Trombonist Ron Westray, Oscar Peterson Chair in Jazz Performance in 91��ɫ’s Department of Music, returns to Toronto’s Massey Hall on Thursday, Feb. 23 for an innovative youth outreach program.

He will lead “Rhythm Counts”, an invitational workshop for young people, just before his former bandmates, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra led by Wynton Marsalis, take centre stage to perform the highly-anticipated .

Ron Westray

Called , the arts and education outreach program presented by the Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall provides complimentary tickets for selected concerts to youth who might otherwise be unable to attend. The program, now in its 13th season, aims to enhance and broaden students’ musical horizons by exposing them to world-class performers and related pre-concert��demo-workshops by noted local performers/educators.

Westray has invited 91��ɫ music grad and multiple Juno Award-winning jazz saxophonist Mike Murley to co-host the 30-minute workshop, to be held in Massey Hall’s intimate Century Lounge. The session is designed to demonstrate the language of jazz and the art of improvisation, to prepare the students for the mainstage performance. Together, Westray and Murley will present an informal mix of commentary, musical demonstrations and historical highlights, followed by a Q&A. Tickets for the workshop and concert have been distributed to more than 150 music students, ranging in age from 12 to 17, at selected schools and community groups in the Greater Toronto Area.

“I was thrilled to be invited to take part in Share the Music and connect with these young people,” said Westray. “I come from the performance world, and it’s always a pleasure to have the opportunity to play, plus the chance to talk about the music with a fresh audience.”

Westray in performance at the Lincoln Arts Center

“We’re delighted to have Professor Westray on board for this event,” said program coordinator Laraine Herzog. “He’s a perfect fit, seeing as he was lead trombonist with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for so many years. His reputation as an incredible performer and educator precedes him – not to mention his connection with Oscar Peterson, a true Canadian musical hero, through his position at 91��ɫ.”

Prior to joining 91��ɫ, Westray toured internationally with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for more than a decade, including a number of performances at Massey Hall.

“Wynton [Marsalis] deserves every honour for his immense accomplishments in building the JLCO, its reputation as one of the finest jazz ensembles in the world, and its remarkable touring reach,” said Westray. “I was in the audience when they played Massey Hall last year, and it was like seeing my family from the other side of the fourth wall. I’m looking forward to seeing these guys play once again, and to helping a new young audience develop a deeper connection to a band and a musical repertoire I feel so strongly about.”

As well as a performer, Westray is an accomplished composer and recording artist. His commissions for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra include the monumental score Chivalrous Misdemeanors – Select Tales from Don Quixote (2005) and arrangements of the works of Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman. He is well known for his collaborations with Wycliffe Gordon, and has also appeared in concert with such luminaries as Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder, Benny Carter, Dewey Redman, Roy Haynes, Randy Brecker and a host of other pre-eminent artists. A regular on the New 91��ɫ City club circuit, he has played premier jazz venues such as the Village Vanguard, Blue Note, Sweet Basil’s, Iridium, Jazz Standard and Smalls, and is a standing member of the Mingus Band. In 2009, he joined 91��ɫ’s music department, where he teaches in the jazz program and co-directs the 91��ɫ Jazz Orchestra.

Next month, Westray is participating as soloist and clinician at the prestigious Savannah Music Festival. On March 25, he appears as guest soloist with the 91��ɫ Wind Symphony, performing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Trombone Concerto under the baton of 91��ɫ music Professor William Thomas.

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Phillip Silver is set, costume and lighting designer for Soulpepper Theatre’s production of The Price by Arthur Miller, currently in previews and opening tomorrow.

(BA '92) has assembled a diverse team of 91��ɫ talent to bring to life a theatrical, grown-up version of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. Previews begin tomorrow and opening night is Tuesday at The Theatre Centre.

The Price

This is the second time Silver, theatre professor and former dean of 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts, has worked on The Price. The first was��more than��40 years ago at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre.

Set in the crowded attic of a Manhattan brownstone in the 1960s, this family drama centres on two estranged brothers arranging to sell the contents of their dead father’s house.

��������������Above: Phillip Silver's set model for The Price��

This time around, “my life experience has made me more aware of the currents that run through a family,” said Silver. “I appreciate this work much more in my sixties than I did in my twenties.”

With the set and props for The Price being largely family heirlooms, including some antiques, Silver’s work as designer involved less set building and more shopping. Sourcing items to represent the lifestyle and personalities of the family and evoke their memories in the crowded attic room took him as far as Barrie, Woodstock and Cambridge – as well as to eBay.

That wasn’t the only challenge. Since Soulpepper runs several plays in repertory, the stage needs to be cleared daily, with sets stored to make room for the next show. Silver had to make less seem like more and devise clever ways to pack things away as compactly as possible. For example, a “stack” of chairs under a drop cloth is actually only one chair plus a wooden skeleton that gives the appearance of a number of chairs underneath. An array of smaller items is stacked inside that skeleton when it is moved into storage following each performance.

The Price will run to Oct. 6 at The Young Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto’s Distillery Historic District. For tickets, visit the ��website.

Peter and the Wolf

Above: An illustration for Theatre Rusticle's Peter and the Wolf

For Peter and the Wolf, contract faculty member (BA '90) has assembled ��actors, dancers and an eight-piece chamber orchestra to present a physically robust, poetic and musically stirring re-invention of the children’s classic as part fairy tale and part dream. It is produced by her award-winning company, Theatre Rusticle, and features a cast that includes Professor Emeritus David Smukler, Wesley Connor (MFA ‘09) and��Matthew Romantini (BFA ‘05), dancer Viv Moore (BFA ’90, MA ‘07) and a chorus consisting of theatre students Susannah MacKay and Liam Hanebury, and Jamie Ebbs (BA ‘11). Katy Murphy (BA ‘11) serves as assistant director, former theatre student Renna Reddie is associate producer and Michelle Ramsay (BFA ‘97) designed the lighting.

Peter and the Wolf continues to Sept. 11 at The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen St. W. For tickets, visit ��online.

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