Trumpeter serenades stranded Alberta drivers
CALGARY • When life hands you a snowstorm, throw a concert.
At least that’s what one driver stuck west of Calgary did on Tuesday, entertaining stranded motorists for hours with a one-off roadside performance.
World-renowned trumpeter and Order of Canada recipient Jens Lindemann got stuck in a ditch while attempting to turn around on a snowy section of the Trans Canada Highway.
“A whole bunch of guys came and helped get him out of the snow … and out of celebration he pulled out his trumpet,” said motorist Mackenzie Murphy.
Lindemann, a Grammy and Juno award winner who’s played for the Queen and trained at the Juilliard School in New York, entertained some of his fellow drivers, even offering them “tickets for life to any of my concerts.”
He even performed a rendition of O Canada to a backup chorus of honking car horns.
“Anyway, we’re stuck out here trying to make the best of it,” he said in a roadside video captured by Murphy. “Wish you weren’t here!”
Hundreds of vehicles came to a standstill on Tuesday along the Trans Canada west of Calgary following multiple crashes during a record-breaking October snowfall.
Some drivers were stalled for nearly 12 hours as the highway was closed in both directions. It reopened on Wednesday.
Murphy was headed to Banff from Airdrie with her boyfriend on Tuesday morning.
She said the early-morning flakes were “nothing that we hadn’t seen before,” as the pair hit the road around 6:30 a.m., “taking it slow and steady to Banff ” for a followup doctor appointment for Murphy’s boyfriend’s recent knee surgery.
It wasn’t until they were back on the Trans Canada making their return trip when they realized how serious the storm had become for drivers.
“We started heading back around 10:45 and hit the traffic; it was just this endless line,” Murphy said. “We waited, thought it was only going to be a half-hour or so. Next thing you know we’re siting there for 10 and a half hours ... it went on for miles.”
Between 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Cpl. Laurel Scott said Mounties responded to 83 crashes in southern Alberta, despite issuing multiple warnings for drivers to avoid highway travel.