Dal Featured in Zoomer Magazine

Zooming – Dal Richards, 92.

Musician, Ochestra Leader, Super Senior, Zoomer

ON NEW YEAR'S EVE, champagne corks will pop in the Whistler Ballroom at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, B.C., and the Dal Richards Orchestra will swing into "Auld Lang Syne." Incredibly, it will be Richards's 76th New Year's Eve performance. The 92-year-old (93 on Jan. 5), who play clarinet as well as tenor and alto saxophones, is a perpetual star in Vancouver. Grandchildren of couples he serenaded in the '40s and '50s at the chic Panorama Roof "high atop the Hotel Vancouver" now hire his orchestra for their weddings. Richards wrote "Roar You Lions, Roar" for the B.C. Lions football team years ago and still plays at home games; billed as Canada's King of Swing, he hosts Dal's Place, a radio show on Vancouver's AM650. But, he says, "Running down Vancouver's Robson Street with the Olympic torch [last February] was one of the most exciting moments of my life."

How does he do it? A few years ago, Richards took part in a B.C. Cancer Agency genetics research project. It turns out he's a "super senior," an exceptionally healthy person over 85 who has never had the chronic illnesses often associated with aging. His wife, Muriel, 61, says it has to do with his calendar. "He keeps booking. As long as he's got a gig, nothing is going to happen to him!"

Dal featured in Zoomer magazine