Ken Read: founder and artistic director
for 19 years
Position: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, bass, conductor, artistic director
Occupation:
Musician, music director, karate instructor
Trombone:
An "old" Bach 50B Bass trombone, a Rath #1 mouthpiece, and a "bunch of guitar effects pedals"
Groups:
* Royal Regiment of Canada Band
* Toronto Symphony Orchestra
* Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
* Red Deer Symphony Orchestra
* Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
* Tommy Banks Orchestra
* Citadel Orchestra
* Triceratops (a founding member)
* Now Age Orchestra
* The Pergolesi Brass (founder)
* Ritchie Trombone Choir (founder, director)
Teachers:
Frank Harmantas (my principle teacher). I have worked with many others in seminars, master classes and individual lessons, including: Gordon Sweeny, Bob Stroup, Edwin Anderson, Ralph Sauer, Roger Bobo, Dale Clevenger, Michael Mulchay, and many others. I am also grateful for my piano teachers: Janet Scott Hoyt, Corey Hamm, and Sheila Wright. I'm not a very good pianist, but my piano lessons help me maintain my "beginner's mind" in music and help my trombone playing and teaching a lot. I owe more than I can say to my first music mentor and friend, James Perry, the music director of the Kirkland Lake Brass Band, a great man and a fine musician.
Influences:
A hard one . . . I feel influenced by so much and it changes frequently. I always come back to the music of J. S. Bach, and am grateful to many famous musicians past and present. I am, of course, inspired by the great trombonists from Frank Rosolino to Joseph Alessi, and the music of great composers from Josquin to our local Edmonton composers, Roger Deegan, George Andrix, Howard Bashaw, and many many others.
Edmonton musicians mean a lot to me: our superb chamber musicians Martin Risely, Janet Scott Hoyt, Tanya Prochaska, and our great jazz musicians Craig Brenan, Mike Lent, Chris Andrew, J. C. Jones, Eric Weiden, and Joel Gray. Then there are our wonderful ensembles: Ensemble de la Rue, and the Strathcona String Quartet.
Bio:
Ken is active as a soloist and chamber musician. He has performed frequently on all the major Edmonton stages as a soloist, improviser, and chamber musician, including the Winspear Centre and the Yardbird Suite.
Ken has premiered and recorded numberous scores written for him and his ensembles. Roger Deegan, John McPherson, George Andrix, Gordon Nicholson, Carl Derfler, Howard Bashaw, Thom Golub and Dave Wall, among others, have written new works for him and his groups, and he has recorded frequently for CBC and other companies including Arktos Recordings Limited: Bashaw: Music by Howard Bashaw as a soloist, and Prairie Brass: Brass Music by Roger Deegan as an ensemble player.
Ken was a founding member of Triceratops and a member of the Now Age Orchestra. He founded the Pergolesi Brass, and collects music by Edmonton composers using the sometimes electronically enhanced resources of the solo bass trombone. As one half of MULE (guitar, trombone and electronics), Ken collaborated with Dave Wall over a 12 month process to create a newly composed and imporvised score to accompany the 1929 silent filem The Golem, premiered at the Metro Theatre in Edmonton in 2004.
Ken heads the Edmonton Trombone Studio, is the Music director for the Ritchie Trombone Choir, and is Porgram Director for the Edmonton Northern River Karate School Association.
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