Edmonton flautist Harlan
Green meets Queen
Elizabeth in Edmonton in
1978. During a royal visit
here during the 1978
Commonwealth Games,
Prince Philip was impressed
by a local musical group
called the Plumbers Union.
After a performance, the
Prince asked the band’s
founder, Harlan Green, if
his group had produced any
albums.
“Yes,” Mr. Green said, pulling out a pencil and scrap of paper. “I’ll
send you one. What’s your address?”
Edith Stacey says fellow musicians still get a laugh out of the
story. If Mr. Green broke any royal protocols, it probably wouldn’t
have bothered him.
A colourful man who, his friends and family say, had a profound
impact on the city. Harlan Fleming Green died of cancer recently.
He was 78.
“There were no pretences with Harlan,” said Stacey, a musician
with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. “He was a bit like Lois
Hole — he was very warm and he’d hug people.”
John Mann of the Edmonton Arts Council said that even after
leaving the ESO after decades as first flute, Mr. Green remained
“one of the most active and lovable musicians this city has ever
had the privilege of calling its own.”
“He’s legendary,” Mann said. “In many ways, Harlan was the
heart and soul of this musical community.”
A farmer and musician, Mr. Green commuted to Edmonton from
his farm in Dewberry near Vermilion, about 200 kilometres east
of the city.
For about 20 years, Mr. Green led the Plumbers Union, a
recorder quartet that performed on TV shows, toured North
America, and produced recordings like the one he sent to Prince
Philip.
Mr. Green also played sax with the Trocadero Orchestra for
decades.
Former CBC-TV producer Armand Baril said Mr. Green was a
master of many musical styles, playing dance gigs, variety
shows, musical theatre light opera and Grand Opera.
“This was one great guy who graced the musical stages of the
community,” Baril said of his friend.
For Mara Green, meeting her future husband for the first time
on Oct. 21, 1999, was the happiest day of her life. She was
older than he was, still single and never expected to marry.
She recalled that Mr. Green actually came to see her ailing
father the day he rang the doorbell. The two men had played
together in the Edmonton Civic Opera.
Mara and Mr. Green quickly discovered they were very much
in tune with one another and had common friends and
interests. They married about a year later, on Mara’s birthday.
“I guess it was close to a miracle, because I’d given up,” she
said. “I’d never been married before and I didn’t think I would
ever find the right man. And then he found me.”
A frugal man and an environmentalist, Mr. Green, who was
married three times before, wrote a letter to his children that
his spirit would be “highly offended” if they were to disregard
his wishes for a no-frills burial.
“With all the money saved ... you could maybe throw a lively
upbeat party or two — lots of drinks and music and hilarity,” he
wrote in 2005.
In keeping with those wishes, his wife said there will be a party
once everybody has a little time to heal from his passing.
“He was wonderful,” she said. “He loved everybody and
everybody loved him.”
Mr. Green is also survived by his children: Virginia Martel,
Miranda Sparks, Eliza Carter, Louisa Green and Harlan
Green, and stepson Robert Everett Green.
Lovable Harlan Green ‘heart and soul’ of the musical community
Unpretentious man was also a farmer and environmentalist
Edmonton Journal - 23 Feb 2008 - Don Retson
Schon Rosmarin
Fritz Kriesler adapted by Harlan Green
Harlan Green flute
Janet Scott Hoyt piano
from
Harlan Green In His Field
HG980001