David Friendly

David began playing bugle at age 8 and was in the Air Cadet Drum and Bugle Corps in Shawinigan, Quebec at age 10. He took up the cornet and later switched to trumpet in high school, continuing as a player and President of the McGill Redmen Marching Band in the late 1960s. Life took over, and like many hobby musicians, David left the trumpet to a dark closet for most of the next 20 years. News of a new Brass Band in Ottawa encouraged David to get back into playing cornet. When a transfer brought him to Calgary, he joined the Westwinds adult music organization, playing trumpet in both advanced concert and jazz groups and percussion in a beginner’s concert band.

When David retired and moved to Nova Scotia, he began looking for a band that would meet his musical needs and discovered he could return to brass band music with the Chester Brass Band. Since 2008, journeyman Friendly has played on the Solo Cornet desk as well as Second Cornet, Flugelhorn and currently Repiano Cornet. He is also the First Trumpet player for the Mahone Bay Legion Swing Band where he is known to simultaneously play the egg-shaker; and often sits in with the Mersey Band in Liverpool. In a non-player role, David volunteers with the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Society.