Vaughn Pugh has been bandmaster and conductor of the Chatham Concert Band since 1984, following the death of Phil Carney, who had been bandmaster since 1960.

Vaughn was born in Chatham, but lived the first 6 years of his life in Wallaceburg where, at the age of 4, he first started taking piano lessons because he couldn't stand that his older sister, Brenda, was taking lessons and he wasn't!

When his family moved to Chatham in 1960, Vaughn continued to take lessons on piano and theory at the Ursline convent and then from Charles "Bus" Bowers. Vaughn says "Bus was responsible for me continuing piano studies, because he made music lessons fun and informative, all at once. He was also a great raconteur!".

Vaughn excelled under Bus' tutelage, eventually going as far as Grade 9 in piano performance in Toronto Conservatory, and having the distinction of attaining perfect scores in his theory exams. "Bus was fantastic at teaching theory, history and harmony".

Before taking lessons from Bus, it had already been estalished that Vaughn had been blessed with "perfect pitch" (although, Vaughn says, "sometimes I should say I've been cursed with it!) In any event, it is a rare attribute which allows Vaughn to tune the Band without using a tuning machine or other instrument. "Even if the Band has some technical problems with a passage, as far as I'm concerned, there's no excuse for playing out of tune."

At age 9, Vaughn took up trumpet when a family friend (who had played with the Lombardo band when they were still in London) gave Vaughn his first trumpet. That's when his involvement with the Chatham (Kiltie) Concert Band began.

"I remember practices taking place upstairs at the old UAW hall on Richmond Street, at the old vocational school and at the scout huts on Tweedsmuir Ave. It was terrific group instruction headed by Phil Carney, with lots of senior band members helping out, and that's how I got Art Levick as my first trumpet teacher."

"After a few years on trumpet, Phil told me trumpet players were a dime-a-dozen, but good French horn players were rare, and that's how I got started on Horn." Private lessons from Jim LaPointe, a natural aptitude and perfect pitch combined to estasblish the horn as Vaughn's premier instrument and he was selected to the all-star band at Ontario Youth band camp in no time.

Vaughn became a member of the senior band at an early age ("the kilt was like an evening dress on me") and excelled at French horn. When Phil Carney started to suffer from ill health in 1983, he pressed Vaughn to start doing more conducting and, with considerable trepitation, Vaughn agreed to succeed Phil on a temporary basis which has now spanned over 24 years!

"I've always found that the band is like a second family and most certainly, Phil Carney was my mentor and greatest influence in band music. Through his example, I learned that a community volunteer band requires patience, an appreciation for varying talent levels, and above all, a good sense of humour. One of my main goals is to try to get players to give their best, to play up to their maximum ability, while still enjoying themselves. That, along with good tuning and attention to dynamics pretty well sums up where I'm at when it comes to being a bandmaster."

Married to Martine since 1979, Vaughn has two children, Colin, who is now a high school science teacher, and Kyla, who is currently working in Australia. He is a lawyer practising law in Chatham and his additional musical time is spent playing keyboards with and arranging music for, a pop-rock group called "Niteflite".