USask professor’s new book is what Canadian wind band conductors have been waiting for

By Chris Putnam

A new book from a University of Saskatchewan (USask) music professor is set to be the definitive guide for conductors of Canadian wind band music.

Dr. Darrin Oehlerking (DMA) is the editor and compiler of Winds of the North: A Survey of the Canadian Wind Band Tradition and Repertoire, which launched in December from GIA Publications.

The ambitious 860-page volume is divided between chapters examining the context of Canadian wind band music and scholarly resource guides for 85 works by Canadian composers.

“I’m fiercely Canadian, so I love collaborating and highlighting Canadian composers whenever I can. We’re experiencing almost a golden era of wind band compositions, and I want to introduce some of these composers to a wider audience,” said Oehlerking, a professor in the USask School for the Arts who also serves as associate dean of student affairs for the College of Arts and Science.

Winds of the North is inspired by another GIA book series called Teaching Music Through Performance that Oehlerking and many other conductors consider a priceless resource. The books are packed with detailed guides to individual pieces of music that educators like Oehlerking use to prepare for teaching those pieces to their ensembles.

But the existing series contains few works by Canadian composers. Oehlerking saw there was a major gap to be filled.

“A lot of (Canadian) folks have been wanting this. And a lot of my American friends and counterparts have been excited about the opportunity this will bring, because it introduces a whole new set of repertoire to them,” said Oehlerking, an acclaimed conductor and former president of the Canadian Band Association and the Saskatchewan Band Association.

Oehlerking recruited seventy-five contributors—all of them Canadian—to create the book. He is also the author of a chapter on the history of wind band in Canada. Other chapters cover topics such as French-Canadian perspectives, decolonization and Indigenous collaborations.

Fourteen of the book’s contributors are alumni, students, and current or former faculty members of USask. Another six contributors are from Saskatchewan.

“There’s a lot of Saskatchewan in this book,” Oehlerking said.

In December, the USask music professor gave a well-received presentation about Winds of the North at the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference, the world’s largest instrumental music education conference, to an audience of more than 200. He will next speak at a book launch at USask in Saskatoon on Friday, Jan. 9.

Oehlerking anticipates Winds of the North will appeal to music educators, wind band conductors at all levels, and music enthusiasts.

“I think we have such a rich tradition of wind band composers and there’s a real groundswell happening in the 21st century. So I hope people are able to discover and celebrate the quality of Canadian wind band music,” he said.

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