These Albertans are trumpeting their support for frontline health-care workers
World-renowned and Alberta-raised trumpet soloist recruits top musicians for virtual performance
Watching news coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic from his home in Los Angeles, Jens Lindemann, who was raised in Alberta, says he was struck by stories from the front lines.
"All the news just pointed to how much stress there was in their lives as they [dealt] with not just [COVID-19] patients, but then coming home and being worried about their own families," Lindemann said.
Lindemann is a world-renowned classical trumpet soloist. He moved to Los Angeles 20 years ago where he performs while teaching at UCLA.
He reached out to 32 trumpet players from all around the world to come together and record a song for health-care workers. The result was Hope for the Future.
The song was written and produced by professional musician and composer, Matt Catingub.
"[The trumpet] is a very ceremonial instrument, it's a very noble instrument, [there are] very important times in our society when the trumpet is called upon. We're there to answer that, that clarion bell, so to speak," Lindemann said.
Among the musicians approached for the project was 84-year-old Calgarian and 2020 Juno Award nominee Al Muirhead.
Muirhead has been a professional trumpet player from the age of 12.
"He asked me to be part of this, which I was terribly thrilled. You know, just an excellent idea," Muirhead said.
Muirhead said he wasn't given a lot of information about how the virtual production was going to work, but was happy to play a part in the tribute.
"That means something special here. It really does. You know, and the longer this goes on, the more special it is," he said. "We owe such a debt of gratitude to those people, it's amazing and there are a lot of them all over the world."
There have already been more than 190,000 views on YouTube.
Lindemann had already captured his fellow Canadians' hearts almost two years ago when a video was posted of him playing the national anthem during a traffic jam on the Trans-Canada Highway during a snowstorm.
He said what he is most happy about with this newest video is that we're all in this together.
"I think that gives people tremendous comfort and most importantly, hope. Hope for the future."
With files from Carolyn Dunn