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BRANDON GAUVIN, DIRECTOR OF MUSIC MINISTRY
(734) 981-1333, x26
brandon.gauvin@abecket.org

It seems like I've always been involved in music in one way or another. Years ago, we used to have an old upright piano in our house, and starting when I was about five years old, I would sit down and amuse myself for hours trying to play the thing. I would play songs I liked by ear, picking out the melody one note at a time until I eventually would figure it out. It was like a puzzle to me, and I always loved puzzles. I remember the very first piano book I started playing through was the John Thompson First Grade book, where each finger was a assigned a number that correlated to numbers written above the notes, so basically you could play songs using the numbers instead of actually learning the notes themselves. That went on for a little while, until I actually started to figure out how the music worked for real.

I had many hobbies growing up including sports, video games, but most importantly, musical theatre. For a while, even looked like I might be an actor for a living. I performed in "The King and I" as a member of the chorus at the age of five, which got the ball rolling. After many shows, and many voice lessons, I was taken under the wing of an agent in New York, and after many drives to New York City with Mom and many auditions, at the age of nine I landed a spot in a touring version of "An Inspector Calls". For a year we traveled all over the US, doing over 300 shows in over 30 different cities. I met and worked with some great people, met some well known celebrities, and did some vocal training with some very respected voice coaches in New York and L.A. However, when the show was over and I came back home, I realized that that lifestyle just wasn't going to do it for me, and after a couple months of being home when a job offer came in to be a part of a show in New York, I turned it down, pretty much ending that career.

After the dust settled and life got back to normal, the piano was still there, and I went right back to it. I continued to teach myself, and kept getting better and better. Finally, in my freshman year of high school (I attended Plymouth-Canton by the way) fortune struck when I met a great pianist and teacher in the area named Gerald Goslin. The training I received in these years gave me the ability to be the one to play the music for my sister's wedding, which took place in 2001 at St. Thomas A' Becket.

Our family had attended St. Thomas for years, and were very close with Fr. Kelly when he became the pastor. After my sister's wedding, when Fr. Kelly discovered I was able to play the piano well, he gave me the opportunity to play the music for the Tuesday night masses as well as accompany the Children's Choir and Youth Choir. Another great thing Fr. Kelly did for me was that he got me singing again, because since my voice changed, I hadn't at all. Well one thing has led to another, and here I am today, a full time music minister here at St. Thomas.

As I have been working at St. Thomas, I have also been fortunate to earn my bachelor's degree in Organ Performance from Wayne State University, which is where I met my very talented and very beautiful wife Joslyn, who has earned her bachelor's degree in Vocal Education. We both plan to go back for our masters next year to continue our training.

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