Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, will be transformed into a First Nations saga by the Vancouver Opera Company, and two long-time Burnaby musicians will be lending their talents to the music.
Jim and Holly Littleford play the trumpet and the French horn, respectively, and have been living by their music for most of their lives.
High school band teachers take heart - Jim got his first start and inspiration in music playing trumpet in his Grade 8 band, and Holly started the French horn in her high school band, too.
They went on to classical training in their chosen instruments, met at music school at the University of British Columbia and have been married for 33 years.
So how do you make a living in music?
For the Littlefords it means teaching, privately and otherwise, as well as performing with the orchestra for the Vancouver Opera Company, for ballet troupes and traveling musicals like Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables.
Holly manages the Vancouver Youth Symphony, which includes four orchestras and 294 young musicians.
Jim has the Little Mountain Brass Band, a community group which plays British style brass, and travels to local schools with the Touch of Brass Quintet.
They have raised three sons, who all went to Suncrest School and Burnaby South.
One went to the Prairies, getting this music degree there, his master's degree in Boston, and now plays and teaches in Brandon, Man.
"The other two are musical, but mostly on the guitar," Jim said.
"There's not that much for the trumpet in the music for Mozart's Magic Flute, but Holly and her French horn have more to do," he said, explaining the French horn is really an English instrument, while the English horn is a French one.
To add to the confusion, he continued, the English horn or Cor Anglais is a misnomer, because it was meant to be the "angled horn", and is really a woodwind.
And what does a life as a musician mean?
"Practice" said the Littlefords, "because just like in athletics, the standards for achievement keeps getting higher, with the best just getting younger and younger. You have to keep developing your strength and technique."
For beginning musicians, passion is important and must be maintained.
For their latest work in The Magic Flute, Jim and Holly rehearsed at first with just the orchestra, then with the chorus, and then there was the seated rehearsal - the Sitzprobo - when the singers came in and worked with them.
Then came the tech and dress rehearsals.
"From what we've seen and heard, it's going to be a visually exciting performance, with everything translated into First Nations costuming and sets," Jim said in an interview with the NOW before the production began.
"In what we do, we travel all over the Lower Mainland and beyond, and that's another reason why we were so happy to be in Burnaby. We are central to everything, with SkyTrain and our location, commuting is easy. It's been a good move for our family," he concluded.
The Vancouver Opera Company's First Nation-inspired version of The Magic Flute runs until Sunday, March 17 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver.
There is a 7: 30 p.m. show on Saturday, and a 1: 30 p.m. matinee on Sunday.
Tickets are available at www.vancouveropera.ca.
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