Recovering stroke victim continues his crescendo, thanks to SUNY Fredonia music ensemble
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The Borzillires’ long-term goal is to have a tenor sax custom-built so all notes can be played with the left hand. |
Charlie Borzillire, whose rock-oriented saxophone wizardry was revered throughout Western New York for decades until a debilitating stroke sidelined him — and silenced his tenor sax — in 2004, is back where he belongs: playing in bands.
He’s a regular in the New Horizons Band of Western New York at SUNY Fredonia and three related ensembles. The band’s twice-a-week rehearsals are striking resounding chords with Mr. Borzillire, whose more recent strides towards recovery have been linked to his return to a more active pursuit of music.
“I feel good. I feel proud,” the veteran saxophone player said of his part in the New Horizons Band, an eclectic collection of musicians — all over the age of 50 — whose talent and musical skills range from beginner to professional.
His communication skills have improved markedly since he picked up his sax in 2006, according to his wife, Greta. That’s when he played with Harry Fackelman, director of the University of Buffalo Saxophone Ensemble and a longtime music colleague, at an informal performance at the Gowanda Nursing Home.
“Charlie was a joy to work with,” Mr. Fackelman said. “I remember the first time we got together and played, he had tears in his eyes. It was very moving for all of us.” Over time, the pair developed the fingerings to cover most notes on the saxophone, as the stroke had left Mr. Borzillire unable to use his right hand. But the natural, gorgeous sound of his sax was still there.
The duo didn’t start out to put on any sort of performance, but quite a few tunes were put together anyway before the opportunity to play a Christmas concert at the nursing home presented itself, Mr. Fackelman said. “Charlie, of course, was a huge hit.” He credits Mrs. Borzillire as a driving force behind her husband’s recovery. “She deserves great credit for being so involved in Charlie’s comeback.”
Since returning to music, Mr. Borzillire’s speech length has also increased, from one-to-three words to seven-to-10. “As his playing decreased, his sentence length decreased. The more he plays, the larger his vocabulary is, the stronger is his confidence in his verbal communication,” Mrs. Borzillire explained.
And he’s playing much better, too. Before joining New Horizons some 15 months ago at the urging of a Crino’s Music employee, Mr. Borzillire was content to play two octaves, his wife remembered. Now, he’s up to four octaves and has enough perseverance to reach high F-sharp.
“Musically, he’s making strides, playing smoother and more fluid, and I have noticed him playing louder. I can single him and his instrument out among 49 other members,” said Mrs. Borzillire, who shuttles her husband to multiple rehearsals and practices each week.
Community members Eric Kroon of Cassadaga, N.Y., and Janet Stout of Angola, N.Y., approached SUNY Fredonia’s School of Music and Dr. Katherine Levy to establish the New Horizons Band five years ago to serve as a new home for so-called chronologically gifted musicians — regardless of musical ability — to either learn to play an instrument or sharpen existing or dormant skills by playing alongside others.
Before joining SUNY Fredonia in 2002, Dr. Levy had experience working with New Horizons Bands in Iowa City, Iowa, and Hagerstown, Md. With the support of School of Music Director Karl Boelter and SUNY Fredonia’s Lifelong Learning division, the dream of a Western New York New Horizons Band became a reality.
The band was honored to perform last September at the Vietnam War Traveling Wall exhibit at American Legion Post 434 in Brocton. It performed other Chautauqua County concerts last summer in Westfield, Fredonia and Bemus Point. Guest conductors Don Keddie and Karen Boyd – both SUNY Fredonia alumni and members of New Horizons – will join Dr. Levy at the band’s April 28 concert at Fredonia Central High School.
Few musicians have gone on a musical odyssey that has been as far-reaching as that taken by Mr. Borzillire. It all began with a fifth-grade music teacher’s assessment of perfect pitch. He formed his first band, the Princemen, in 1963, as a high school freshman and, within a year after graduating from Silver Creek Central High School, was playing tenor saxophone in the U.S. Army Field Band.
“He was only the second person to be drafted into the band,” his wife said.
When that hitch was over, Mr. Borzillire studied music performance and composition for four years at Berklee College of Music, a haven for contemporary music in Boston which counts prominent music producer Quincy Jones, Steely Dan co-founder Donald Fagen and film score composer Howard Shore as former students.
After returning to Silver Creek in 1975, Mr. Borzillire married and began playing in countless bands, including Big Wheelie & the Hubcaps, a Western New York group that covered 1950s rock & roll, and toured extensively in Florida, Vermont, Kentucky and New York State.
Becoming the father of children Sean and Devon convinced him to set down roots in his hometown. Mr. Borzillire served as a visiting musician at local nursing homes and senior citizens centers, conducted workshops and seminars in local school districts, Head Start and BOCES, played in community theater productions, and still managed to give private music lessons to several hundred students and adults at his Lafayette Street home.
But the stroke closed that chapter in Mr. Borzillire’s life following a Labor Day weekend performance with the Rod Dixon Project at the Grand Island Holiday Inn. News of his condition reverberated throughout Western New York’s music community and ultimately spurred four separate fundraisers, hosted by fellow musicians, schools, former classmates and friends, to help the Borzillire family pay medical and rehabilitation expenses.
Today, Mr. Borzillire receives occupational, physical and speech therapy at his home twice a week, and also plays in the German Band, Jazz Ensemble and Sax Quartet. His wife, trained in special education, reports a sharp upturn in Charlie’s participation in physical therapy due to his music activity. He’s become motivated to set more challenging goals, such as playing the flute again, despite not being able to hold the instrument in his right hand while simultaneously covering the holes, and regaining his driver’s license, which he just did.
Mrs. Borzillire says New Horizons musicians have been wonderfully supportive of her husband, helping him to quickly find sheet music and write down director’s notes. She transports him to rehearsals and sits in on every session.
Unlike other music ensembles, New Horizons doesn’t hold auditions; everyone is welcome.
“From our perspective, this is another way the New Horizons Band is different from other music opportunities in the community,” Dr. Levy said. “At the New Horizons Band, we want to sound good, but we have another mission: to be an entry point and a learning opportunity for the people in the band, and secondly, for our students who are learning to teach.”
Music Education students become instructors in the ensembles, so those directing Mr. Borzillire’s groups are gaining experience working closely with a person with individual needs, Dr. Levy explained. “It is good for them to learn because they will get into schools and have to teach all students, including some with special needs.”
Mr. Borzillire also benefits from the social opportunities the ensembles offer, and enjoys playing again with a former high school band mate, Don Keddie, who retired as a music teacher from Fredonia Central School. Both played under Ron Sutherland, Silver Creek’s prized high school band director.
“I know it’s something that he really enjoys; he keeps plugging away at it,” Mr. Keddie said of Mr. Borzillire’s participation in the band.
Adds Dr. Levy, “He seems to be thriving in our band, and he spoke to me last week about finding a way to adapt a flute, so he could return to playing that as well,” she said. “It’s good for Charlie to play with us, and it’s good for us to work with Charlie.”
The Borzillires’ long-term goal is to have a tenor sax custom-built so all notes can be played with the left hand.
