Geoffrey Castle at The Triple Door in Seattle playing “Float Downstream.” (Video by Terry Love & Trinda Love).

Hey Everyone,

Last summer I had the pleasure of getting to know Geoffrey Castle, a famous concert violinist, in a 3 hour drive from Redstone Lake here in Haliburton County, Ontario, Canada to the Toronto Airport, Ontario, Canada where he was catching a flight back to his home near Seattle, Washington, USA.

He had flown in on a Thursday evening from Seattle, been chauffeured from Toronto to Haliburton County, (a three hour drive), stayed overnight at a private residence on Redstone Lake, performed a private concert at that home during the day on Friday, and then back to the Toronto airport with me late Friday evening for a very early morning flight back to Seattle.

Talk about a fast trip! He said that doing this was normal for him and he flies all over North America to do one day concerts like this. He said he never gets “jet lag” because he’s never away long enough.

“Geoffrey Castle” is actually a stage name and his real name is “Jeffrey Sick”. His father is Gary Sick, who was a Presidential Advisor during the Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations with a specialty in Persian Gulf policy.

Here’s an Excerpt from his “Biography” web page:

(Start of Quoted Text):

‘When I was growing up, my name wasn’t Geoffrey Castle. In fact, my name wasn’t Geoffrey Castle until very recently. My given name is actually Jeffrey Sick. Which, as many people have pointed out, is a pretty cool stage name—except that I don’t play in a punk band, or a heavy metal band. When people saw that name, the couldn’t help but make some assumptions. It’s been amazing to me how different things have been for me since I changed my name. I held onto my last name for a long time, in spite of the fact that my folks had more or less assumed that I would get a different stage name after I started my career in music.

I guess I had a certain amount of pride wrapped up in being a Sick. We’re a rare breed, to be sure. A lot of that pride was also wrapped up in my respect for my father, Gary Sick. He currently teaches a seminar at the graduate school for political science at Columbia University, does speaking engagements, and moderates the Internet site The Gulf/2000 Project. He’s been featured on all the major networks, PBS, and news radio stations: they bring him in as an expert whenever Iraq and Iran are in the news…which, lately, has been a lot.’

(End of Quoted Text)

Here’s a great video of Geoffrey Castle at The Triple Door in Seattle playing “Float Downstream.” A Video by Terry Love and Trinda Love.

Cheers,

Fred