THE CASE WORKERS
Founded in 2007 by our director emeritus Dr. Phillip Kancianic (a.k.a. Fearless Leader), CASE has varied in size over the years. At one point we were a septet, then for several years a sextet. Now as of the spring of 2012 we are an all-amateur saxophone quartet.
Glenn Lankford, Alto Saxophone
From his humble beginnings in a log cabin, Glenn was destined for musical greatness. He spent his early years wandering the forest, listening to the birds, and wishing he could imitate their sound. There were a lot of crows in Glenn’s neighborhood, which explains something about Glenn’s sound today. At age three, Glenn whittled his first saxophone from a fence post…Oh, all right, I’ll give it to you straight –
Glenn began his music education at age eight or nine, with a few guitar lessons. He started playing alto saxophone in the fifth grade. After a year with a rented saxophone, Glenn’s parents bought him the Buescher Aristocrat that he still plays today. Glenn’s musical experience reached its peak in the summer of 1975, after his junior year, when his high school band attended the International Youth Music Festival in Vienna, Austria. The band director selected Glenn based upon his performance in audition, and the fact that Glenn was willing to help load and unload the instrument truck on the trip. Upon returning from Vienna, Glenn decided to take a brief respite from music. Twenty-nine years later, in late 2004, he dusted off his sax, got it refurbished, and started trying to learn to play all over again.
Glenn enjoys the support of his much-more-talented wife and two sons, though they bought him a pool table for his birthday last year, in the hopes that he might take up a quieter hobby. Glenn’s major goal in music is to someday be able to play well enough to justify buying a new saxophone. In his spare time, Glenn is a tax partner with Hantzmon Wiebel LLP in Charlottesville.
Robert LaRue, Soprano & Alto Saxophone
When he was ten years old, Robert was dragged kicking and screaming to summer music school, where he was forced to play clarinet. (He had wanted to learn to play guitar.) However, upon hearing the senior high-school jazz orchestra play “Jumping at The Woodside,” he became smitten with big-band jazz. He asked his mother to buy him a tenor saxophone; but she–knowing even less about saxophones than he did–bought him a battered 1920 Buescher True Tone alto instead. He was disappointed—until he heard Paul Desmond playing alto sax on the album Time Out. Robert has been a dedicated alto man ever since, always searching for that elusive sound of a dry martini.
Robert plays 1st alto saxophone in the Charlottesville Municipal Band, but says he plays soprano sax in CASE because, in his words, “Nobody else would do it.” He has described the soprano as, “a devilish little instrument, that needs—not just good embouchure–but a whip and a chair as well.”
When asked what he felt his greatest musical achievement was, he replied: “I can play a low Bb really, really soft. Most people think there is a radiator leaking somewhere.”
David Moody, Tenor Saxophone
Coming from a musical family, David was destined to be saddled with piano lessons. (But, did they have to with the church organist?!) So, he jumped at the chance to join his elementary school band in 4th grade, choosing to play the flute, as it looked easiest. This was the start of his “career” in school bands throughout middle, high school and college, where he was a proud member of the Rice University MOB (Marching Owl Band).
Alas, a year after moving to Charlottesville, he survived the Brown’s Mountain fire, but his apartment (and flute) did not. His loving wife recalled his musings about how it had been hard to be a “boy flute player” and his yearnings to play a more fun (and gender appropriate) instrument like a saxophone. She bought him a used horn for Christmas over 15 years ago, and he took lessons for a while, then joined the Municipal Band. The rest is, as they say, infamy.
To maintain his sanity, David is a community psychiatrist at Region Ten, where he is Medical Director.
Brian Hamshar, Baritone Saxophone
Growing up on Long Island, Brian started on clarinet in his 4th grade school band because there was already a clarinet at home that he could play on. As he moved toward high school, he realized that his real interest was in the saxophone, and it was the spector of playing in the school jazz ensemble that led him to ask his parents to buy him a tenor sax. Over more than two decades Brian has played in a variety of community bands, theater ensembles, jazz combos, and dance bands in NY, NJ and VA. His performance experience now encompasses seven different members of the clarinet and saxophone families, but he is currently focused primarily on bari sax, a recent love. He is also the webmaster and a booking contact for CASE.
Founded in 2007 by our director emeritus Dr. Phillip Kancianic (a.k.a. Fearless Leader), CASE has varied in size over the years. At one point we were a septet, then for several years a sextet. Now as of the spring of 2012 we are an all-amateur saxophone quartet.
Glenn Lankford, Alto Saxophone
From his humble beginnings in a log cabin, Glenn was destined for musical greatness. He spent his early years wandering the forest, listening to the birds, and wishing he could imitate their sound. There were a lot of crows in Glenn’s neighborhood, which explains something about Glenn’s sound today. At age three, Glenn whittled his first saxophone from a fence post…Oh, all right, I’ll give it to you straight –
Glenn began his music education at age eight or nine, with a few guitar lessons. He started playing alto saxophone in the fifth grade. After a year with a rented saxophone, Glenn’s parents bought him the Buescher Aristocrat that he still plays today. Glenn’s musical experience reached its peak in the summer of 1975, after his junior year, when his high school band attended the International Youth Music Festival in Vienna, Austria. The band director selected Glenn based upon his performance in audition, and the fact that Glenn was willing to help load and unload the instrument truck on the trip. Upon returning from Vienna, Glenn decided to take a brief respite from music. Twenty-nine years later, in late 2004, he dusted off his sax, got it refurbished, and started trying to learn to play all over again.
Glenn enjoys the support of his much-more-talented wife and two sons, though they bought him a pool table for his birthday last year, in the hopes that he might take up a quieter hobby. Glenn’s major goal in music is to someday be able to play well enough to justify buying a new saxophone. In his spare time, Glenn is a tax partner with Hantzmon Wiebel LLP in Charlottesville.
Robert LaRue, Soprano & Alto Saxophone
When he was ten years old, Robert was dragged kicking and screaming to summer music school, where he was forced to play clarinet. (He had wanted to learn to play guitar.) However, upon hearing the senior high-school jazz orchestra play “Jumping at The Woodside,” he became smitten with big-band jazz. He asked his mother to buy him a tenor saxophone; but she–knowing even less about saxophones than he did–bought him a battered 1920 Buescher True Tone alto instead. He was disappointed—until he heard Paul Desmond playing alto sax on the album Time Out. Robert has been a dedicated alto man ever since, always searching for that elusive sound of a dry martini.
Robert plays 1st alto saxophone in the Charlottesville Municipal Band, but says he plays soprano sax in CASE because, in his words, “Nobody else would do it.” He has described the soprano as, “a devilish little instrument, that needs—not just good embouchure–but a whip and a chair as well.”
When asked what he felt his greatest musical achievement was, he replied: “I can play a low Bb really, really soft. Most people think there is a radiator leaking somewhere.”
David Moody, Tenor Saxophone
Coming from a musical family, David was destined to be saddled with piano lessons. (But, did they have to with the church organist?!) So, he jumped at the chance to join his elementary school band in 4th grade, choosing to play the flute, as it looked easiest. This was the start of his “career” in school bands throughout middle, high school and college, where he was a proud member of the Rice University MOB (Marching Owl Band).
Alas, a year after moving to Charlottesville, he survived the Brown’s Mountain fire, but his apartment (and flute) did not. His loving wife recalled his musings about how it had been hard to be a “boy flute player” and his yearnings to play a more fun (and gender appropriate) instrument like a saxophone. She bought him a used horn for Christmas over 15 years ago, and he took lessons for a while, then joined the Municipal Band. The rest is, as they say, infamy.
To maintain his sanity, David is a community psychiatrist at Region Ten, where he is Medical Director.
Brian Hamshar, Baritone Saxophone
Growing up on Long Island, Brian started on clarinet in his 4th grade school band because there was already a clarinet at home that he could play on. As he moved toward high school, he realized that his real interest was in the saxophone, and it was the spector of playing in the school jazz ensemble that led him to ask his parents to buy him a tenor sax. Over more than two decades Brian has played in a variety of community bands, theater ensembles, jazz combos, and dance bands in NY, NJ and VA. His performance experience now encompasses seven different members of the clarinet and saxophone families, but he is currently focused primarily on bari sax, a recent love. He is also the webmaster and a booking contact for CASE.