A shuttle connection downtown, an 11PM Greyhound bus to Banff, and a shared cab got me to the Banff Centre for Performing Arts around one in the morning. Check in, get my room key and get to bed a quickly as possible.

Registration the next morning was quick and painless then off to breakfast prepared by award winning chefs.

There are lectures and seminars taking place first thing in the morning. I choose to head down to the exhibitor's hall. Exhibitors include Lowell Shaw of The Hornists' Nest (Fripperies), Besson and Willson, Holton sent along endorserEthel Merker and chief brass designerLarry Ramirez. The Yamaha reps Steve Butterworth and Allan Ash are from head office in Scarborough, Ontario. Stork Mouthpieces, Rocky Mountain Alphorns, Osmun Music near Boston, Hans Pizka publications and horns, and few more publishers round out the exhibits.

The meals are world class. Plus you never know who you'll wind up sitting next to. I shared tables with the host, David Hoyt of the Edmonton Syphony, Louis Stout, Martin Hackleman and a few other big names. Long-time friendships are made and renewed as well. We all have the horn in common.

There are small ensembles led by the hosts and other luminaries as well as the massed horn choir. All of this is in preparation for the final Gala Performance on the last evening.

There is a session on Quartet Playing and Arranging put on by the Li�ge Horn Quartet from Belgium.

I play in Marty Hackleman's ensemble which will open the final concert with my transcription of O Canada.

The massed horn choir of over seventy horns is under the direction of Paul Mansur. We will be playing Handel's Water Music.

Finally there is the practise of late-night pick-up ensembles. I follow the sound of horn playing up to the Music and Sound Building to find Lowell Shaw directing a group in one of the smaller rooms. I join in with amateurs and professors and professionals.

Snow is falling the morning of the lecture on the alphorn. There is an excursion to Lake Louise the same day where we participate in alphorn ensemble playing. My companions thought I was crazy when I rented a canoe paddled around trying to look like Bill Mason. I just couldn't pass up the chance to paddle in a glacial lake in the Canadian Rockies. I'm sure I wound in some foreign newspaper since the place is crawling with tourists from around the world.

There is the local night life. This is punctuated by meeting a deer as we leave the rec centre.

There are always morning warm-up sessions, mid-morning master classes, early afternoon lectures, afternoon concerts followed by evening concerts. Throw in meals, socialising and a couple of rehearsals and you get a small idea of what goes on at one of these things.

Every horn player of every interest level should participate in one of these events at least once in their lives.