Casper Brass & Storm Door Co. creates an occasion

by Elysia Conner
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 1:59 PM MST

When Carolyn Deuel asked Fred Taylor to perform for ARTCORE in 1998, she didn’t know that he would assemble the Casper Brass & Storm Door Co.

“I had done the Lord High Executioner in the college version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘The Mikado,’ so I think Carolyn thought I would do a solo recital. But instead, I founded the Casper Brass.”

Besides a selection of brass players, percussionist Terry Gunderson leads the “storm door” section of the ensemble.

Currently a group of about 20, they will perform a variety of crowd-pleasing music for their biannual ARTCORE concert, Taylor said.

The program will include music from the 16th to the 20th century played in the styles of their times.

There are more euphoniums and tubas this year, according to Taylor, so he will select music that plays them up well.

One can't do a brass concert without the "Double Choir" by Gabrieli, he said.

“It’s a chance for brass players here in Casper to play music that we ordinarily don’t get to play.” Taylor said, explaining that upon leaving the university scene, they never get to play some of this music unless they create an occasion to do so.

“And we create an occasion to play it,” he said.

Pamela Glasser, principal French horn player for the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, will play the Swiss elk horn in the concert.

Made famous in Ricola commercials, the long horn makes a resonant and pleasant sound and is a unique experience for audiences.

A Henry Mancini medley and “Stars and Stripes Forever” are good concert enders, he added, noting that the latter song is exciting when played right.

A composer with more than 600 pieces to his name, Taylor's work has been performed in schools and churches throughout the nation.

He is published, recorded and a member of the ASCAP.

The symphony, which he was commissioned to write for the WSO, was performed in the 2004-05 season.

Taylor has performed, composed and arranged for the Casper Municipal Band, the Casper College Band and the CC Jazz Band.

He also recently was contacted by a publisher in California about a contract for three of his works, he said.

For 21 seasons, Taylor has played bass trombone for the WSO.

From New York to Wyoming

When his friends from New York question his choice to live in Wyoming, Taylor points out the following: “I have a wonderful church choir to conduct; I have a symphony orchestra to play in; everything I write gets performed,” he said.

“Outside of that, the air is clear and the fish in the river don’t have to cough, and my grandchildren live right around the corner.”

Born and raised in New York, Taylor began learning music early in life. He graduated from the University of Dayton in 1964 with a B.S. in music education.

He earned his M.M. in conducting from Indiana University in 1969 and did postgraduate work at the University of Iowa.

For 22 years, Taylor taught in college and public schools in 10 Midwestern states as a clinician and adjudicator.

He and his wife first visited Wyoming in 1979 while they were teaching at Marycrest International University in Davenport, Iowa. They fell in love with the state, he said.

In 1980, they returned for another visit and considered job offers, which turned out to be part-time positions.

Then, while visiting shops in Saratoga, Taylor happened across the hole-in-the-wall office of the Carbon County superintendent.

After asking the secretary if they needed two music teachers, he met the superintendent and soon had a job in Hanna as band director. His wife filled the choir director position.

Relatively musical

When the mine and the school closed, the couple came to Casper in 1986. He became bass trombonist and assistant conductor for the symphony; his wife taught in the Casper school system.

He is the choir director at Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church, where Connie is an organist.

The brass group will perform in the church the morning of the concert.

Also a singer, Taylor's master’s degree is in choral conducting and his assistantship at the University of Indiana was to sing opera.

He said that he may have been interested in music since he was a baby. His mother tells him that he used to rock his crib back and forth in time to the symphony music they played on the phonograph.

As a boy of 8, Taylor could sing all four parts of hymns at his church in the Bronx, and soon found himself in the boys’ choir of the St. John the Divine and then in the Riverside Church of New York’s boys’ choir.

Each year, the choirs were put together by Robert Shaw to sing with the New York Philharmonic, he said. So by the time he was 12, Taylor had performed with greats like Dimitri Mitropoulos and Artulo Tuscanini.

In high school, Taylor played tenor trombone. He later served in the Army and afterward decided to go back to college.

Since his forte was playing low notes, he picked up a bass trombone, which has been his primary instrument since.

In graduate school, Taylor studied under New York Philharmonic bass trombonist Louis Van Haney.

His whole family is musical, Taylor said. His son is a Bach "Second Brandenburg Concerto” level performer and the band director of Park City (Colo.) High School.

Only about 200 can play the concerto, Taylor said.

His daughter is a coloratura soprano, and his older grandson sings in the Casper Children‘s Chorale. His son-in-law plays viola in the WSO.

Taylor’s wife, Connie, is a concerto level pianist and former accompanist for the Joffrey Ballet, Taylor said.

At age 70, Taylor said he still loves to play his horn, as well as directing choir and writing music.

"I love making music," he said.

If you go …

ARTCORE presents Fred Taylor and the Casper Brass & Storm Door Co.

Sunday, Jan. 11, at 4 p.m. at Durham Hall in the Aley Fine Arts Center, Casper College.

Ticket outlets are Ayres Jewelry, Hill Music, The Shade Tree, Simply Shelia and Sonic Rainbow. Tickets are $12 for adults, $11 for seniors, $6 for students and school teachers and $4 for children under 12.

For more information, contact ARTCORE at 265-1564 or artcorewy@aol.com.

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