The sound of Western's music

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By Paul Mayne
Thursday, June 5, 2008
It is fair to say that without James McKay convocation ceremonies would lack some of their current lustre.
 
 
Conductor James MacKay has led the professional musicians of the Convocation Brass for close to 120 convocation ceremonies.
 
While they would still be memorable for all those in attendance, something would be missing without the rumble of the bass drum, crash of cymbals and majesty of the French horns to generate chills of excitement among parents and friends marking the culmination of years of hard work by students.
 
As Chair of Music Performance Studies in the Don Wright Faculty of Music, McKay has been leading the Convocation Brass that entertains prior to the ceremonies since 1999, when he took over for the late Ken Bray.
 
The group plays a 30-minute concert prior to each convocation session followed by the processional and national anthem.
 
With almost 120 ceremonies under his belt – or close to three days of continual music - McKay will add to that as Western celebrates its 291st Convocation Ceremony June 9-13 with 10 more individual ceremonies.
 
“It has been an honour and a lot of fun for me to take on the Convocation Brass. The group is a wonderful collection of excellent musicians who love making music,” says McKay, adding the group even recorded a CD in 2000, which is available through the Book Store at Western.
 
Members of the Brass are drawn from Orchestra London, Windsor Symphony, the Canadian Opera Company and Ballet Orchestras. “Occasionally, I will use an advanced brass student to fill in if one of my professional players can't make it for one or two convocations,” he says.
 
With a new audience for each ceremony, you might think McKay would stick to the same set list each time. Think again. More than 75 scores are prepared, some by Bray, others most recently by current members Trevor Wagler, Tim Lockwood and Peter Hysen.
 
In fact, McKay has changed the procession music over the last couple of years from Verdi’s Grand March from Aida, to Rimsky-Korsakov's Procession of the Nobles.
 
“Each convocation procession is different in length, so I must have a piece of music that has a portion near the end that can be repeated until the platform party has arrived on stage,” he says. “Not every piece of music will do that.”
 
And the enjoyment of the musicians is evident in the music, says McKay.
 
“They really don't have opportunities to play brass chamber music in their other professional lives, so they really look forward to this twice a year,” he says. “That's how much fun the players have with the music.
 
“In fact, the faculty members who process never get to hear our concerts. So, one year the president invited us to play at a garden party at his house.”
 
While he never tires of conducting the convocation ceremonies, there have been some interesting experiences along the way. When the group has completed the pre-concert, processional and national anthem, it leaves the stage until convocation is over, then it returns to play until the audience has left. Returning on time is imperative.
 
“On one memorable occasion, one member of the group, who had gone for a coffee, slid into his seat just as I was giving the downbeat for Ceremonial Occasion.”
 

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