About Us

Sara Gould, Tenor Saxophone

In 1989, Sara was chosen to play the alto saxophone in her 5th-grade band. The students had been told to list their first three choices even though the first choice was usually honored, “unless you put down saxophone.” In 6th grade, her new band director was an awesome saxophonist named April Lucas and she invited Sara to play the baritone sax in a saxophone quartet. Unfortunately, her pinky finger was too short to reach the low C key so she had to continue playing alto.

That summer she started taking private lessons and that was the beginning of 6 years of All County Band, NYSSMA solo festivals, and music camp scholarships. Faced with deciding what she wanted to be when she grew up, Sara decided to study engineering in college. Although she suffered a sudden profound hearing loss in late 1993 that left her practically deaf, it was a love of math and physics that dissuaded her from majoring in music.

When she got to RIT in 1997, she quickly joined the RIT Student Music Association, the RIT Timestompers Band and the Concert Band. The band director there had originally organized a music program for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and was skilled in handling bands made up entirely of deaf musicians.

Since finishing college, Sara has played with the Ocean County Community College Concert Band in New Jersey and is now proud to be a tenor saxophone player with the Charlottesville Municipal Band since 2007. She is especially pleased to be a member of CASE and hopes that Phil keeps tapping his toe so she can follow along even when she can’t hear the soprano sax part (the soprano player says she’s lucky).

Brian Hamshar, Tenor Saxophone

Although Brian’s last name reminds you of New England, he grew up in the outer suburbs of Long Island, New York. In 1982, when he was about to enter fourth grade and could finally be in the school band, Brian was torn between several instruments that seemed coolest like saxophone and trombone. He was leaning toward saxophone, but just wasn’t sure. His mother owned a clarinet that she had played in school and suggested that he start with that before they shopped for another instrument. Naturally, he liked playing and stuck with the clarinet for a while. In seventh grade, Brian wanted to play in the school jazz band, but there was no place for a clarinetist. So his parents got him a used tenor sax, which he still plays today. He branched out from there and nowadays plays just about anything in the saxophone and clarinet families, though he does prefer saxes.

Having earned his engineering degree from a college with no formal music program, Brian missed playing regularly and got hooked on community bands soon after graduating. In the late 1990s he lived in Trenton, New Jersey, and played with several bands in the region. Most notably, he played tenor sax, clarinet and bass clarinet with the Golden Eagle Community Band and still guest performs with them from time to time. He also played his tenor sax with the Hegeman String Band in the 1999 Mummer’s Parade in Philadelphia, which was particularly memorable because the wind and the arctic temperature that day meant several keys and pads were frozen at any given time.

Brian moved to central Virginia in late 1999 and now plays reed instruments with several area bands including the Charlottesville Municipal Band, Sentimental Journey, and the Stonewall Brigade Band. He also dabbles in choral and a cappella singing, and he is an avid contra dancer and contra dance caller. He lives near three rivers in Fluvanna County and loves to spend time outdoors.

Having played in several small reed ensembles, Brian is particularly enthusiastic about CASE. Along with tenor sax, sometimes he can be seen playing a giant paper clip (a.k.a. contrabass clarinet, courtesy of the Charlottesville Municipal Band), for a few arrangements that call for a bass saxophone. Anybody have a bass sax we can borrow?

Phillip M. Kancianic, Baritone Saxophone & "Fearless Leader"

At the age of six, somewhere deep in the suburban sprawl of Woodbridge, VA, Phil began piano lessons with Mrs. Eleanor Barnett. Her musical teachings made such an impression on him that he decided early on to become a musician and teacher. When playing in the school band became an option in sixth grade, Phil considered playing the trumpet; however, upon finding a used Bundy alto saxophone for $100, his parents convinced him to change his mind.

Phil instantly enjoyed playing the saxophone in the Rippon Middle School Band, and took lessons from Dan Hurlow. He continued playing at Woodbridge Senior High School and Easton (PA) Area High School, where he was Drum Major and studied saxophone with Bobby “Lips” Levine. Later, he pursued a Bachelor of Music Education degree at The Ohio State University, where he was a saxophone student of James Hill and a member of the Underhill Saxophone Quartet. During his first few years of teaching public school, Phil pursued a Masters of Music Education at Youngstown State University, where he studied classical saxophone with Dr. James Umble and jazz saxophone with Dr. Kent Engelhardt. After several more years of public school teaching in Maryland, Phil earned a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Maryland, where he taught undergraduate music methods classes and was the Managing Director of the National Orchestral Institute.

Subsequent to his Ohio and Maryland experiences, Phil returned to his home state of Virginia and taught for two years with the Orange County Public Schools. He currently runs a handyman business in the Charlottesville area known as HandyPhil, LLC. In his spare time, Phil enjoys wandering the great outdoors, traveling with his family, and playing with his cats.

Glenn Lankford, Alto Saxophone

From his humble beginnings in a log cabin, Glenn was destined for musical greatness. He spent his early years wandering the forest, listening to the birds, and wishing he could imitate their sound. There were a lot of crows in Glenn’s neighborhood, which explains something about Glenn’s sound today. At age three, Glenn whittled his first saxophone from a fence post…Oh, all right, I’ll give it to you straight –

Glenn began his music education at age eight or nine, with a few guitar lessons. He started playing alto saxophone in the fifth grade. After a year with a rented saxophone, Glenn’s parents bought him the Buescher Aristocrat that he still plays today. Glenn’s musical experience reached its peak in the summer of 1975, after his junior year, when his high school band attended the International Youth Music Festival in Vienna, Austria. The band director selected Glenn based upon his performance in audition, and the fact that Glenn was willing to help load and unload the instrument truck on the trip. Upon returning from Vienna, Glenn decided to take a brief respite from music. Twenty-nine years later, in late 2004, he dusted off his sax, got it refurbished, and started trying to learn to play all over again.

Glenn enjoys the support of his much-more-talented wife and two sons, though they bought him a pool table for his birthday last year, in the hopes that he might take up a quieter hobby. Glenn’s major goal in music is to someday be able to play well enough to justify buying a new saxophone. In his spare time, Glenn is a tax partner with Hantzmon Wiebel LLP in Charlottesville.

Robert LaRue, Soprano & Alto Saxophone

When he was ten years old, Robert was dragged kicking and screaming to summer music school, where he was forced to play clarinet. (He had wanted to learn to play guitar.) However, upon hearing the senior high-school jazz orchestra play “Jumping at The Woodside,” he became smitten with big-band jazz. He asked his mother to buy him a tenor saxophone; but she–knowing even less about saxophones than he did–bought him a battered 1920 Buescher True Tone alto instead. He was disappointed—until he heard Paul Desmond playing alto sax on the album Time Out. Robert has been a dedicated alto man ever since, always searching for that elusive sound of a dry martini.

Robert plays 1st alto saxophone in the Charlottesville Municipal Band, but says he plays soprano sax in CASE because, in his words, “Nobody else would do it.” He has described the soprano as, “a devilish little instrument, that needs—not just good embouchure–but a whip and a chair as well.”

When asked what he felt his greatest musical achievement was, he replied: “I can play a low Bb really, really soft. Most people think there is a radiator leaking somewhere.”

David Moody, Alto Saxophone

Coming from a musical family, David was destined to be saddled with piano lessons. (But, did they have to with the church organist?!) So, he jumped at the chance to join his elementary school band in 4th grade, choosing to play the flute, as it looked easiest. This was the start of his “career” in school bands throughout middle, high school and college, where he was a proud member of the Rice University MOB (Marching Owl Band).

Alas, a year after moving to Charlottesville, he survived the Brown’s Mountain fire, but his apartment (and flute) did not. His loving wife recalled his musings about how it had been hard to be a “boy flute player” and his yearnings to play a more fun (and gender appropriate) instrument like a saxophone. She bought him a used horn for Christmas over 15 years ago, and he took lessons for a while, then joined the Municipal Band. The rest is, as they say, infamy.

To maintain his sanity, David is a community psychiatrist at Region Ten, where he is Medical Director.