Well, I’ve done the unthinkable…loaned an instrument! An emergency for a fellow Conn Selmer artist who is playing the opera this week, the amazing Francois Houle. He had borrowed a bass clarinet that cracked in rehearsal and I loaned him my spare. It is an amazing instrument only slightly less stunning than my main bass…both are Selmer Privilege models, the best two out of the six that showed up to the Vancouver Clarinetfest a couple of years ago. Hope it lasts the run of the show!

Francois says it is a freaking Ferrari. He took a couple of Legere signature reeds with him and reports they are working great. David Branter, another legend playing the show, was over a few days earlier and took some tenor and bari sax Legere reeds with him, also appreciating them. What I appreciated was David’s Rousseau 6R Bari mouthpiece, so I ordered four of them.