Howard Cable

Swinging with the SSO

Big-Band icon
Howard Cable

to conduct season opener

The Stratford Symphony Orchestra will open Season Nine on Saturday, Oct. 5, with a sweeping array of big-band hits arranged and conducted by Howard Cable, 92-year-old Canadian music icon. He brings with him Harvey Kogen, soloist on tenor saxophone, clarinet and flute, as well as a drummer, Kevin Dempsey.

Howard Cable's Big-Band Hits (see below) will include the music of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Xavier Cugat, the Gershwins, Oscar Peterson, Henry Mancini and others. All the music is arranged by Mr. Cable especially for symphony orchestra and the program is similar to one performed recently by Mr. Cable with Symphony Nova Scotia.

For this concert, the venue will be Central United Church, 194 Avondale Avenue, Stratford. The concert begins at 7:30. Tickets ($35 for adults, $20 for students) are available at Fanfare Books, Blowes Stationery and Downie Street Bakehouse in Stratford and Lyric Flowers in St. Marys, as well as online and at the door. For additional information contact Sharon McDonald, SSO office (519-271-0990), or Jean Hewitt, promotions chair (519-272-2726).

Stratford Symphony Orchestra

October 5, 2013

Howard Cable's Big-Band Hits

Harvey Kogen -- soloist on clarinet, flute & saxophone

Handy/Miller                  St. Louis Blues

Various                          Radio Themes of the Big Bands

                                      (Miller, Brown, Dorsey, Goodman,

                                      James,  Shaw, Ellington)

                                           Harvey Kogen - clarinet

Peterson                       The Oscar Peterson Groove

                                      Place St. Henri

Ellington                        Tribute to the Duke

                                      It Don't Mean A Thing, Sophisticated Lady,                                       Don't Get Around Much, I Got It Bad,                    

                                      Mood Indigo, Cottontail

                                           Harvey Kogen - tenor saxophone

Berlin/Kern/                   Swing on the Screen - The Fred Astaire Songs

Gershwin                       The Carioca, The Continental, Top Hat,  

                                      No Strings, Pick Yourself Up,

                                      Puttin' On The Ritz, Steppin' Out

Fernandez/                    The Latin Bands - Cugat, Arnaz

Morales                              Harvey Kogen - flute

                        --------------------------- Intermission   --------------------

Ira & George                 The Brothers Gershwin

Gershwin                            Harvey Kogen - tenor saxophone

Hermann                       Blues Theme from "Taxi Driver"

Brown/Mancini               Remember This Music?

                                       A Sentimental Journey, The Pink Panther

                                           Harvey Kogen - tenor saxophone

Jobim                             From Brazil - The Bossa Nova

Various                          A Royal Finale - King of the Clarinet  &                                                  the King of Swing

                                       Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman

                                           Harvey Kogen - clarinet

About Howard Cable

Over his 70-year career, Mr. Cable has worked with Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Victor Borge, Peggy Lee and the Canadian Brass. He has arranged music for Richard Rodgers and Frank Loesser, and conducted musicals on Broadway. He has composed and conducted more than a thousand radio dramas and variety shows for the CBC and scored music for the National Film Board. He has led Canada's symphony orchestras, bands and choirs, and taught musical theatre at the Banff Centre and Dalhousie University. Most recently he has created the orchestrations and vocal arrangements for a new Drayton Entertainment production, Big Band Legends.

Harvey Kogen

About Harvey Kogen

Behind the scenes

How does a symphony orchestra make the transition from long-hair classics to big-band swing?

It's not the stretch that one might think, says John Sanderson, SSO personnel manager and musician (viola). "Howard's arrangements are the best in the biz; these are for symphony orchestra. He has conducted this show with professional orchestras across Canada. The drum kit is the only unusual addition to the instrumentation. The challenge, and SSO players are up to it, is to sound and swing like a big band. All sections have wonderful lines to play with the brass often highlighted.

SSO librarian and musician (flute) Liesel Deppe is of the same mind. Mr. Cable's arrangements are "all ready to go," she says. "He sends them to us, so no need to do a lot of sourcing from various publishers. It all makes the rehearsal process easier too, because all musical markings (string-instrument bowings, for example) are already in the parts."

And why insert popular music into a normally classical agenda? "We're trying to find a wider audience," says Barbara Young, co-music director (with Berthold Carrière) of the SSO, citing the orchestra's January Celtic concert and The Mikado (coming in May) as other departures to diversify the SSO offerings, something that is happening with orchestras everywhere. The SSO's capacity to move smoothly among musical genres "shows what a versatile symphony we have," she says. She is delighted that Mr. Cable, a longtime friend and Canadian music "royalty," agreed to come to Stratford.