Resa's Pieces Concert Band

CBC Radio's "The Sunday Edition" Features Resa's Pieces: "Watch My Stick, Please!"

What a terrific way to start a Sunday morning!

Alisa Siegel's documentary on Resa's Pieces was broadcast June 6th on CBC Radio's The Sunday Edition. The magic of radio did wonders for our little band. Thank you Alisa and the CBC for featuring our band to reawaken the music in all of us.

• The Sunday Edition: Watch My Stick, PLEASE!
  Includes a recording of the documentary and snapshots of the band.

• If you're having trouble with the CBC's audio stream, use the following link  

Resa's Pieces on CBC Radio's The Sunday Edition June 6, 2010 10am

Do you want to get on our mailing list?

Do you play a string instrument? Resa's Pieces Strings started September 2010!

FROM CBC LISTENERS - COAST TO COAST...

Just finished hearing your broadcast and I have tears running down my cheeks. What a moving portrait of your work that CBC doc is! Done with respect, affection and enthusiasm, just as all your "Pieces" demonstrate: mutual respect, affection and enthusiasm. I can't tell you how proud we both are of you. You are doing really, really important work! —CM

I so enjoyed the piece on CBC Radio this past Sunday which gave we listeners a bit of an idea about your marvelous band and great conductor who knew that there were performers out in the community who just needed a venue and some encouragement to get those instruments back out and play!

Having been fortunate to grow up in a musical family with my father a physiotherapist whose first love was his music, I know how life giving and life preserving the ability to play music and bring such joy to others, can result in longer and happier lives for many.   My father was in his nineties when he died and although arthritis plagued his joints, he continued to play - sax and clarinet and flute and ...violin and whatever else one placed in his hands.  Actually listening to Harry and to Al brought back some keen memories of conversations we had shared as Dad was getting younger and me older.

Journey on! Godspeed, and have a great time doing what obviously brings you so much joy.

I will be with you in spirit from my home in Kentville, Nova Scotia imagining you playing your encore piece, Colonel Bogey's March.

Kindest regards —JB, Nova Scotia

Greetings Resa~

I just happened to turn on the radio as the interview of your orchestra was unfolding. It was truly touching and delightful.  Kudos on creating this wonderful opportunity for others.  As a continuing education arts instructor, I see the joy each week in my classes - their struggles, their persistence, the social aspect, but most of all the accomplishment in their painting and ideas and the great joy it truly brings. In 99% of all cases, these are threads they are picking up after a long hiatus.

What a valuable and joyful situation you have created.

I look forward to catching one of your concerts at some point !!!

Best —GB, Ancaster, ON

Hoon Kim

While many of you were still in God’s plan, I tried out our school band in 60’s. I was given a cornet and my friend, a clarinet. This young friend of mine was crying, believing that he should play the trumpet. Hoon gave his trumpet to his friend. A few decades later, my son who was missing his old friends and community in a small rural area started a new school in a big city and as a distraction from this homesickness, he wanted to try clarinet! After two weeks of lesson, he took sick. His father decided to fill in for his son and went to the lesson. His son did not want to go back later. As you know, the lesson is monthly and the rental, for semester (3 months) and they had paid for all these. Now the Kim’s had a problem. The solution? Hoon continued. Don’t you agree that it is providential that Hoon plays the clarinet for his old friend and his son?

Luckily he had a sabbatical and he wanted to do something that he did not normally do. He sought out a community band and an art studio. He found Resa’s Pieces on the Internet and after a brief audition (or an interview secular people would call it) over phone with Ruthie, the band president, he joined it. It was 2010 and he has made a lot of noise around his home, of course, for extra household chores for that.

He enjoys the community as a whole and the small talking group called “the clarinets.” The group contributes in a very modest way to occasional reminders from our patient conductor: “Stop talking!” “Practice at home!” or “Look at my stick!” There is one home work which I do faithful but is not helpful for my playing, that is, “Practice [even] while sleeping!” or I have not figured out how to do it.

Can you guess how much we enjoy each other and of course the music too?

Kathryn Chirametli

I heard about Resa’s Pieces first from campers who attended the Lakefield Music
Camp for adults in the summer of 2010. My woodwind instructor, Martin Van de
Ven, was teaching Klesmer music at the camp and suggested I try out the Klesmer
band at the Jewish Community Centre. Members of that group also mentioned
Resa’s Pieces so I filled out an application form. Lucky for me, there was an opening
for 3rd clarinet and I was able to attend my first band practice in January 2011.

I studied piano and got my grade eight with the Royal Conservatory while in high
school. In grade 10, I asked the music teacher if I could learn another instrument
and play in the school orchestra. He didn’t think it was a good idea since I’d already
missed a year of study. I always regretted that I didn’t get to play in a band but I
never expected to have another opportunity to join one.

In 2009, I started taking private clarinet lessons in hopes of some day joining a
community band. I’d tried playing the recorder in my 20’s and thought I’d like to try
a wind instrument. Last year I also joined the New Horizon’s Band, a beginner band
for adults, conducted by Dan Kapp at Long & McQuade. I started off learning to play
the alto saxophone, but switched over to the clarinet this year. Although it was fun
playing both instruments, I wanted to focus on the clarinet.

Playing with other musicians in a community band is a real thrill for me. Resa
has so much patience and good humour, and provides clear instructions for each
section. Ruthie and the other clarinet players have been especially encouraging to
me as a new band member. And the music sounds great.

Lisa Sinclair

In public school at the age of 12, my mom enrolled my sister and I in a drum corp.  At the time, I played the Soprano, a two valve horn similar to a trumpet.  It was difficult to learn, but soon I memorized all the scales and all the music as sheet music was not allowed during performances.  We continued to play for three years, coming in second place in the National competition in Pennsylvania.  Our high school, experiencing very little funding for music, did not have any sort of musical instrument program, so my music talent was lost after the drum corp.

As an adult, I realized music was something I was missing and being newly married, I took up playing the flute with an excellent teacher, Julia, from the University of Waterloo.  She taught me the basics and after moving to the GTA, I proceeded to investigate music lessons, and started with the Flute Studio in Markham.  There I received exceptional training, met a new friend, Janice Chesney, another Resa's member.    After 3 years, I proceeded to take private lessons in Richmond Hill and also joined the Thornhill Community Band.  In the fall of 2010, I began with Resa's Pieces and have thoroughly enjoyed the music choices and camaraderie.  Resa is an excellent conductor and has great patience for all of us.  Every practice, I learn something new!

Kate Marshall

For me, RP is a return to an activity I loved in my youth, a chance to be part of a working whole, and one of the few things I get to do for myself these days.  I first heard about RP on a CBC show, and the people quoted sounded so happy about it, and Resa sounded so laid back and welcoming, that I got on-line and e-mailed her right away.  I used to "take up" my instrument again every few years, (in the over 3 decades since high school), but always lost momentum in the end, because it just isn't as much fun without a band!  Now I enjoy the band practices, and I enjoy feeling challenged to regain the skills I once had (maybe even going beyond that, someday).

Kate, 4th horn.