Local musician and educator Gary Di Salle is being remembered by the local arts community after his sudden passing at the age of 66 on May 22.
Several local arts organizations have paid tribute to Di Salle on their Facebook pages over the past week, including Northern Lights Festival Boréal, Jazz Sudbury and YES Theatre.
During a May 25 press conference in which YES Theatre and Sudbury Theatre Centre announced details of their new collaboration, YES/STC artistic director Alessandro Costantini said the companies’ upcoming season would be dedicated to Di Salle’s memory.
Costantini explained Di Salle, a talented guitarist, had lent his talents to every YES Theatre production since 2018.
“He just had this infectious brilliance to him, and we're certainly going to really miss him,” Costantini said. “He was such an advocate for the organization. He was always just so warm, and he was very skilled as a musician as well.”
Di Salle’s obituary said he was “a gifted musician and inspirational leader in the Sudbury musical community who was loved and appreciated by so many.”
The obituary also said he was an “incredibly kind, compassionate, and loving man. He was special in so many ways.”
Di Salle is survived by his “precious partner in life,” Line Roberge, and children Sarah Di Salle (Clint Hill), Paul Di Salle and Ryan Di Salle (Lisa). He’s predeceased by his parents, Concezio and Deltha Di Salle, both predeceased.
A memorial visitation took place May 27. Those interested in making donations in Di Salle’s memory are asked to contribute to SPCA Sudbury or their local animal shelter.
Jess Crowe, a local musician and dancer who’s known for her involvement in Sudbury Burlesque and YES Theatre, among other groups, said Di Salle was her high school guitar teacher at Sudbury Secondary School 20 years ago.
“He was a very inspiring teacher,” she said. “I think it’s a testament to his character that we’ve stayed in touch for 20 years. Since he was my teacher, we’ve shared the stage many times since then.”
Crowe said she and Di Salle were both involved with the annual Lions’ Christmas Telethon, which is broadcast annually on CTV Northern Ontario, as well as YES Theatre.
“He was a monster of a musician,” she said. “His talent was extraordinary, but he was one of the most humble people that you would encounter. He really saw people. He took them in, he made them feel special, and he really appreciated every moment that he shared with others, whether it be on stage, or or elsewhere.”
Emilio Falbo is a lifelong friend of Di Salle’s. He said they met as kids in the 1960s because their older brothers were in a band together.
“We would watch our brothers rehearse in the Di Salle house basement, and we got together and then we started our own band,” he said.
This would be the first of several bands Falbo and Di Salle would have together throughout their lives. Their last band, Front Line, only folded about five years ago.
Di Salle was known as a guitarist, but was also “an all around musician,” Falbo said.
“I mean, he’s a musician’s musician. He could sit down at a kit of drums … I’ll tell you, Gary was one of the best drummers I’ve ever played with. So he was very versatile as a musician all around, but an incredible guitar player. That was his forte, what he was known for.”
Falbo said he considered Di Salle to be his best friend. “There was never a conversation that I had with Gary that didn’t mean something, and that didn’t have some kind of substance,” he said. “It was all intelligent conversation. He was a very intelligent person.”
Sudbury musician Paul Dunn is another long-time musical colleague and friend, having first crossed paths with Di Salle in the late 1970s. Along with Dave McRae, Dunn and DI Salle began playing together.
“Even then, Gary was the unofficial musical leader and our mentor,” wrote Dunn, in an email to Sudbury.com about his friend.
“He always knew the best way to arrange a song to give it that extra special shine, and his guitar playing and background vocals were the icing on the cake.
“To illustrate this, during a Northern Lights Festival Boréal concert on the main stage, Gary took an improvised electric guitar solo in the middle of one of our songs, the audience went wild and broke into spontaneous applause on the spot. He really could communicate with that Fender Stratocaster!”
Later, Dunn and Di Salle ended up joining forces with David Lawler and Barry Seawright and forming a well-known band called Half Nelson.
“Here again, Gary was the voice of musical logic,” wrote Dunn. “He always knew how the vocal harmonies should sound, how to shape the arrangement and had the ability to work collaboratively to get the best results.”
During the Half Nelson days, Di Salle added the pedal steel guitar to his arsenal of musical instruments, which added another layer to the band’s sound.
Dunn said DI Salle also emerged as an excellent producer. “He produced and played drums and guitar on my 2006 record called Out of the Shadows,” he said. “Prior to his passing, we were getting ready to go into the studio to record a new collection of songs.”
During his time teaching high school music at Sudbury Secondary School, Di Salle became a key member of a group run by Sudbury music teachers called Guitars Alive, which highlighted youth guitar talent in the Sudbury area.
“It included groups from primary schools all the way to university trained guitarists,” Dunn said. “As an extension of these concerts, a group comprised of classical guitarist Philip Candelaria, bassist Tom Linklater, myself, and of course Gary, was formed and the Guitars Alive Quartet went on to play shows throughout Ontario.”
Dunn said he and Di Salle had a great, subtle sense of humour and a great respect for a wide range of music, musical genres and musicians.
“He was modest about his prodigious talents and was loved and respected by all who knew him and performed with him,” he wrote. “Gary will be missed by all of us. He was a great friend and our musical brother.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is the associate content editor at Sudbury.com. She also covers education and the arts scene.
