MITCHELL CLARKE is a graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Music where he was a pupil of Nicholas Kilburn. Before joining the Toronto Symphony in 1973 he worked as an arranger and composer in the studios of Ben McPeek. His publications include a wind quintet, a brass quintet (Delevan), and choral arrangements (Warner Bros.). Tennis, skiing and photography are additional interests.
Mitchell follows the late Norman Tobias who was second bassoonist from 1965 until December, 1972 when he died as a result of an auto accident.
NICHOLAS KILBURN joined the Toronto Symphony in 1959. Previously he had been principal of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Symphony in Toronto.
He studied with Raymond Allard at the New England Conservatory and with Sol Schoenbach at the Curtis Institute. He helped found the Toronto Woodwind Quintet in 1959 and has appeared many times as soloist not only with the Toronto Symphony but as well with the CBC, the Hart House, the Peninsula Music Festival and Marlboro Festival Orchestras.
An active skier and tennis player, he is also an instructor of bassoon at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music.
At the end of the 1974/75 season WAYLAND MOSHER retires as contrabassoonist and bassoonist in the Toronto Symphony to become the orchestra's full-time assistant librarian.
Born in Quebec fifty-nine years ago "Mo" worked in Montreal as a piano tuner and saxophonist in a military band. In exchange for restoring a French system bassoon to playing condition he was allowed to play the instrument. He took lessons from Reginald de Havilland Tupper, then first bassoon of the Montreal Symphony and secretary of the McGill Conservatory.
In the spring of 1942 he joined the Central Band of the RCAF and took lessons with Henry J. Secker (Carl Rosa Opera Co., Brighton Municipal Orchestra) on a German system instrument. Later he had lessons with Louis Lettelier. His most influential teacher on the bassoon was Ferdinand del Negro.
In 1946 he joined the Toronto Symphony bassoon section which then included Elver Wahlberg and Ernest Huggins. He has played contrabassoon since 1965.
CHRISTOPHER WEAIT attended the State University College, Potsdam, N.Y. and Columbia University. His teachers were Charles Robert Reinert, Bernard Garfield, Harold Goltzer, and William Polisi.
Before joining the Toronto Symphony in 1968 he had been a member of the Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia and the USMA Band at West Point, N.Y. He is the author of "Bassoon Reed-making: A Basic Technique" (NY, McGinnis and Marx) and has recently recorded an album for Pyramid and Lyrichord records "Four Centuries of Music for Bassoon."
He is Vice-President of the IDRS for 1975, and an instructor of bassoon at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music.