Feature Article July 18, 2001
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Christina Wotherspoon & Friendsby Jeff Green
Last Wednesday's concert at the St. James Major Catholic Church Hall was a homecoming of sorts for former Sharbot Lake High School band member Christina Wotherspoon.
Christina is now living in Kingston, where she has continued to develop musically, playing French horn in different groups - occasionally even with the Kingston Symphony Orchestra - and directing a youth concert band out of Belleville. Christina is a recent graduate of teachers' college, where she specialised in music and math, and has decided to spend the next year exploring music before seeking employment as a teacher.
She brought a six-piece band with her to St. James to play her own arrangements of classical and popular music for an appreciative audience. After the opening piece by Aaron Copeland, the audience was asked to participate in the concert. Christina had prepared an arrangement of melodies from a variety of popular tunes, and she asked the audience to tally up how many different melodies were being played. At the end of the medley, which was played in a fast-paced, sprightly manner, people began calling out numbers from all corners of the hall. The winner guessed 30, and was presented with a Kit Kat bar as a prize.
With the audience now won over, the band, with Marcy Swance on piano and trumpet, Fred Li on trombone, Kim Parsons on clarinet, Erin Kirby on flute, and Andy Love on drums, along with Christina's French horn, played quite a range of music. There was a waltz by Chostakovich played as a flute and clarinet duet, the second movement of Mozarts second French Horn Concerto, some swinging blues and melodies from The Music Man, and even some schmaltz from Marvin Hamlisch with The Way we Were. The concert ended with a medley of Tony Bennett melodies.
Even though these busy young musicians had not had much time to rehearse, they brought freshness and joy to their playing, and carried off the performance with few problems. For Christina, putting together this ensemble, arranging all the pieces for them to play, and staging this concert, represented a huge amount of work. She estimated that it took around a hundred hours of work to pull it all together. It certainly made an enjoyable evening for the good crowd of people who attended.
For those who receive The Frontenac News on Wednesday, run, dont walk, to St. James tonight, to see the return of the Paul Chabot trio to Sharbot Lake, with vocals by Barry Dale. Hes the "swingingest" cat in the Frontenacs, so dont be late. The concert starts at 7:30, and costs $5. For those reading this on Thursday or later, all is not lost. You can see Stan Stinchcombe in an organ and piano recital on July 25.
