Before his first piano lesson at age 12, straight A student Cole Knutson had thoughts of becoming a scientist. The first time he made music, however, he knew he wanted to be a professional musician.
“It captivated me that a person could make sound out of these things, these instruments, that you could produce something so moving, and at that point I knew I was going to devote the rest of my life to this.”
Now 18, Cole is an experienced musician who has been accepted to provincial and national honour bands and is studying for a bachelor’s degree in saxophone performance at the University of Manitoba.
“I love it there,” says Cole. “It’s great and the teachers are fantastic.”
He plans to follow up his bachelor’s degree with a master’s degree in collaborative piano.
“Piano means just as much to me as saxophone does,” he says. “It just happens to be that for my bachelor’s degree I chose saxophone.”
He had auditioned for both saxophone and piano, and was accepted on both, but because the degree in collaborative piano that he wants to pursue isn’t offered at the bachelor level, he decided to begin with saxophone. He is thrilled to be studying with Allen Harrington, originally of Saskatoon.
“Allen is honestly one of the best saxophonists in Canada, if not in North America,” says Cole. “He is absolutely fantastic.”
In addition, because Harrington is from Saskatoon, Cole has found they know many of the same people, and networking is an important part of advancing a musical career.
While he studies saxophone, he has also been laying the groundwork for his piano degree, doing frequent rehearsals with instructors, playing in chamber ensembles and accompanying.
Cole, who lives in residence in Winnipeg while studying, is back in North Battleford for the summer, spending time with his family. Cole’s parents are Leslie, who worked at the Battlefords Union Hospital for many years, and Theresa Knutson, a community mental health nurse.
“It’s a really hard job and it takes an amazing person to do it,” says Cole. “I am truly in awe of the fact that she’s able to devote so much time and energy towards it.”
His sister Sarah is a vocalist and an avid guitar player and his older brother, while he loves music, is planning to attend a technical course next year.
Although Cole’s home with family for the summer, the music continues.
This July, he will be off to San Jose, Calif., where he will be playing with the World Youth Wind Orchestra as part of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensemble’s annual conference – a week-long event attended by musicians and enthusiasts from around the globe.
The WASBE Youth Wind Orchestra is an integral part of every WASBE Conference, according to the organization, which states, “The ensemble will be comprised of some of the finest young musicians from all around the globe who will come together in San Jose to rehearse for the week and close the conference with a performance at the beautiful California Theatre.”
Cole will be playing the tenor saxophone.
“It will be great,” he says.
Not only is he looking forward to being part of the WYWO, as a member of that ensemble he will receive a pass into any conference event, including lectures by world-class musicians and conductors, some from Canada.
He notes the University of Saskatchewan Wind Ensemble is going to be there.’
“I’ve played in band with a lot of these people and I’ll get to see them play, get to mingle and see some old friends – and there’s a lot to learn there.”
Although he only found out early this year he’d been accepted to play in the WYWO, he’s been looking forward to the possibility for several years. He was about 15, he says, when he saw a recruiting item on the Internet while researching a piece he was going to be playing in the provincial honour band.
“It was kind of intriguing,” he says. “I realized this was a pretty high level ensemble.”
He looked up the information on auditioning and found one had to be at least 18 years old to be accepted.
“Ever since then I’ve been waiting to apply. This year I turned 18 and I still remembered the ensemble and was debating whether or not I should apply because it seemed really prestigious,” he says.
He had been accepted to the National Youth Band of Canada for the previous two years and was about to do it again for a third time, plus he had been accepted to the Denis Wick Canadian Wind Orchestra, the premier honour concert band in Canada, so he said to himself, “I might as well give it a shot, and if my application is denied at least I tried.”
He laughs, “So, in typical fashion, I auditioned the night it was due. I was in my bedroom at the residence at around 12 a.m., trying to record Flight of the Bumble Bee and a couple of other things. I got a few complaints but I ended up getting my audition in and I got an email a few weeks later that said they had accepted me.”
They wanted him to play tenor saxophone, although he typically plays soprano or alto.
“I said I was willing to play anything!”
Although he is majoring in alto, Cole says that as a saxophonist it’s important to play soprano, tenor, alto and baritone.
When the music arrived, he found it extremely challenging, but that just adds to his enjoyment.
“I’m really excited to start digging into it.”
All the pieces are Spanish titles, the conductor is Spanish and the WYWO’s composer is Spanish.
“It’s exciting,” he says, “a new repertoire I’ve never heard before.”
The WASBE Conference is in July. For the rest of the summer, Cole will be busy with concerts he’s put together with other musicians from across Western Canada. It will be a chance to earn some money, but it will also be practice for what he is studying to become.
They will also be classical music concerts, he says, adding not a lot of people know that the saxophone is a classical instrument.
“I didn’t when I first started. I wanted to be cool like a jazz musician,” he laughs. He began his musical journey with piano lessons, then a year or so later took up the saxophone. “I figured playing a wind instrument would help my piano playing and also because saxophone looked cool,” he admits.
“I was exposed within the first year to classical saxophone and I thought, ‘This instrument I’m holding can sound like that?’ And from that point on I started doing more classical stuff. It’s not super well known but it’s great.”
He hopes to have two local concerts, including one with Paul Hyumbai.
“I can honestly say he’s the best clarinetist I’ve ever met.”
Cole says he’s learned a lot from the recent addition to the community, who has played in a symphony in Korea and with chamber ensembles in Europe and who also had a solo career in France.
“He and I both played in the community band, and we talked about playing our instruments, because there are so many similarities, and a lot about extended techniques like circular breathing and all these really difficult things. It’s given me an upper hand at university,” says Cole.
Cole also admires the passion Hyumbai expresses while playing.
“Everyone loves watching him play, and rightly so.”
He hopes also to have a duet concert with Jaya Hoy, who was his piano teacher for about six years.
He first began music lessons with Lisa Hornung who, when Hoy moved to North Battleford, told him, “You have to go to Jaya.”
Although he was apprehensive, it was meant to be.
“Jaya is probably the biggest mentor I’ve had in my life – on a musical level, on a personal level and even on a spiritual level,” says Cole. “Without Jaya I can honestly say I wouldn’t be doing any of this. She has always been there encouraging me and supporting me.”
When he began saxophone lessons, his instructor was Gene Aulinger, who was the influence behind Cole’s willingness to audition for more and bigger ensembles on his musical journey.
“He encouraged a lot of the students to audition for ensembles and influenced me to audition for all of these groups. At one point in high school I was in 17 different ensembles at once,” he laughs.
Cole graduated July 29, 2014.
“My high school situation was really weird,” he says.
He missed a lot of school due to ill health, attempting to keep up by online classes. Although he’d had excellent marks previously, they dropped dramatically.
Knowing that if he was going to get on with his music career he would have to go to university, he auditioned and was accepted despite his low marks, but only if he completed Grade 12.
He’s been away from school for a year and a half, but buckled down to complete Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 in one semester.
“Ten hours a day, every single day, no days off, no weekends off,” he laughs now. “It was intense!”
During that time he also had a two-week stint playing in the national youth band and the Denis Wick wind orchestra.
“Two weeks gone, and that really made an impact. When I returned I had to push it to about 12 hours a day.”
It paid off, however, and he is on track with his career plans.
“Now, I’m the happiest I’ve been in a very long time,” says Cole. “It’s great.”
When the summer is over, he is looking forward to going back to university.
“The quality of teachers they have is absolutely outstanding,” he says. “The amount of knowledge I have acquired and the amount of music I’ve made, it really makes every day a day that I look forward to.”
