Life in Canada is pretty smooth I guess, I have yet to visit anything further than Ottawa though, so I have no idea how it feels to go through the prairies and such. Quebec is a nice province though; I grew up in Mont-Tremblant, which is some big ski resort type of town. However, I've been living in Montreal now for 5 years and I believe that I'm a city person at heart.As for professional bands, I've currently part of one called the Montreal All-City Big Band with whom I've recorded three albums, 2 for professional Quebec musicians and one instrumental album that isn't out yet. I'm also part of two other bands;a Top 40 cover band called Djinn Tonique, and an R&B band called the Montreal R&B Ensemble where we mostly play hits from the 60's, 70's and 80's. The first band though is the one that I have the most work with. We've been on a couple tours now, next summer we're supposed to go and tour Cuba and eventually, one of the artists we recorded with wants to do a tour in Europe with us.

Oh, I no longer act: Forcing myself to attend law school quickly squelched those dreams. I was good enough to star in a few High School productions, because I can emote fairly well and assume the alternate personalities of characters with ease. College was more competitive and I didn't have as much spare time, so I slipped a bit into supporting roles in undergrad. My law school does have a drama club but 1L required me to spend every waking hour staring blankly at textbooks.

Do you enjoy life up in Canada? I've always wanted to visit the Great White North (and you'd think I would have, given I grew up not more than a four hour drive from the border) but I haven't had the opportunity. Have you played in any professional orchestra concerts or jazz ensembles up there? Any chance I'll hear your soothing sax solos on my iPod anytime soon?

That's a shame about leaving behind the saxophone after a couple months. Technically it can be a difficult instrument to learn, and in the world of sax playing, especially at university level, it can become quite competitive. I do agree that the instrument can have a lot more feeling (and sex appeal I guess:P) than the clarinet, since most sax solos you hear in pop tunes have this sensual vibe behind them (listening to Italian Restaurant at the moment on youtube, pretty cool).
The fact that you can do theater is pretty impressive though, I've never actually tried acting because I'm terrified at the thought of actually having to talk in front of a bunch of people (I guess I prefer hiding behind an instrument:P) so kudos on that for you and good luck with it if you're still doing some of it . Was it mostly for fun, or did you take acting as serious pastime?

I was above-average on the clarinet but hopeless with the sax (both the alto and tenor). My instructor actually recommended I leave the sax behind after only nine months of lessons.
I owned all of my instruments but have since gotten rid of every one. (I gave up the trombone to pursue drama club opportunities, which became my artsy obsession through most of high school and undergrad. I could never quite match my skill with the clarinet, and that frustrated me enough to give up on instruments entirely. I was successful in theater, so it wasn't a total wash.)

I started with the clarinet with the intent to become a sax player. I had been inspired by Billy Joel -- the sax solos in some of his numbers (Italian Restaurant comes to mind) were just so mesmerizing. The clarinet felt to me like a professional instrument, but the saxophone was more artistic...it could be more romantic, more inspiring, and more improvisational. If you're half as good as you portray yourself, you're very lucky.

I've been playing the sax now for almost 10 years straight, started when I was 12 in my first year of high-school. I was lucky enough (or unlucky as I'm realising this more and more) to start on the saxophone right away instead of doing clarinet beforehand. Today I've got my tenor (my baby!) my soprano and my sister's alto. I'm thinking of buying myself a baritone soon since I've started playing it in big band at school and people keep asking me to sub for them in various bands. I also play flute (somewhat) and a little bass clarinet (terribly). I'll get to learn how to play them eventually.

Trombone was actually the second choice I had in mind for instruments when I started off. I liked the feeling of it and the power as well. Do you sill own any of your previous instruments or were they all borrowed from school?

How experienced are you with your beloved saxophone?
I ask in part because I used to play myself. (Well, for one year. I started with the Clarinet throughout elementary and middle school, and tried the saxophone for one year before moving on to the trombone. I was also terrible. But that is aside from the point.)