Last summer, local musician Cole Knutson, who is pursuing a saxophone performance degree with plans to follow up with a master's degree in collaborative piano, hosted a recital with another local artist, Jean Van Der Merwe, and he plans to stage a similar event this year.
During his break from his studies at the University of Manitoba, Knutson has recruited a colleague from school, trumpet player Miles Thomsen, for a Battlefords concert. He hopes to arrange a series of three concerts over the summer.
"The first concert I'm doing is on May 7 with a colleague of mine from the U of M. He has an absolutely amazing performance background and the concert will be very full of energy and will be a great show," says Knutson, the son of Leslie and Theresa.
While Knutson is studying classical saxophone, his first instrument is piano.
"This year has been a very active year for me on saxophone, piano and harpsichord," says Knutson. "This year I entered the University Concerto Competition on piano, which is very unusual because they don鈥檛 normally let people enter the competition on instruments not pertaining to a person鈥檚 major."
Being a classical saxophone major, he explains, it is unorthodox that the administration would let him enter on piano. Nevertheless, he entered.
He competed against about 40 other musicians, from first-year students to master's students. There were several other pianists competing, all of which were either in the last year of their undergrad studies of in a master鈥檚 degree program.
Knutson was one out of six finalists to make it to the final round.
"I tried my hardest but this year, didn鈥檛 take the top prize," he says.
After the competition, which was in November, Knutson began getting more calls to play for students.
"I was starting to perform at least three times more often as a pianist than I was as a sax player. I was even offered to play as the pianist for the school鈥檚 opera tour this spring and unfortunately had to turn it down because I am doing another tour at the same time."
He says, "All of this work, playing in sax ensembles, accompanying, doing chamber work as a pianist, soloing on harpsichord and playing harpsichord and organetto in our school鈥檚 Early Music Ensemble inspired me to bring some of this music and experience back home this summer. I鈥檓 in the process of trying to arrange a summer concert series in the Battlefords to entertain the community in addition to having fun playing with friends, and continuing to bring more classical music to the already beautifully established classical music scene in the Battlefords."
In addition to performing in concerts he plans to arrange himself, he will also be performing with the National Youth Band of Canada at the Dekker Centre for the Performing Arts on Thursday, May 12. It will be a busy time.
"I'm on a Banff tour, and also presenting a solo piano recital in Banff. I come back to Winnipeg to do about three concerts with musicians on their recitals, travel to North Battleford and do the concert with Miles and the following day off to NYB! I am very excited to perform at the Dekker Centre!"
There are even more North Battleford connections to the Canada Youth Band performance which will be conducted by Dr. Jason Caslor, the son of Karl and Irene Caslor of Meota.
"Jason Caslor is our conductor, a former student of Gene Aulinger, and we'll be playing a piece written by Paul Suchan, also a former student of Gene. I've heard so much about Jason and it will be great to present a concert in our home town!"
Aulinger is a long-time music educator in the Battlefords and was Knutson's first saxophone teacher. Suchan is a former North Battleford Comprehensive High School teacher who is now based out of Montreal, Que. and who has been returning each summer to teach jazz at the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Solo Voice in North Battleford.
This will be Knutson's final tour with the National Youth Band of Canada, which is taking place in Saskatchewan this year.
"I saw the tour in Saskatchewan as a perfect opportunity to try and find a way to perform some extra music outside of the tour with musicians that are not normally in Saskatchewan," says Knutson. "A great friend and colleague of mine from the University of Manitoba, Miles Thomsen, will be in attendance聽during the National Youth Band week."
Knutson first met Thomsen in 2013 when he attended his first National Youth Band in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
"Miles has been principal trumpet player in NYB for many years and, although he didn鈥檛 audition this聽year, he will be in Saskatoon during the week to help and enjoy the festivities," he says. "Once Miles decided to come to Saskatchewan for the week, I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to perform. I asked Miles if he would be interested in doing a couple of solo trumpet concerts in Saskatchewan over the week and he agreed with a large grin on his face."
Thomsen will be flying into Saskatoon the day of the concert, Saturday, May 7, to take place at Third Avenue United Church at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 for students and seniors and $20 for adults.
"Much like the concert with Jean van der Merwe, Third Avenue has always been supportive of not only my musical development, but the development of countless musicians in the Battlefords and so it feels right to perform there because of the wonderful facilities, people and memories," says Knutson. "Miles and I will be performing works by聽Alexander聽Arutunian, Joseph Haydn, Eric Ewazen and more. I will also be performing a solo unaccompanied saxophone piece by CPE Bach."
Winnipeg-born Thomsen first started playing trumpet in junior high band, gradually developing a love for the trumpet. He has recently finished his fifth year in the Desautels Faculty of Music, and is set to graduate this spring with a Bachelor of Music in Trumpet Performance.
As a soloist, he was awarded First Place in the Brass category of the FCMF National Music Festival in summer 2014, and was a semifinalist in the WMC McLellan Competition that spring. He was a soloist with the University of Manitoba Wind Ensemble in November 2013 and April 2014. He was recently a finalist in the Lawrence Genser Competition at the University of Manitoba in January 2016.
As an ensemble musician he performed in the National Youth Orchestra of Canada 2015 and will rejoin the orchestra this summer, touring in Canada and Portugal. He has also participated in the National Youth Band of Canada every year between 2011 and 2015, and was trumpet section leader for four of those five years.
Since 2011 he has founded and continues to direct and play in the 小蓝视频 Side Big Band, a local jazz band comprised of friends and colleagues of various fields of study. He has regularly rehearsed and performed in local brass quintets for the last five years, forming Wind Chill Brass in 2013, and will be touring rural Manitoba with this group later in May.
Thomsen has also spent many summer weeks on the administrative staff team at the International Music Camp at the International Peace Gardens (his 鈥渉appy place鈥�) since his last year as a camper in 2011.
Following the completion of his undergraduate degree, Thomsen plans to take some time off of schooling to focus on work and service projects 鈥� including core community activities such as junior youth programs, children鈥檚 classes, spiritual study circles and devotional gatherings 鈥� as well as travel and pursue independent performance opportunities and performing contracts with cruise ships, all before eventually pursuing graduate studies elsewhere.
