Through humorous anecdotes and compelling stories, trail-blazing George Zukerman recounts his life in music as concert bassoonist and impresario.

George Zukerman, known as both the Pablo Casals and the Eddie Van Halen of the bassoon, describes how his worldwide touring kindled audience awareness of this unusual instrument and freed the bassoon from penal servitude in the back ranks of the symphony orchestra.

As a touring musician, he chronicles relentlessly touring Canada: travelling by float plane, ski plane, freight boat, war canoe, snowmobile, and dogsled to remote communities; plugging coins into a roadside payphone to contact promoters and driving through prairie snowstorms to reach a venue on time.

As an impresario, Zukerman's Overture Concerts, Remote Tours Canada inspired thousands of new listeners and musicians. His tales have been enjoyed on CBC radio, and this passionate memoir will give readers further pleasure and insight into an extraordinary life.

George Zukerman's profile page

After a short stint with the Vancouver Symphony, George Zukerman's career as an international soloist took off as he travelled the world. He was the first foreign bassoonist to be invited to perform as a soloist in the USSR, South Africa, and China. Simultaneously, he was arranging concert tours across Canada and negotiating with the byzantine and secretive bureaucracy of the Soviet Union to bring USSR musicians to Canada at the height of the Cold War. Even in his 90s, George was setting up concert societies in small communities in B.C., booking cross-country concert tours, arranging concerts in his hometown of White Rock, and organizing programs of classical music for cruises on the great rivers of Europe.

"Both wonderfully eye-opening and hugely entertaining. The humour, extravagant language, and vivid details make all the more impact because through them shines the author's warmth and humility." - BC Review, one of their top picks for 2024

"With personality to burn he was, in the very best sense, a character. He lived a big life, eventful, ambitious, full of travel. It was the sort of life that generates stories, more than a few, and we're lucky he set some of them down for us here, in his own confiding, humorous, inimitable voice." - Bill Richardson, writer and broadcaster

"For touring musicians and eager audiences alike, these "On The Road" stories from a masterful raconteur ring true and evoke the old maxim - the show must indeed go on . . . and on . . . and on . . . and on . . ." - Jon Washburn, C.M., founder and conductor emeritus, Vancouver Chamber Choir

"George Zukerman's memoirs reveal a fearless enthusiasm, bound-less energy and endless intellectual curiosity all in the service of his superb natural talent."- Christopher Millard, president, Council of Canadian Bassoonists

"George Zukerman has been a Canadian institution since shortly after WWII. He's lugged his bassoon coast to coast, north to south, and in nations around the world. Returning to Vancouver, he launched his own community concerts, first locally, then around B.C., on to the prairies, Atlantic Canada, and eventually clear across the remote North. What unlikely tales his book has to share!" - Subterrain Magazine