Connection and joy: alumni gather for UPEI Wind Symphony reunion

A group of about 60 musicians gets ready to rehearse onstage at the Dr. Steel Recital Hall at UPEI. 

Over the chatter, there's the trill of a flute, then the warm sound of a trombone and a clatter of snare drums. 

It looks like the usual weekly rehearsal for the UPEI Wind Symphony, made up of wind, brass and percussion players, but there's more excitement than usual in the hall. 

"I haven't been in this building in probably 20 years and it just, it looks a little different, but the feel is exactly the same," said trumpeter Lisa Sanderson.

Sanderson is one of many UPEI music graduates who returned to the campus's music building for a wind symphony reunion Dec. 27-29. 

"When I heard about this reunion, there was no way I was going to miss it," said Sanderson, who graduated in 2003 and went on to become a music teacher. 

"Things I use every single day in my daily life and with my students, really a lot of it has come from playing in the wind symphony, and that foundation and from Dr. Simon," she said. 

Karem Simon has conducted the group for 24 years. He will retire at the end of this school year, and as the current chair of the department, he's already handed over the group's conducting duties to brass professor Dale Sorensen. 

Simon had the idea for this reunion back in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled a March performance for the band.

"I thought, 'Why don't we bring everyone back in December and have a post-Christmas reunion?'" said Simon.

"Which for those who had graduated in 2020, it would have provided them with some closure. And for all the other alumni, it's an opportunity to reconnect, rehearse and perform."

The pandemic caused further delays, and this is the third time the band has planned the reunion. 

Many of the participants are more recent graduates or community members who play with the group regularly. But some, like Sanderson, returned for the first time in a long time.

"From my position on the podium I'll look out and I see all of these musicians … it could be as much as 55 years in the difference between the youngest and the oldest," said Simon.