02/09/2010
It was one of the moments that change the course of your life, but it didn’t feel that way to the seventeen-year-old Gerard McChrystal on that fateful day in 1982. Co principal clarinettist with Derry’s Western Area and Library Board wind orchestra, he recalls being asked if there were any volunteers to play saxophone. As his mate Kevin Murphy was principal clarinettist, Gerard put his hand up. It was a lucky choice. Acclaimed as ‘the new James Galway of the sax’ by music critics on his first professional outing, Gerard has now played in over 30 countries and is regarded as one of the world’s leading practitioners of the instrument.
Temperance Association
Gerard’s original inspiration was his father William, a member of the St Columb’s TA. band, which Gerard himself joined at the tender age of eight. The TA stands for Temperance Association, though Gerard clearly recalls waiting for the band members to clear Peter Owen's Bar (now Badger’s) before rehearsals could begin. “Initially I played
cornet in the band like my father,” he says, “but then took up the clarinet as it had more of the tune”. The band played many well-known classical melodies, such as the William Tell Overture and largely performed in church halls and marches. “My memory is we seemed to specialise in cold, windswept, rainy locations”, Gerard laughs “At least I learned to play fast in the cold! But in some ways it was typical of music here. Marching bands on both sides of the divide have made a massive contribution to music”.
Eye-opener
His teachers in Derry were Dessie Quigg, Hughie Carlin and Patsy McShane. Like many another musician in Derry, Gerard recalls the influence of Donal Doherty, who now conducts the Western Area and Library Board youth orchestra, and with whom he worked on his forthcoming CD, Aria (Donal conducts the Derry choir Condetta, who
sang on Aria). But he also recalls going to Ayr with the orchestra for summer courses which transformed his view of classical music.
“Suddenly, it was much more than Beethoven and Mozart”, he says, “I was discovering a whole range of composers like Sibelius, it was a real eye-opener for a thirteen-year-old”.
Twist of fate
At seventeen came the unexpected arrival of the saxophone in Gerard’s life. An unusual choice for a classical instrument it might be, but Gerard points out that it was actually invented, by Adolph Sax, 80 years before jazz came on the scene. Sax himself wrote classical music for the instrument, which had been invented too late to make a big impact on orchestral line-ups.
Goodbye to the clarinet
Gerard went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where he became the first person to graduate with three awards including a distinction in his saxophone diploma. “I actually went to study clarinet but brought my sax to the audition”, he recalls. “When they heard me play sax they asked me to study it as a joint first study instrument. At that stage I had only been playing it for six months. But when I went to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London to do a diploma four years later I studied saxophone with John Harle and clarinet with Jack Brymer. I focused on the saxophone and discovered how much there was to learn. Today I don’t even own a clarinet”.
The world’s greatest sax teacher
On the advice of a tutor in Manchester, who told him that the greatest saxophone teacher in the world, Frederick Hemke, was at Northwestern University in Chicago, Gerard decided to take his MA there. This was made financially possible when he won the Lombard and Ulster Music Foundation first prize, worth some £15,000. "Fred had himself studied in Paris under Marcel Mule, the man who had inherited the post from
Adolph Sax himself, albeit 70 years later!" Gerard says, “so he could hardly be more qualified!”
The new James Galway
Turning professional in 1988, Gerard’s confidence was boosted by two glowing reviews of his debut performance at the Wigmore Hall from the Times and Guardian newspapers, in which the former described him as “The new James Galway of the sax”. James Galway later phoned Gerard at home to wish him well.
Taverner’s Apocalypse
Gerard hasn’t looked back since, touring the world and playing with many of its leading conductors and orchestras. He toured many countries, from Bombay to Hawaii, with Saxtet, a quartet of sax players based in Birmingham and played sax for the legendary composer John Taverner at a Proms performance of his Apocalypse at the Albert Hall. “Sax was the only woodwind instrument apart from recorder that he wrote for in
the piece”, Gerard says. “I accompanied two solo singers and found myself dandering from one to the other all over the stage. It was really a keep-fit piece!”
Reels and jigs in Soweto
Another memorable experience was on a British Council project in South Africa, when Gerard played with the Soweto String Quartet in their hometown. “The idea was that the collaboration between me and the Quartet would inspire British businessmen to work with locals too. It wasn’t long after Nelson Mandela was released and there was a government minister at the event. It was a very significant event. We did a great gig together and a workshop in Soweto itself. The people were too poor to afford wind instruments so we played with guitars.
They couldn’t read music so it was a case of improvising. Not for the first time in my life my love of folk music helped me with its spontaneity. It’s always in the back of my head. I spent three days teaching them jigs and reels from Shetland in the studio (Gerard’s uncle was Kevin O’Doherty who was one of the founders of Culturlann, Derry’s traditional music base at whose opening Gerard played).”
UN 50th anniversary concert
In 1995 Gerard also played at a high profile concert in San Francisco to mark the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. Representing the UK, he performed with the Orchestra of San Francisco Ballet in a piece written by Michael Nyman to accompany the Rambert Dance Company of London. The two-day event at the San Francisco Opera House, which featured the world’s leading dance companies, was a sell-out.
Philip Glass and a new way of breathing
For the piece he played for Phillip Glass last year in Drogheda Cathedral Gerard even had to learn to breathe differently. “It was an amazing concert”, he says, “but it had to be played in a way that didn’t allow me to breathe normally throughout the entire piece, so as an asthmatic that was a problem. So I learned a special technique of circular breathing, which allows you to play without stopping”.
The Relief of Derry and Sinead O’Connor
Gerard’s recording career has also taken off. Highlights include the Debussy Rhapsody for Chandos Records and Shaun Davey's stirring A Relief of Derry Symphony with the Ulster Orchestra. In 2000 he released an album of specially written Romances and Toccatas by Billy Cowie and he also featured on Imagine Another Ireland with Sinead
O'Connor, Brian Kennedy and Anuna. His next CD is called Aria and will be out in 2011. Recorded with a string quartet, choir, string orchestra, guitar and piano, it features Derry’s Codetta Choir, conducted by his old music teacher Donal Doherty.
Stand up
Gerard’s next concert is premiering an Ian Wilson new work at a music festival in Portugal on May 14th, before taking his new show, Stand Up on tour. His first completely solo project it will feature a number of specially written pieces by the likes of Ian Wilson, Andy Scott and Australian composer Barry Cockcroft.
City of Culture
Gerard is hoping for great things from Derry’s year as City of Culture in 2013:
"I believe that music is for everyone, no other art form can put people in touch with their humanity in the same way. My musical career has opened my mind to everything around me, I’ve been influenced by so many things and it’s given me such a rich life and a real sense of my own identity. I just hope we can fully embrace all the culture and traditions that we have in Derry-Londonderry and it will be spectacular if we do. Most of all I would like people from the UK to come and see what an amazing city it is. We take it for granted sometimes but with the walls, the river, the double-decker bridge, and especially the people, it’s an incredible city and one we should be very proud of.”
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