Trumpet in Academia | Trumpet Journey

I had a fantastic time hosting the 2021 CSU Trumpet Day last Saturday. It was on Zoom, but I did not stream on Facebook–so, I thought that the best way to remember the day was to blog about it.

We had Edward Carroll, Christopher Smith and José Chafer as guests. I began the workshop by introducing them with their bios. I started with José Chafer.

José CHAFER is trumpet teacher in Spain. He has hosted nine International Music Courses of the town of Ollería, working with the German Brass, Mnozil Brass, Ronald Romm, Eric Aubier, Rex Richardson and others. José frequently gives masterclasses to universities and festivals all over the world. He has performed as a soloist at the 2013 and 2018 International Trumpet Guild Conference, the International Belgian Brass Academy, China Trumpet Conference. He has premiered many new works, including premieres of Vizzutti and Stephenson works. José Chafer is Yamaha Performing Artist, Warburton Artist and Blackbinder Ambassador.

Work and strive for the best quality sound – Jose Chafer

CHRISTOPHER STILL joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Second Trumpet in 2007. Before coming to California, he was the Principal Trumpet of the Colorado Symphony. He has also held the positions of Associate Principal Trumpet of the Dallas Symphony and Principal Trumpet of the Charleston (SC) Symphony. He is a Yamaha Artist, a dedicated educator, and an active clinician. Honesty Pill is a musical coaching project of Chris. He creates focused, actionable plans that help musicians and other creatives address the issues standing between them and their goals. Intermediate through professional instrumentalists and singers can benefit from Honesty Pill coaching. This includes motivated high school students, college students, serious hobbyists, and professionals of all ages and levels of accomplishment. Honesty Pill is for anyone who wants to master their art. Here’s a video from Honesty Pill–check it out!

Put the trumpet down, and sing – Chris

Edward Carroll

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A native of Chicago and graduate of Juilliard (BM, MM), Edward Carroll (b. 1953) is a trumpeter, conductor, and teacher of international stature. He serves as Professor of Trumpet and Coordinator of Brass Studies at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and as a Senior Lecturer at Dartmouth College. He is the Director of the Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale, He also chaired the commissioning committee of the International Trumpet Guild (ITG) from 2005 — 2011. Mr. Carroll has served as Principal Trumpet of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony, and as Associate Principal Trumpet of the Houston Symphony. He directed, recorded, and toured with the New York Trumpet Ensemble from 1979 to 1988. He has been a soloist with works written for him by many famous contemporary composers.

Sit down and study your music more, learn it without the trumpet, figure out your breathing schemes and the patterns in the music. -Ed

The guest panel commented on performances of four students from the Colorado area. They played concertos by Fasch, Arutunian, Hummel and Tartini.

We also had a wonderful video from Boomer Music in Fort Collins. It was about how to take care of your trumpet!

And, for me, the most wonderful surprise of the event was “documentary” by CSU freshman trumpet performance major, Kris Usrey. It was long–at 25 minutes, so we broke it up over the course of the workshop. But it was definitely worth every minute. At the end of the video, you can hear the CSU Trumpet Studio play Eric Ewazen’s Fantasia for Seven Trumpets (with a cut to make it shorter).

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Around 2003 and 2004, I became much more oriented to participating in academia while I was in the U.S. Navy Band. In 2003, I was invited as a finalist for a teaching position at the University of North Texas, a position which I didn’t win, but the process gave me a lot of great insight into what I needed to be working on. I was actually glad this did not work out, because, as it turns out, the Navy Band provided many more life-time benefits for my family and me than would have been possible otherwise. After the UNT interview, I was asked to start teaching as an adjunct professor at George Mason University, and, for a short while, at Catholic University of America.

I also began a six-year collaboration with the National Trumpet Competition, as I became the chair of the Historic Division. This division was a competition for baroque trumpet soloists, baroque trumpet ensembles and eventually other historic instruments related to the trumpet. In the first year of the Historic Division, I gave a recital on baroque trumpet, and we had seven competitors working with continuo organist Webb Wiggins. The judges were Thom Freas, David Baum, Bryan Goff and Elisa Koehler. These were the categories and sponsors:

The Naumann Trumpets Baroque Trumpet Division
Open Age Group (23 and up, no students); Naumann Baroque Trumpet
College Age Group (18 to 28, college students); $500 Maller Baroque Trumpet Award
High School Age Group (up to 18); $250 NTC Award

All winners will also receive various complimentary memberships and publications from the Historic Brass Society.

I really enjoyed putting this competition together! Here are some photos (all of these photos were taken by Vera Hørven):