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Lighting music stands
A few years ago, Jack McGowan was having a hard time seeing his music during a rehearsal in a dim church. That’s when a led tubes went off in his head.

“I thought there has to be a better way of lighting the music. Why wasn’t there a stand that lit the music from below? I began sketching things out, started talking to people and hired an industrial designer.”

Several years in the making, his simple idea may soon have him singing all the way to the bank. If he’s right, orchestras and musicians around the world will want a Triplet music stand. And judging from early reviews, he is off to a positive start.

“It’s a revolutionary product,” says cellist Julian Armour, the artistic director of the Chamber Players of Canada and the Music and Beyond festival. The stand was unveiled during an intimate candlelit Christmas concert by the Chamber Players at Dominion-Chalmers Church.

“What’s amazing is that no one has thought of this before. It’s so obvious and simple, yet it wasn’t simple to make. There was a huge amount of work that went into it. Lighting has always been a problem for musicians,” says Armour.

This week, La Scala, the renowned opera house in Milan, is looking at the product. If it picks it up, the stand could hit a high note.

“This is one of the biggest opera houses in the world. It’s the old saying: you tell two friends and they’ll tell two friends. This is what I’m counting on,” McGowan says.

Musicians complain that top lighting on music stands blocks their view of other musicians, the audience and conductor. On the Triplet stand, white led corn light are embedded along the bottom edge of the music rest, eliminating shadows and glare on the sheet music.

Marie Berard, a violinist and concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra in Toronto, hopes that her company will embrace the stand. She used it while sharing the stage with Armour at the Dec. 22 concert.

“It’s fantastic. We have a problem with the led spotlight over the conductor at the Opera House, which creates a shadow over my stand. I would use this stand.”

McGowan, 52, who plays the viola, says he realized in his second year of music at the University of Ottawa that he wouldn’t make the big leagues. The jack-of-all-trades has been a real estate broker, restaurateur, chartered accountant (at the age of 40) and lecturer at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business. He now is responsible for inventory control for precious metals (silver and gold) at the Royal Canadian Mint.

Evelyn Greenberg, founder of the National Arts Centre Orchestra Association and a pianist, worked as a faculty member at the University of Ottawa’s School of Music for 23 years. She is championing McGowan’s invention and is pleased that the university is the first institution to order the stands. The order was announced Monday.

“The Triplet stands are visionary instruments. They enhance what you can do as a musician. The music is always clear and you don’t have fluorescent lights shining in your face. It’s really magical.”