the horn on my face five hours every
day and not only that in absolute terms But an
increase an increase. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah a huge
increase. I Just think people should know that
That is not necessary, you know Yeah, and one
size doesn't fit all right for sure because that
may have been a recipe for success for that teacher
in their own practice room. But everyone's different,
right? Our bodies are different, our brains are
different, our personalities are different, we
recover differently physically. What works for
someone does not necessarily work for someone
else. When someone's a real edge case on something
like this, good for them, but that's not gonna
work for the majority of people necessarily.
And I think it's also important as a teacher,
because we all do a bit of teaching, to realize
the inverse of that, which is what worked for
me is not going to work for you. There are multiple
paths to get where we're all going for basically
the same thing in terms of being able to play
our instrument well so that we can express our
artistic ideas uninhibited. Right. Well, that
could be a lesson, too, for students as well
to you take with a grain of salt anything you
learn anywhere. Sure. Sure. And you know, try
it. Yeah. Try it out. See if it works for you
and take part of the lesson that does and leave
part that doesn't. Yeah. But that's something
that that having started to lift weights has
taught me, I think, too. Yeah, like it's the
importance of recovery, right? There's this obvious,
you know, everyone who does any time in the gym
knows, you know, you do legs, you do arms, you
know, you're not hitting everything every day,
because the recovery is when we get stronger.
That's when our body rebuilds. So one thing I
wanted to talk to you about was this idea of
chop management. Because we've talked about this
a little bit casually at work, but it's something
that I don't think anyone who's not a brass player
can really understand. Because I think more than
other types of instruments, we have to prepare
our bodies for the specific work that we're doing
in a given week. Right? Like earlier this season,
we played Bruckner 8. Holy moly. What a big lift
that is for everyone, right? So leading up to
that, I know for me, my preparation was very
specific to that in that I needed to be able
to play lots of loud, long notes while still
maintaining the ability to be fast and flexible,
right? But there was a lot of endurance work
going into that for me. And that's really different
from, you know, we're playing La Mer later this
season and my preparation for that is gonna be
very different and it's not because i have to
learn this piece and i have to learn that piece
but i need to effectively transform my body to
be able to do what each of those pieces requires
you know you see this in some athletes who change
from one sport to another i think bradley wiggins
remember bradley wiggins he won the tour de france
in 20 11. Oh, of course. I think I have no idea.
No idea who Bradley Wiggins is. But I do know.
And then he ended up doing a bunch of professional
rowing. Wow. And he well and even and he changed
his body completely for that. That was sort of
his superpower, right? Like he could train for
a specific kind of thing. And he had been a track
cyclist before that. He was, you know, really
beefy kind of track time trial rider to win the
Tour de France. You have to be light to climb
up those mountains. And he totally transformed
his body for that. And that's amazing. in a much
very different scale, we have to do that same
sort of thing with our chops. Right. You know,
depending on the demands of a specific week.
And it's challenging when you have to play Mozart
one week and then, you know, an amplified Big
Band Pops concert the next week, and then Bruckner
the week after that. It becomes one of the real
challenges of our job. For sure. I guess there's
a bit of a choice. It's like, do you try to be
an extremely versatile player all the time? or
and when do you when do you just buckle down
and focus on a particular skill? I think that's
something I've actually left a huge gap in my
playing as a horn player for a long time was
not necessarily addressing being able to do the
thing I'm going to have to do all in its entirety,
but but just doing it in parts, you know, like
playing something like a Bruckner symphony. What
I would do is just periodize my practicing so
I'm getting lots of heavy times in. So I know
I can play the whole thing through and actually
do that, not just know that I can play little
parts of it or do all the technical passages.
Yeah. Yeah, I know these are all, yeah, that's,
this is the real nitty gritty of doing our jobs.
For sure. Whenever I have a brass quintet performance
coming up, that's always a huge, you know, a
huge alarm goes off in my head. Like I can I
get through this program? Yeah, brass quintet's
a totally different kind of condition you have
to be in, yeah. Yeah, and I just have to make
sure I put the time aside to play through the
program, or play through the program and some
so that I know that I have a little bit left
over. Yeah, I mean, I know that when I'm working
on something like a brass quintet recital, when
I'm scheduling that, I'm looking at the orchestra
schedule And I'm thinking, okay, what's the week
before? What's the same week? So that you can
kind of figure out what's going to get me into
good shape before the recital, but then something
that's not going to kill me the week of the recital.
That's the sweet spot, I find. All these things.
Well, it's fascinating to hear you talk about
it too, because I'm still figuring this stuff
out, I think. And you know, I found it's a moving
target, right? Like our bodies change, what we
need. To build condition or recover changes,
you know over the years So right a formula that
works for me now might not work in five years,
right, you know, and it's always a bit fuzzy.
There's not You can't really quantify the load
on these things. Yeah. Oh Something that could
be interesting. I listened to your album the
other day Oh that you very generously gave me
a copy a CD of 15 feet closer to the sky. It's
called And if anybody's listening and this is
kept in, then you should go check it out because
it's astounding. The playing is incredible. Yeah,
it's such a great thing. But I also recorded
an album once upon a time of a very different
nature. I didn't know that. You got to send me
all that info. Put it in the show notes. Sure,
sure. Max, the third horn player here in Calgary.
was delighted to find this out. It's not a secret
or anything. But I recorded a rock album once
upon a time. Oh, sweet! So if you want to talk
about that, we could talk about that too. Yeah,
we're talking about it right now. We're just
talking about making the album. Let's keep this
rolling. So, wait, what do you play? What instruments?
Well, I once upon a time was in a rock band.
a rock trio, I suppose, just drums, bass and
guitar. Classic power trio, yeah, yeah. Yeah,
I would, I suppose I would have been what you'd
call the front man. I sang and played guitar.
Sweet. And we wrote songs together and we were
really proud of those songs. And so there was
a time in post university life, pre winning a
job life where things were very ambiguous for
me. And I was, I suppose, a little obsessed with
these songs we'd written, and I just, I really
needed to record them. If there was a chance
that anything happened with them, then great,
but also just as a bit of closure to that experience
of having played in a rock band with my friends,
and that was, you know, it was kind of a formative
time for me. So to record those songs and kind
of put a button on that and create this tangible
thing was... was meaningful to me at that time.
That's awesome. What was the band called? What's
the album called? The band was called Showbiz.
We named it that after a Muse album, the band
Muse. We were big fans of them. And our album
was called Illusion, which is the title of one
of the songs on the album. And it's just an alternative
rock, indie rock album. That's great. Where can
people find it? Oh, on digital platforms. On
all the streamers. Yeah, for now. Yeah, and I
wanted to ask you, actually, about your album.
Oh, yeah, okay. And like what, because your album,
you released it last year, right? Yeah, last
November. Actually, it will be a year the day
before this episode airs. Oh, congratulations.
So we're like almost right on the anniversary
of your album release. That's amazing. I wanted
to ask you what made you make an album, first
of all. Oh boy, so my album, 15 Feet Closer to
the Sky, is comprised entirely of premiere recordings
of new works written for me and my trumpet friends
within the last 15 years or so. I remember the
first time I commissioned a piece, it was the
sonata by William Rousen. It's the opening track
on my album. And I remember, you know, I had
heard his violin sonata in a friend's recital,
and I asked him to write this trumpet sonata
because I had a concert coming up that I needed
something to play at. And I remember the first
rehearsal of that piece. I remember the very
first time that, you know, this piece that existed
because I bothered a composer became like a real
physical thing that was happening in the air
in the room. And it was a magical experience,
you know, that creative moment. But also it's
a great piece that certainly helps. And I realized
like, oh, this is a very special experience.
And it's a very special experience that I get
to be the one to share with audiences, both at
that concert and going forward because I've continued
to play that piece because it's wonderful. The
creative energy of a project like that was something
that I wanted to keep rolling. So over the years
I kept commissioning more and more music and
some other trumpet friends of mine were also
on the same page and we were commissioning things
and playing pieces that the other ones had commissioned.
So lots of performances out of all these commissions.
And eventually I ended up with enough Enough
new material to make an album that I felt was
a truly worthwhile project So I did it, you know,
I recorded that album with Miranda Cairns our
second trumpet here at the at the CPO and Aaron
Hodgson Who's the professor at Western University
in London, Ontario was my oldest trumpet friend
and we played all this stuff together and it
was a joy to make and a really special document
to have I think you know, like you like you were
saying that your album was sort of this capstone
of your time playing in this rock band yeah yeah
it's like a it's almost like a time capsule yeah
a really important time of my life yeah a meaningful
time absolutely yeah i was gonna say actually
that one of my favorite uh tracks was the trio
lyrical yeah and with uh with aaron and miranda
yeah that was a really cool piece thanks yeah
that's a piece by uh victoria composer toben
stokes and i really like what he said about that
piece he said that like He was inspired by the
fact that, like, on a brass instrument, the distance
from brain to sound is very small. Which, that'll
always stick with me. It's a very intuitive piece,
and it uses the sonority of the trumpet incredibly
beautifully. Yeah. Yeah. You guys all sounded
so... Remarkably uniform and like no. Thanks.
Yeah, it was it was really really great the other
can I say what my other favorite sure? The in
the piece all that glitters mm -hmm the is it
the third movement waiting yeah Was just haunting
and beautiful. Thank you. Yeah, that's all that
glitters by Vancouver composer Dorothy Chang
This piece was actually commissioned specifically
for this recording project Oh yeah, that third
movement is very special. Yeah. Yeah. Now, Peter,
one of the joys of playing in the CPO is we're
surrounded by so many great colleagues who make
great music for us day in and day out. Who's
someone in the orchestra who's playing you admire?
Do I have to choose? Yeah, you have to choose.
Just one person? Just one person. This isn't
excluding other people, this is highlighting
one person. Well, yeah, we have to emphasize
that because I look up to everybody in the orchestra.
Not having been in the orchestra for very long,
I am truly learning so quickly and learning so
much. Just being able to play in an orchestra
as frequently as we do. But it's an unfair question
So I have to say the horn the horn players in
the horn section. It's hard not to say our principal
horn Nikki because Just sitting right next to
her leaves a big impression. Yeah, and I consider
it one of my highest priorities when I'm there
to listen to how she's playing yep, and to blend
or support or compliment her how ever I can or
to the best of my ability. It's your job to be
a connoisseur of her playing. Yeah, I just I
hope that I can do a good job doing that or and
that I have been. Yeah, so I guess I would I
guess I would say Nikki. OK, yeah, that's great.
You know, like I said in the in the question,
there are so many great players in the orchestra,
but certain chairs, it is inescapably obvious
when someone is playing great and. Principal
horn is definitely one of those chairs, right?
Well, I feel really privileged to be in the position.
I'm in that I I never Never seen ever I don't
consider myself to be much of a solo player But
I I do think that I have I do think that I'm
a strong section horn player and I'm a good teammate
and so I feel like I'm in the perfect position
to to be playing next to Nikki and do my best
to to make her sound even better, hopefully.
Fantastic. That's great. Well, Peter, thank you
so much for sitting down. This has been a ton
of fun. Thanks, Adam. Thanks for having me. Notes
from the Stage is an independent production of
the Calgary Philharmonic Players Association.
The opinions expressed here are our own and do
not reflect those of the Calgary Philharmonic
Orchestra. Our thanks to Nathan Chandler for
his technical expertise. The music you heard
on this episode was The Log Driver's Waltz by
Wade Hemsworth, arranged and performed by Peter
Clarke, and Reckless, written and performed by
the band Showbiz. Let us know what you think
of the show and check out our concert calendar
at CalgaryFilmmusicians .ca to see what we're
all up to outside of our regular performances
at the CPO. On our next episode in two weeks,
I'll be talking with cellist Kathleen DeKane.
Talk to you soon! I was reckless, took your love
for granted What was it you said as I walked
away on that fateful night? Now if I said I was
sorry, would you just ignore me? And do me what
I've done to you? Maybe I was reckless, took
your love for granted