Local News
New WSO Principal Tuba Player Justin Gruber a multi-talented musician
By MYRON LOVE Justin Gruber, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s relatively new principal tuba player, is a multi-talented musician – a young man still in his early 20s – who seems to have a bright future ahead of him.” I started playing the tuba in school when I was 9,” recounts Gruber, who spent his early years first in Manhattan and, later, Westchester, New York, where he celebrated his bar-mitzvah. “I adopted the tuba because it is one of the largest instruments, and I was always the biggest kid in my class.”
In 2012, the family moved to Parkland in southern Florida. This community made the news for all the wrong reasons on February 14, 2018. Gruber is a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School graduate in Parkland, Florida. If this school name seems familiar, that is because Marjory Stoneman Douglas was the high school that made the news on Valentine’s Day when a shooter entered the school and killed 17 people and wounded more while local police hid behind their cars. “I was in Grade 10 at the time,” Gruber recalls. “I was playing tuba in a band class at the time. Two fellow members of our school band were among those murdered.” A couple of years later, Gruber was among the few students invited to visit then-President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence in the Oval Office to recount their experiences on that horrendous day.
While in high school, Gruber participated in his school’s award-winning marching band. The young tuba player’s talents were recognized early on. While still in junior high, he won the Principal Tuba position in the Florida Youth Orchestra. This led to performances with the orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 2018 and the Midwest Clinic in 2019 with his prestigious high school wind symphony. Before leaving high school, Justin was a finalist in the New World Symphony Concerto Competition, a National Young Arts winner – and he also received the Kovner Fellowship from Juilliard.
He subsequently was awarded the President’s Music Scholarship to attend the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, where he studied with Dr. Aaron Tindall to pursue a bachelor’s degree in music performance. He reports that he is still working on his BA in Music Professional Studies online – which he anticipates he will complete next spring.In his first year at Frost, he won third prize in the Leonard Falcone International Tuba Artist Solo Competition and became an Associate Member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra. Shortly after a summer spent in Greensboro, North Carolina, as a Fellow of the Eastern Music Festival Orchestral, he was appointed to the Principal Tuba position with the New Mexico Philharmonic for their 2021-22 season.
After his debut season, Justin attended the Brevard Music Festival as an Orchestral Fellow, where he was a finalist in the Jan and Beattie Wood Concerto Competition. Shortly after his time at Brevard, he was Principal Tuba with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for the remainder of their 2022 season. Earlier this year, he was chosen as a 2023 Yamaha Young Performing Artist. He was also awarded a fellowship to the prestigious Aspen Music Festival, where, over the summer, he studied with Warren Deck.
Gruber joined the WSO last January. Playing tuba – a significant part of his musical life – is not his only musical talent. He is continuing to grow musically in different areas. He has been composing music since he was 11. As a composer, according to his webpage, he is self-taught. He has written various solo, chamber, and large ensemble works. He describes most of his compositions as inspired by the Neo-Romantic – with particular affection for the music of Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Strauss. He has won a Special Prize in the 2nd ISAC International Popular Music Composition Competition. He was also selected by the Pacific Chamber Orchestra for their Dream American 2023 workshop and performance of his piece, “This Road Alone.”
Still to come are his contributions to an album released by his mentor, Dr. Tindall, entitled “At the Ballet.” The album will feature Gruber’s arrangements of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” and music from Prokofiev’s “Cinderella”. Next fall, the world premiere of his piece “Beneath the Crypt” will be performed by the prestigious Frost Wind Ensemble.
He further has ambitions to be a conductor. “I have conducted small ensembles,” he reports. “I am looking forward to conducting large ensembles in the future.”
He says that, so far, he is enjoying Winnipeg – despite a couple of unpleasant incidents downtown where he is living. “I appreciate the open terrain,” he comments. “I like being outdoors, and I find the landscape here inspiring.”
In recent months, he has also dedicated himself to getting fit. “In the past 18 months, I have taken off 175 pounds,” says the now svelte Gruber proudly. “I did it through a strict regimen of local eating and working out as much as possible. I fell in love with fitness.”
Where Justin Gruber’s life story goes remains to be written. Suffice it to say that he is a rare talent whom local symphony supporters should appreciate while he is here.
Local News
Winnipeg-born Elliot Lazar to star as Paul Simon in “The Simon & Garfunkel Story” at Centennial Concert Hall
By BERNIE BELLAN Elliot Lazar’s career has long been chronicled in the pages of The Jewish Post & News. Do a search for his name in our “Search Archives” button and you will find a multitude of stories about Elliot from the time he was five years old.
A talented singer, musician, and musical arranger, also a graduate of Gray Academy, the University of Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music, and the Boston Conservatory, Elliot has appeared many times in Winnipeg, including most recently last summer in Rainbow Stage’s production of “Rent.”
He’s been constantly busy – as a review of some of his past acting credits reveals. Last season alone, in addition to his performing in “Rent,” Elliot also appeared in the National Tour of “Fiddler on the Roof,” and “The Band’s Visit” (Huntington/Speakeasy Stage).
We’re excited to announce that Elliot will be appearing in Winnipeg for one night only, May 21, starring as Paul Simon in “The Simon & Garfunkel Story.”
Here’s Elliot’s own story about his growing up in Winnipeg:
“I grew up in Garden City, attended Gray Academy (K-12) and majored in vocal performance at the University of Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music. I lived in Winnipeg until I was 22, so I’m pretty connected with the arts scene there still. The venue we’re playing, the Centennial Concert Hall, I was last seen in Guys and Dolls in concert with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Rainbow Stage (2019), and before that I sang with the Manitoba Opera Chorus in 3 productions there. My last performance in Winnipeg was in Rent with Rainbow Stage this past summer. Other local performing arts companies I have a history with there are Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, Winnipeg Studio Theatre, Dry Cold Productions, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Manitoba Underground Opera, Little Opera Company, and the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. I grew up going to see shows at the Concert Hall, so it’s a wonderful full circle moment for me.”
About “The Simon & Garfunkel Story”:
Nostalgia-inducing unforgettable hits! The internationally-acclaimed hit theater show The Simon & Garfunkel Story (www.thesimonandgarfunkelstory.com) returns to the road in 2024 with a North American tour to more than 25 cities. Kicking off in Richmond, Kentucky on January 28, 2024, the immersive concert-style tribute show will recreate the magic and authenticity of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel on stage and chronicles the amazing journey shared by the iconic, GRAMMY-award winning folk-rock duo. It tells the story from their humble beginnings as Tom & Jerry, to their incredible success as one of the best-selling music groups of the ‘60s, and to their dramatic split in 1970. The Simon & Garfunkel Story culminates with the pair’s famous “The Concert in Central Park” reunion in 1981 which had more than half a million fans in attendance. Tickets are on sale now.
The show features a set list of nearly 30 songs and uses state-of-the-art video projection, photos and original film footage. A full live band will perform all of the hits including “Mrs. Robinson,” “Cecilia,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Homeward Bound” and many more complete with the unmistakably perfect harmonies that will transport audiences down memory lane.
With more than 100 million album sales since 1965, Simon & Garfunkel’s unforgettable songs and poetic lyrics poignantly captured the times made them one of the most successful folk-rock duos of all time. Over the years, they won 10 GRAMMY Awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. In 1977, the Brit Awards honored their “Bridge Over Troubled Water” album with Best International Album. In 2003, Simon & Garfunkel were awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the following year saw their “The Sound of Silence” awarded a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.
Local News
Ida and the late Saul Alpern have donated 2 ambulances and a scooter to Magen David Adom in past 4 years
By BERNIE BELLAN Saul Alpern passed away in 2022, but before he died he and his wife Ida had decided to make Magen David Adom a major recipient of their generosity.
As Myron Love noted in an October 2020 article the Alperns had been contributing small amounts to the Canadian Magen David Adom for some time, but it was in that year they decided to donate $160,000 for the purchase of a Mobile Intensive Care Unit for Israel’s Magen David Adom.
As Myron wrote in that 2020 article, an MICUA (which is larger than an ambulance, is staffed by paramedics, and responds only to the most medically serious cases) was donated “to the people of Israel in memory of Saul Alpern’s parents and siblings who perished in the Holocaust.
“It is an expression of my love for my family and my love of Israel,” Saul Alpern said at the time.
In early 2022 the Alperns donated yet another $170,000 for the purchase of a second MICU for Magen David Adom.
Saul Alpern passed away in November 2022, but Ida Alpern has now continued the legacy of giving to Canadian Magen David Adom that she and Saul had begun several years before. Just recently Ida contributed $39,000 toward the purchase of an emergency medical scooter. According to the CMDA website, “the scooter, which is driven by a paramedic, can get through traffic faster than the Standard Ambulance or MICU and provide pre-hospital care. It contains life-saving equipment, including a defibrillator, an oxygen tank, and other essential medical equipment.”
I asked Ida whether she wanted to say anything about the motivation for her and her late husband’s support for CMDA. She wrote, “Having survived the Holocaust, and being a Zionist, Saul felt that supporting Israel was of the utmost importance.”
On May 7, CMDA will be honouring Ida and Saul z”l Alpern at a dinner and show at the Centro Caboto Centre. Another highlight that evening will be the announcement of the purchase of an ambulance for CMDA by another Winnipegger, Ruth Ann Borenstein. That ambulance will be in honour of Ruth’s late parents, Gertrude and Harry Mitchell. The evening will also commemorate the late Yoram East (aka Hamizrachi), who was a well-known figure both in Israel and here in Winnipeg.
For more information about the May 7 event go to https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/canadian-magen-david-adom-for-israel/events/cmda-winnipeg-an-evening-of-appreciation/ or to purchase tickets phone 587-435-5808 or email sfraiman@cmdai.org
Local News
Simkin Centre looking for volunteers
We received the following email from Heather Blackman, Simkin Centre Director of Volunteers & Resident Experience:
Happy Spring Everyone! Hope you all are well. We have a number of upcoming volunteer opportunities that I wanted to share with you. Please take a look at what we have listed here and let me know if you are available for any of the following. I can be reached at heather.blackman@simkincentre.ca or 204-589-9008.
Save the date! The Simkin Stroll is on June 25th this year and we need tons of volunteers to assist. This is our annual fundraiser and there is something for everyone to help with from walking with Residents in the Stroll to manning booths and tables, event set up and take down and much more. Volunteers will be needed from 3 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on this day. Come and help for the full event or for any period within that timeframe that works for you.
Resident Store – This tuck shop style cart will be up for business shortly. Residents will be assisting to stock and run the store for 2 hours 2- 3 times per week in the afternoons. Volunteer support is needed to assist residents with restocking items and monetary transactions.
Passover Volunteers
Volunteers are needed to assist with plating Seder plates for Residents (date to be determined for plating)
Volunteers are needed to assist Residents to and from Passover Services and Come and Go Teas.
Times volunteers are needed for services/teas:
April 22cnd – First Seder 1:30-3:30 p.m.
April 23rd – Passover Service Day 1 – 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
April 23rd – Second Seder – 1:30-3:30 p.m.
April 24th – Passover Service – Day 2 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
April 29th – Passover Service – 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
April 29th- Passover Tea – 1:30-3:30 p.m.
April 30th – Passover Service – 9:30 -11:30 a.m.
April 30th – Passover Tea – 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Admin/Paperwork Volunteers – Volunteers are needed to assist with filing and other administrative duties. A monthly volunteering job is also available to input information on programming into Recreation activity calendars. Support would be provided for this.
Adult Day Program – A volunteer is needed to assist with the Mondays Adult Day Program Group. A regular ongoing weekly commitment on Mondays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Assist with Recreation programming and lunch supervision for our Adult Day Program participants that come in from the community for the day.
Biking Volunteers – Take our residents out for a spin on one of our specialty mobility bicycles. Training is provided and volunteers will be needed throughout the Spring, Summer and early Fall.
With summer coming there is also opportunity to assist with outings and other outdoor programming! Please let me know if you are interested!
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