The Eric Nagler Story- Part One

     Brooklyn, New York, 1942. The United States of America were becoming more and more involved in the Second World War, the strain felt on families around the nation. Yet, in this time of destruction and propaganda, there were also some things good happening, such as the birth of young Eric Nagler, on the first of June. With his father as a high school biology teacher, he was spared from the draft and having to be directly involved with the conflict in Europe, but that wasn't the same for the rest of his family. Coming from Jewish heritage, and being Jewish himself, Eric recalled how those from his family who came to America before the war were saved, while the rest just disappeared, never to be heard from again. This was only the start of growing up in what Eric called “the shadow of the war”. He would hear the stories his uncles told from their time overseas and would come home from public school with the Army-McCarthy hearings on air, a very different childhood from the ones of youth who would later come home from daycare to watch Eric on their own televisions. It wasn't even until about when he was 7 years old that the first television came to his neighbourhood. A nice 7” model (with accompanying magnifying class to make it 9”) upon which they would watch Pinhead and Houdini, or sometimes Howdy Doody.

     But television was never a big memory for Eric, back then, it was all outdoors. When fall came around neighbour Billy Smith (biggest kid, best skates) would come out with the chalk and roll down the street marking a path for their Cops and Robbers roller skate track. From there, spring and summer held the times of ball games, of which Eric could easily list off twenty or more to this day that they would regularly play. Those memories of activity were seen in school  as well, where Eric recalls being second baseman, yet outside of school, around this time was also when Eric would start to find music. 

     It all started with the piano. There was one in the house that he would bang on as a child. His father would tell him to “stop that racket”, but his grandma would issue requests for such songs as “The Tennessee Waltz”. For these requests, he would simply bang a little softer, yet his grandma would tell him how beautiful this sounded. Encouraging Eric's first musical dream, learn piano. His parents paid for him to have lessons, which didn't go so well. After three months of lesson, he was done with piano for good. Shortly after this, he heard the sound of the saxophone at a friends house, and had the new dream to learn that. When he excitedly told his mom, she said he couldn't. After all, “it wasn't a valid instrument in the orchestra”. She told him to instead learn clarinet, a real instrument. So they bought him one, he had some lessons, and hated that too. Then, well then came the bass. Eric remembers hearing Charles Mingus playing the “Haitian Pipe Song”, it was at that moment that he knew he wanted to be a bassist. He was excited to tell his parents. But then his mom told him that “the bassist sat in the back of the orchestra and only played one note”, she said Eric should really be learning the cello. One night Eric's father brought one back from the high school where he taught, Eric was so tired of the same routine that he didn't even bother coming home that night. The cello was returned to the school untouched.

     One night, while reading comics instead of doing homework, he heard a noise coming from downstairs. It was something he had never heard, an instrument his older brothers friend was playing. Scruggs Style bluegrass banjo music. Finally, Eric had found the instrument and the noise he had been looking for his whole childhood. Ever since, the banjo has been his instrument of choice.

     It was music that he wanted to pursue, but his parents “conned him into university” saying he could do anything he wanted as long as he got a degree. So, off to university Eric went. Here, he received a degree in psychology. From there, he received another degree in educational psychology. It was partway through his doctorate in psychology that Eric realized, as he put it, “this was bullshit”. A psychology degree wasn't going to make him a musician, his parents just wanted him to go into something different than banjo music. It was at that point that Eric left formal education for good. Instead, partially before and partially after then, he became a hippie. After all, it was the sixties by then.

     Eric had no idea where to find people playing music like he was playing, the music he had come to love. One day though, his brother told him about a New York City neighbourhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan called “Greenwich Village” where he heard that people gathered on Sundays and played the same type of music as Eric had. From then on, he joined this group of people like him, and they would all play at Washington Square fountain in Greenwich village. They were referred to as “beats” back then, “beatniks” after the Russian Sputnik satellite was in the news. In those days, no one really “wrote songs”, so they could all just play music and communicate at levels deeper than words. They would all just know what to do. Unfortunately, one of the group did start writing songs. After those days it was more “sit and listen” to someone perform, then another person would perform. To this day, he still hasn't really forgiven Bob Dylan for doing that to them.

     I had then asked Eric what it meant where on his website it said he “managed to avoid getting my head bashed in by truncheons when the cops attacked us in Washington Square for singing without a license.” Really, I was interested in knowing the story and what “singing without a license” even meant. Upon bringing it up, Eric started laughing saying how it “really was a funny story”. Every year, one of their large group (a friend of Eric's named Lionel Killburg) would travel to New York City Hall and request a licence, allowing them all to play in the square. Until one year, Town Hall simply said no. After all, “they were a bunch of hippies, they were riffraff”. This didn't stop the “riffraff” from playing. The next Sunday, they gathered in Washington Square to sing and play their music. That week, they were greeted by police, who gave a stern warning. So what did the group do? They went the next day as well. So did the police. Instead of playing music, the group all sat in the fountain and didn't make a sound, glaring at the police in complete silence. One of them started singing “we shall overcome”, and by the time anyone else could join him, the police charged at them with their clubs. With no regard to their victims, the police started bashing in heads and smashing skulls. They then surrounded the fountain, supposedly to “protect it from the hippies.” I had yet to see what was funny about this. It was then that newscasters came, and a Senator, and local (very wealthy), Fifth Avenue residents. They were all angry. Yet, not at the group of young musicians. At the police. After being yelled at for not allowing people to sing, the police were pretty embarrassed, as was the politician who first said they couldn't, next weekend, the group was back singing and playing music. Now I can see some humour!

     It was a while after this that Eric was visiting at a friends house when his friends' sister walked in. She had heard that a man who had been doing a voter registration march in Mississippi had been shot, and that Martin Luther King Jr. would be continuing the march with some members of his church and those in the local community, around Canton, Mississippi. Eric was asked if he had wanted to join, and he said sure. Although Eric was never what he would call an “advocate for equality rights”, he knew the difference between right and wrong, and he knew that how America was treating his fellow citizens was for sure wrong. After about twenty-four hours of driving (they had to stop in Memphis, someone they knew wanted to try their luck as a country singer), they made it to Mississippi and the voter registration march.

Eric emotionally recall Martin Luther King Jr

     They had marched for a few days, the crowds size averaging around fifty people, but growing near towns and cities. Eric being there had garnered mixed reactions. He recalls how one man walked up to him and stated how “we don't want you white northerner bastards here, we want our own nation, not integration”. Yet this was followed by two elderly ladies from Martin Luther King's church who walked up to him and expressed how they were “so glad to have him here, trying to help us integrate”. Comments similar to those ladies kept Eric walking, standing for what was right.

     As they got near Jackson, Mississippi, the crowd numbers slowly started to swell. They were walking down the streets, singing, clapping and singing when from beside the road Eric heard an elderly, female voice yelling “praise the lord” excitedly from her front yard. With the feeling of power the crowd was giving him, he yelled at her to join him to the Senate buildings where they were heading. After about twenty yards of walking with him, another girl came onto the yard and starting yelling “how dare he take her to the buildings, he had no idea what could happen there.” With that, the elderly lady reluctantly went back, and Eric moved on. By the time they reached the Senate, Eric guessed the crowd to be around 15000. Seemingly, they all passed through a wall of silence. No one was talking.

     Surrounding the building were armed, white, policemen. Not far behind the police were officers in full riot gear, and closer to the buildings were soldiers with snipers. Beside the police, glaring at them, one for each officer, were African American men in white tee-shirts and overalls. Eric realized he recognized the man in overalls nearest him, it was the man who a few days earlier told him he wasn't wanted. Eric also noticed the reason why the officer seemed especially afraid, the African American man had his teeth filed to points, and was glaring up at the officer. The moment was tense, and Eric started to hear people cry in fear. He heard one person start to cry behind him, and turned to see the old lady from the front yard. He didn't blame her, he felt the same way.

     It was at this point in my interview that it seemed Eric's music store went quiet. It seemed the customers were all listening, Eric started to tear up, and I had to focus to keep myself from doing the same. The speeches started, a few minor people speaking in regards to the idea of black power, people really talking about black power for the first time. Then Martin Luther King stepped up and started the speech that had already became history a year or two before.. “I have a dream..”, the speech made in Washington in 1963. Between the tears that were coming to Eric, he told me how Martin “talked about men and women, black and white, being together, working together, boys and girls, black and white, of every colour, being in school together. That was his dream.” when he was done.. someone about five thousand people away started singing. More people joined that man. Then behind him, another voice started singing in counterpoint to the man, making a round with the crowd. It was the old woman from the front lawn who came to join Eric. That moment gave Eric a strength that he still has with him. Her voice still heard in all its power to this day. As hard as you listened, the singing had drowned out everyone there to jeer. Eric's life had been changed.

     Night times during the walks were usually held at all-black universities, during these nights, if Martin Luther King was with them that day, he would situate himself right at the entrance to the university. Shaking hands and meeting everyone, thanking them all. When it came to Eric's turn on one of these days, he was too nervous to shake Martins' hand. But he walked within two feet of the man that helped change the face of America, and that man thanked him.

     After doing some research, I now know that the man who Eric first heard about who was shot must of been James Meredith, who was actually only wounded I've now learned. The march that Eric must of been a part of is titled “The March Against Fear”, started by one but finished by 15000.

     Martin Luther King jr, would eventually be assassinated in a hotel located in Memphis, Tennessee. But the young boy who went from watching Houdini on television, to playing cops and robbers in the street with Billy Smith, to having his heart stolen by the magic of the banjo, to being charged at by police in New York and singing with Martin himself in Mississippi, he would continue on in his incredible life.

     Next Wednesday, the adventure continues with moving to Canada, the recently deserted battlegrounds of Sarajevo, a JUNO nomination, Sharon, Lois and Bram Elephant Show, Eric's World, and a small music store in northern Ontario.

Eric and I

Howard Dyck- Evening with Cody about the Opera

      Some things about people, I'll probably never find online, no matter how hard I look.. Maybe a thing's too personal to just plop down to an unknown audience, or it's just not something that one thinks would be immediately interesting to readers. But I've got to say, asking Howard Dyck my first question, “when and where were you born” led to an answer that I found, quite frankly, really awesome. He told me the story of a man, who at age 105, became the oldest person ever to become an Order of Canada Member, Mr Cornelius Wiebe, who passed away July 12^th, 1999. Mr. Wiebe was known throughout his province as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba but more so as a doctor who over the course of 53 years delivered over 6000 babies, including Howard Dyck, and even the son of Howard. I find that humorous, and amazing. Imagine, being indicted into the Order of Canada only one year after the man who delivered you as a newborn baby was. I guess you could say Howard has had an interesting life from the start. These two men, at this point, are to this day the only “Winklerites” to become Order of Canada Members.

      His investment to the Order of Canada was a complete surprise. It came around the time he was working as a radio host on CBC Radio for the shows Choral Concert and Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. Howard was told that Rideau Hall, the House of the Governor General of Canada, had called earlier that day for him. Adrienne Clarkson had just recently become the 26^th Governor General of Canada and as always, Howard had applied to the office to give her the distinction of Honorary Patron of the Kitchener-Waterloo Philharmonic Choir, so he assumed that this was them calling him back to say that they had approved. A cut and dry procedure by now for Howard. As he was leaving the office for the night, he decided to call them. They were happy he did, as they thought “he didn't want the Order of Canada by that point”. He was thoroughly confused, and asked what they meant. Apparently, there was a little bit of a communication error. A letter was mailed to him by the office a few weeks earlier, informing him of his investment. But, it was sent to his former address. Howard almost missed his distinction from a simply mail slip-up. Needless to say, he was ecstatic when told, and right away told the people he could (immediate family only). His wife was informed, his children informed, and of course his mother. When the news became public to the rest of Canada, Howard was on a concert tour in Salzburg, Austria. Those with him and himself had quite the party to celebrate, but he told me (to my laughter) that it was the Order of Canada after party that apparently is the fun one, telling me “if you become an Order of Canada Member Cody, don't miss the party”. But how did he get to the distinction? It all started on his family farm, November 1942, when he was born.

      Howard was born in a Mennonite community by the small town of Winkler, Manitoba. The distinction of being from a Mennonite community would be that music was brought into the world of Howard from a very young age. As far back as he can remember, singing and music were important in the community and to his family. He can recall singing in the church choir, being in a barbershop quartet in high school, and learning the piano and violin there as well. These developed into playing violin in the high school orchestra and being the orchestral piano player. From his few times conducting though, he knew it was what he wanted to do, so after his undergraduate degrees in Canada for Liberal Arts and Music he went to some of the best places to learn how to conduct like the best of them, therefore, Germany. Here he learned choral, orchestral and opera conducting and all the separate skill sets for each.

      The thing with keeping these condensed is, there are times when I have to skip ahead a fair bit in years. Previously, I had mentioned how work on CBC and with the Kitchener-Waterloo Philharmonic led to the Order of Canada. Some of the things he enjoyed the most with this group was the Good Friday performance that Howard annually conducted until just recently with them. The mood of the performance gives Howard feelings that he can't explain, but it sticks out to him regardless. It was some work he did a few years after the Order of Canada Membership though that I found personally to show his character the most. This was he work with what he named Consort Caritatis. An example, in my opinion, of how context can make a performance so different. Consort Caritatis means, when translated in the most simple way by Howard for myself, is “charity concert”, which is really what it is. The idea was formed in 1994, the idea of using all the amazing voices and musicians in Canada for charity. Together with colleagues, a group was formed and recordings made. In the first year they ended up selling over 20000 recordings of their work (Handel's Messiah), which is considered a huge number in the fields of classical music. The first year the money went to the Mennonite Central Committee Charity and Habitat for Humanity. From there they made money for such organizations as the International Campaign to End the Use of Land Mines and the AIDS Project in Africa. All the money went to charity, it was proven to be a very successful idea, and has continued ever since. Over a quarter of a million dollars has been raised in the 19 years since it was formed.

      One moment struck me as the highlight of the organization. It was a day of euphoria for many in North America, Boxing Day sales and discounts abound, December 26^th, 2004. Across the world, a tsunami from the Indian Ocean would strike the nations of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, killing an estimated 280000 people. Right away, Howard knew Consort Caritatis had to help. He approached the members of the board for Consort, the Board of Directors for the Centre and The Square and anyone else he could. They all agreed to a show where everything from performers time to newspaper advertisements would be donated, the show would be free, in the hopes of raising as much money as possible for tsunami aid. An arrangement was made, and a few weeks later a performance conducted. The idea of helping these countries reached a level of success that Howard never expected. The show raised $75000, but that wouldn't be the grand total from the event. The government enacted a policy saying that when certain respectable organizations donated for relief, the Canadian government would match it, so in total, the show raised a total of $150000. In one night, from one idea. One that still makes Howard proud to have been a part of to this day.

      I've never used the term before, but Howard Dyck is nothing but a gentleman and a scholar in my eyes. He gave chances to some musicians when they were starting out when others didn't. These students would soon become household names to certain crowds, including Ben Heppner who powerfully sang the Olympic Hymn at the 2010 games and Measha Brueggergosman who I first saw as a judge for Canada's Got Talent, but now have heard beautifully sing online.

      Finishing this article up, I asked Howard how China was treating him and his wife. He told me how he's loving it, and how he's “up to his eyeballs in Chinese music he's never encountered before! It's all very exciting and keeping (him) busy!”. From part of this conversation, I had the pleasure to learn that the ties between Howard and I were not over, and we would be meeting again relatively soon, this time, to do with my hometown as opposed to his. With that, anyone reading this from small town Ingersoll, Ontario, consider this story a bit of a teaser into the insights of an extraordinary man.

The Honourable Dave Levac- "Mans Inhumanity to Man"

     Without a doubt, in the span of a modern day Canadian education, a student will learn about “The Holocaust”. The atrocities ran through the ideals of Adolf Hitler, the Austrian born German dictator of the Nazi Party. It will be taught that his forces used gas chambers and concentration camps to systematically kill over six million Jewish citizens, as well as several Romanians, people with disabilities, homosexuals and even fellow Germans who didn't believe in his ideals, among many others who were deemed “undesirables”. It will be taught that this was one of the main reasons World War Two existed. Students will be taught that the strongest enemies during this, the Axis Forces, would be commanded by Adolf Hitler of Germany, Hirohito of Japan (posthumously known as Emperor Shōwa), and Benito Mussolini of Italy. We will be taught that fighting the good fight, our side, would be Winston Churchill of The United Kingdom, Franklin D. Roosevelt of The United States, Charles de Gaulle of France and Joseph Stalin of The Soviet Union.

     Later, Joseph Stalin would go on to become a controversial figure to many in what became Russia and globally, many would think him evil. He was the enemy of the West during the Cold War, and the man who put the USSR behind an ideological “Iron Curtain”. It could be said that after his aid in the Second World War, Stalin became a rival to The United States, and even Canada seeing as we had fought with him under the leadership of William Lyon Mackenzie King.

     All in all, we could be nothing but friends with Stalin until after World War Two, right? This was my mindset until I had the chance to meet with Brant County Member of Parliament Dave Levac, who is also the Speaker of Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Stalin; moderate thinker until the war ended, then enemy due to his actions following. Of course, I had heard bad things he had done before we joined forces that I didn't condone, but really, I didn't know anything major. I never knew about Holodomor. Which is what the Honourable Mr. Dave Levac spoke to me about. A holocaust predating World War Two, involving Stalin, which is comparable if not statistically worse than “The Holocaust” started by Hitler. A holocaust I had never heard about until I met Dave Levac, and a holocaust he had never heard of until he met a man named Orest Steciw, a national representative of The Ukrainian Canadians. Mr Steciw not only travelled to Dave Levac, but to every Member of Provincial Parliament, educating them on Holodomor. This idea of Mr Steciw was to have a celebration and awareness day of the 75^th anniversary of Holodomor, which by the definition Levac gave to me is “the planned genocide by starvation of Stalin, of the people of Ukraine and others”. When I learned more about this through my conversation with Levac and following research, I was more than shocked. Not just by the events, but by the fact we had never learned of it.

     Some say this famine wasn't a genocide, yet others say it was planned by Stalin and 100% intentional. Total death count has been argued several times over, yet the numbers vary from 1.5 million to 7.5 million deaths as a result. The commonly agreed on number I could find was about 3.5 million. Now, Stalin's 3.5 million may not compare to Hitler's 6 million, but all in all Hitler's took place over five years. Stalin's took place over two, with the majority being children dying. And really, should it have to compare? Should it have to be more than six million for us to learn about it in school? Or should we learn about it because three and a half million people died from the actions of a man who only six years later would become our ally in World War Two, seeing as this happened before Hitler's actions, right about when Hitler was granted the title of Führer. The man did this, then became our ally, and I never knew. Dave never knew. From what I've learned in asking around, no one really ever knew. But Orest Steciw made sure that people learned about it, and then the Honourable Dave Levac aided in taking the knowledge a step further. One of the pushes being the people of his own riding. Brantford had a population comprised of Ukrainian settlers, as well as one resident who's own family was personally involved in Holodomor. As he told me, he may not of had Ukrainian blood running through him, but he was human. And that was enough to know that what happened was wrong and had to be known.

     He decided to try and enact a Private Members Bill simply to acknowledge a memorial day (the fourth Saturday in every November, therefore in 2013 it would be November 23^rd) and have Ontario recognize this as happening, acknowledge that this was a genocide. But, as Dave informed me, his first attempts were feeble. It was apparently too political (dealing with international issues) to approve in the Ontario house, but he didn't give up to approve. Something ended up happening which helped his efforts. A decision in the house allowed members from other parties to sponsor a Bill. He found members of a few parties who had links to Ukraine or Holodomor as approached them to join. He found that the assistant of Frank Klees, a Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament for Newmarket-Aurora had relatives involved in Holodomor, Klees agreed to help Levac pass the Bill. Then there was Cheri DiNovo, an NDP Member of Provincial Parliament for Parkdale-High Park, a riding with a high population of Ukrainian citizens that had settled in her riding, she agreed to help. With this in mind, Dave brought the Bill back up again under the three names. This was the first Tri-Partisan (three partied) sponsored Bill (as Dave is an Ontario Liberal). Bill 147, “The Holodomor Memorial Act” passed unanimously on April 9^th, 2009. This was followed by Quebec passing a similar Bill (Bill 390), Alberta, Saskatchewan, a National Bill and the creation of memorials around the nation located in Mississauga. As Dave said, this isn't really to honour the victims. This isn't to compare to The Holocaust, this is to educate Canada on the history of our humanity. As he said, he wants them to know that Holodomor was genocide, “not some weird fried chicken from some foreign country like some uneducated person may guess”.

     Then, there was a message for Dave shortly after. From Viktor Yushchenko, who at that point was none other than the President of Ukraine. He was awarded the Chevalier of the Order of Merit for Ukraine, which is the equivalency of being knighted in Britain, all for his work. He was humbled, but felt that he shouldn't get the credit. Instead, he took it on behalf of the children who were killed seeing as they didn't have a voice then.

     He says that we should never be afraid to stand up and say “that's not right” to an event. He says in Canada we can do this, and with the help of names such as Orest Steciw, Frank Klees, and Cheri DiNovo he's able to help citizens who have been here and who are coming to Canada to be saved from danger. I want to finish with a line from Dave Levac, a politician who realized that “this wasn't about politics, but mans inhumanity to man”.

     To Dave, he's “totally against thinking inside this hemisphere, dealing with issues in this nation only. Particularly with Canada being the salad bowl, not the melting pot. We're telling people keep your culture, keep your religion, keep your language, keep your customs, keep your food, keep all those things but don't forget you're Canadian now. Don't bring us your evil, but tell us about your evil so we can tell them over there it's evil, and it needs to stop now.”