EUGENE - When Guy Few plays the trumpet, otherwise well-behaved Oregon Bach
Festival audiences gasp, whisper and giggle.

Mind you, this doesn't happen when he first appears on stage, complete
with bleached-blond (short) spikes and wearing Hoax Couture tails (which
he designed himself), no shirt, and an Attitude harking back to "Clockwork
Orange." No, at that point, there are only some raised eyebrows, mostly
from people who haven't experienced either the great Nigel or the wonderful
Kennedy - whatever his name is now.

No, the unruly behavior occurs when Few plays the trumpet.  I am not sure
about others, but I haven't heard anybody quite like him.  He is not only
hitting impossible high notes on the money, but does so with a ringing
tone, the amazing sound of a true "helden-trumpet," and all with a panache
that makes the listener.  well, gasp and giggle.  With pleasure.  I wonder
what it must be like to have him as a teacher in his regular habitat, as
head of trumpet studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario.

To make it all even more interesting, Few began his run at the festival
on Sunday, playing a tiny custom Bb four-valve Yamaha piccolo trumpet in
a Brandenburg concerto.  He went back to a "normal" trumpet the next day,
in a Discovery series presentation of Bach's Magnificat.

Helmuth Rilling, a man of somewhat more conservative appearance and
manners, made certain that the sensation doesn't stand in way of the music
by featuring Few during the illustrated lecture portion of the program.
By the time the performance began, the audience took the strange, splendid
trumpet player for granted - and he didn't let them down.  A reliably
brilliant trumpet: what miracle next?

Janos Gereben/SF
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