
Fred Faulkner, in uniform, second from left, at the Florida Orchestra’s performance of his new work, with Florida Orchestra musicians and Resident Conductor Chelsea Gallo. Image from Fox 13 News (Tampa Bay).
In Friday’s (5/10) WUSF (Orlando, Florida), Susan Giles Wantuck writes that growing up, “Fred Faulkner’s mother, Violet Cooksey Faulkner, wanted him to learn to play the piano…. Years later, Fred enlisted in the U.S. Army because he saw what was happening in Europe…. [Recently], when he decided to pay tribute to his comrades, the means was right there. ‘I’ve messed around in music all my life. And so, I thought well, the Ardennes battle needs to be remembered, and … give credit to the guys that were there and suffered through it,’ he said. Faulkner is the last living member of his Signal Service Company. And he’s about to turn 99. This Sunday night, The Florida Orchestra will perform his ‘Ardennes March,’ his tribute to his comrades and the broader work of the Allies in the Second World War. Faulkner wrote a letter to TFO Music Director Michael Francis…. Ross Holcombe, The Florida Orchestra’s associate principal trombonist, orchestrated the march so it can be played in the TFO’s free Pops in the Park concert this Sunday night … Faulkner calls the fact that The Florida Orchestra is performing his music, ‘the crown of my life.’ And he said, the musicality that his mother helped to foster in him ‘is the greatest gift I ever had, in retrospect.’ ”