Meghan Hansen - a portfolio
University of Winnipeg Jazz, 1999-2007
History
The UWJazz ensemble began its life as the University of Winnipeg Downtown Jazz Band, in the Winter of 1993. It was started by a group of UW students who had been members of their high school jazz ensembles. Even though these students had chosen not to take music courses (or, indeed, even attend a university with a music program), they wanted to continue playing. The band is composed mainly of University of Winnipeg students, with a few alumni and friends thrown in. Over the years, the ensemble has rehearsed in many unusual and inconvenient locations and times, finally settling on Sunday evenings, when it was possible, most of the time, to rehearse in the University's Eckhardt-Grammatté Hall. In exchange, the group agreed to play two concerts per year in the "Music@Noon" series. The ensemble also generally hosts two Sunday evening concerts per year, one at the end of each semester.
Each member of the band pays yearly dues, that go to paying a director to work with the band. The band is run by an Executive Council, made up of student members of the various sections, usually those who have been members in good standing for a few years. The band Executive is responsible for making decisions about scheduling and staffing, while leaving artistic decisions (instrumentation, music choices, set lists, etc) to the director. I joined the Executive in the Fall of 2000, and became the President for the 2002-2003 year.
For photos of the band in rehearsal and in concert, and audio clips of our 2002 recording, please follow this link.
Presidency, 2002-2003
During the summer of 2002, we spent many months searching for a replacement director, as the previous director had decided to resign. At the outset, my job was complicated both by the location of my summer job- I was coordinating this search from Ottawa, where I was working as a tour guide on Parliament Hill- and by the lack of institutional memory held within the band. The outgoing president had been in that position for several years, and left no indication of the actual work that he did in that position. I took it upon myself to muddle through as best I could, and also to leave a thick paper trail of what I did, so that the next person would not have to re-invent the wheel again. While the band did not grow through this year, it did maintain the stability that it had previously. I had intended to stay on, and work with one who would eventually become my successor, but life intervened.
The following year, I was not a member of the band, as I was participating in the year-abroad exchange program in Perpignan, France. The director from the previous year stayed on, and the new President did a fair job of running the band. However, when I returned to the band for the 2004-2005 year, it was in complete disarray.
The director had quit at the end of the 2003-2004 year. The new President did no work trying to find a replacement over the summer, and so we did not have a director until a couple of days before rehearsals were set to begin. The new director was a talented musician and composer, but was not used to working with amateur musicians, and so the band members became frustrated, and the band floundered. Some of the key members stopped coming to rehearsals. In October, the new President quit, and the Vice-President, not feeling up to the challenge, asked me, the only member with previous experience running the band, to step in.
Presidency, 2004-2005
I hesitated, for a number of reasons. It was my last year of school. I was not sure that I would be able to pull the band out of the downward spiral that it had taken. So, I asked the executive to promise that they would be very actively involved, and accepted the challenge again. The first step I took was to seek out those key members who had left, and ask them to return. One, in particular, I thought of as the only current member of the band who would be capable of taking my place when the year ended. He returned, and together, we halted the downward turn and worked to bring the band back. That year was tough. The band finished, for the first time, with a deficit, and relatively low number of returning members. But it had survived.
At the end of that year, I turned over my position to the next President, but kept playing with the band for the following two seasons. I am proud to say that the work we did saving the band in the 2004-2005 season has paid off handsomely. The band, whose new director is a former member, is flourishing now, and is increasing in size and scope all the time. Though I am no longer a student of the University of Winnipeg, I hope, upon my return to the city, to be able to pick up my trombone and return to playing in the band.