Invention Hits Right Note For Teen Trumpet Player
By Darren Bernhardt of The Star Phoenix

March 18, 2002

The unique horn developed by Bedford Road Collegiate teacher Russ Brown, has already given Angela Sawatzky the opporunity she thought had long been lost--since her tiny hands bunched up and her fragile fingers became too knotted to create music.

"It's nice to be able to play again," said the soft-spoken, bespectacled 17-year-old with a sheepish smile. "Even though it (the altered trumpet) was pretty weird looking at first".

Now the girl who once had her ability stolen is planning to enrol in music at the University of Saskatchewan when she graduates next year. It is a rare story of a teacher going above and beyond the call of duty and a student who wouldn't give up. But the modesty of Brown and Sawatzky belittles the challenges they have conquered together.

The creative person (who) sees a problem fixes it. You just find ways to do it," said Brown who has worked on the instrument between classes and extra-curricular duties on weekends, during summer holidays and in the evenings during the past year.

"Who wouldn't do it to bring music back to Angela?" he said.

"People like this who do so much for others are remarkable and we're lucky and proud to have him in our division,"said Gord Wyant, chair of the public school board.

"Something like that is going to open doors to so many people. "I hope he gets the Order of Canada on this one," added trustee Elaine Hnatyshyn.

On Sunday afternoon in the collegiate's music room, Brown broke the news that he was going to call his creation, "The Angela," a gesture which made the namesake drop her head and smile coyly.

"It has to be named that to recognize her strength and attitude," he said. "She's a trooper and an inspiration. We should all be like that."

Brown has spent 400-500 hours of work on the instrument and estimates another 350 stand in the way of a final product that can be patented.

"When you have nothing to go on, it takes a while to develop," he said. "It hadn't been done before. I could find nothing in the literature and nothing on the Internet and nothing looking at different patent Web sites."

He also phoned the U of S to see whether the music department had any knowledge of previous designs for such a trumpet. There was nothing, anywhere.

"If I could have ordered it in a catalogue, I would have. The immediate idea was to get Angela playing, but if the long term results are that others can benefit, it's serving a great purpose," said Brown.

"This is just terrific," said Angela's dad, Brian. "This has taken a lot of ingenuity and engineering. For him to do this is totally amazing."

Sawatzky was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis at the age of two. She began playing piano early on, then picked up the trumpet. But as her arthritis worsened, it became too much of an obstacle.

"I didn't have enough motion to move (the valves) so I couldn't play at all," she said.

One day in January 2001 , she decided to give it another try in an attempt to be part of the orchestra pit at school musicals. While she practiced, Brown overhead her efforts. He heard Sawatzky and was immediately taken with the tone.

"I could see she had severe difficulty holding up the trumpet and she could hardly play the valves at all," he said. "But the tone was there, and when you hear that toning, if you're a music person, you notice. She had a gift to play but she needed help and I wanted to do what I could."

Brown propped the instrument on a stand indended for drums to take away the effort of trying to support it.

Assisted by students, the generosity of many businesses and $1800 in grant money from the Department of Education, Brown's idea took shape.

He made a clay mould of Angela's hand. That was used to create the touch-key pad to work the valves. The Saskatchewan Research Council used Brown's mould to create the first casts which were injected with silicone to shape the final mould. The Saskatchewan Abilities Council then helped him find switches that would work with the slightest pressure form Sawatzky's hand.

Brown spent hours searching hardware stores, automotive stores and scrapyards looking for mechanisms to actuate the valves.

"It's like hood of a car," he explained when he swung it open to reveal the internal workings. "And with a Model T like this, we're always having things to re-do."

Brown's design was checked out by an electrical engineer from Cameco and a small electronic technology company provided tips on how to get the circuit board, diodes, relays and resistors to work properly.

"The only reason we are able to go from start--the end of January 2001--to having Angela start playing it in September is because of the people who have helped us out," said Brown, citing the apprenticeship of several students as well.

Sawatzky, who was not part of the school's band class at the start of the 2000-01 school year is today preparing for an Alberta road trip with her bandmates.