FERGUS – “Making music is the ultimate in teamwork,” says Judith Douglas – and she should know.
She’s been playing the French horn since her teens, and has decades of experience working with other musicians in a wide range of environments: symphony orchestras, jazz bands, wind ensembles, chamber groups, trios, duets and more.
On Jan. 29, at the Fergus library, Douglas gave an entertaining, off-the-cuff talk about what’s involved in getting those notes to sound perfectly in sync when you’re all using different instruments.
“It’s mathematics,” she said. “You create a certain sound on a scale, the other players do too, and you work together.”
She also admitted her particular instrument is notoriously difficult to master because “the French horn is a hybrid – and it makes no sense.
“No sane person would design an instrument with a tiny mouthpiece and pipes as long as a trombone.”
Even so, Douglas, who lives in Puslinch but performs in many locations, loves the range of notes, from very low to high, that she can make.
She demonstrated some of these sounds to the small but appreciative crowd that turned out on a snowy Sunday afternoon to hear her.
She’ll also appear in a chamber music concert, with Greg Stroh on flute and Brad Moggach on piano, at the Wellington County Museum on March 5 at 2pm.
Douglas’s presentation was the first in the 2023 series of Sunday afternoon Art Talks organized by Elora Fergus Arts Council.
Others coming up are:
– Feb. 26, From Page to Stage. Deb Stanson and Dave Tanner will reveal the process, from selecting scripts to the closing curtain, in putting on plays at Elora Community Theatre, Elora Library, 2pm; and
– March 12, A Life in Weaving. Dianne Kennedy Cruttenden, who often spins her own yarn and dyes it too, talks about her tapestries and clothing, Fergus Library, 2pm.
Admission is $10 at the door for all of these events. For more information visit elorafergusartscouncil@gmail.com.
Submitted by Sonia Day, Special to the Advertiser