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A blog about performing music, teaching music and the business of music.
This article from @bakadesuyo is money. It is so applicable to being a musician and our constant attempts to get better and more consistent at what we do.
I had never heard the term Minimum Viable Effort before but I love it!
Article: "This Is How To Make Good Habits Stick: 6 Secrets From Research"
The horn doesn't get much better than the Principal Horn of the Berlin Philharmonic, Stefan Dohr.
Here is a clip of him performing Strauss' Horn Concerto No. 1 live with the Okayama Symphony Orchestra with Hansjörg Schellenberger conducting.
What phenomenal playing and artistry.
Enjoy!
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Tage Larsen, 4th/utility trumpet with The Chicago Symphony sat down with me & Lance for a fascinating look at his highly successful (and highly diverse) career.
I played for one season with Tage in the Dallas Brass and can't even begin to describe how much I learned from him. He is such an efficient player and sounds totally fluent in more styles than I can count.
As I shared in the interview, I remember my third day on the job with Dallas Brass when we had been having intensive rehearsals and my chops were toast. I was a very inefficient player at that age because I could get away with it. I vividly remember Tage playing the intro to Mahler 7 about five minutes into his warmup on that third day and it looking as if he was playing a long tone. My face was toast and his tone was still silk. I learned an awful lot in that moment.
Tage spent time in The Marine Band, Dallas Brass and the St. Louis Symphony before his current position and he explores what he likes about playing 4th/utility. We also get into the role of classical music in society and the notion that we should have sincerity in all that we do. Shockingly, he only uses one mouthpiece. That's what he said anyway.
Links:
Tage's DePaul School of Music Page
You can help offset the costs of producing the show by making a small donation at https://www.patreon.com/thebrassjunkies. Your support is greatly appreciated!
Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass
"Access to information is more easily accessible than at any time in history, but there is no built in truth filter. When there is no filter, all information- true, false, misleading, outright lies- can be treated equally. So what happens when people go looking for information? They get bombarded with all kinds of information, and sometimes don’t know how to differentiate the facts from the garbage.
Too often, people that want to convince you that their way is the right (and sometimes only) way are the loudest voices, working hard to drown out any that disagree. There seems to be an idea that if something is said loudly enough and often enough, it must be true."
This is an excerpt from a great blog post by phenomenal trumpet player and professor at Indiana University, Joey Tartell. It is a very thought-provoking piece about the times we live in, when anyone can be an "expert" and the loudest voices can seem the most correct.
Well worth the three minutes it will take to read.
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Mike Colburn, former Commander and Conductor of The President's Own Marine Band in Washington, D.C., joined us to discuss his impressive career.
Colonel Colburn (or "kernel" as Lance like to call him) recently retired from a long and distinguished career, which began as a euphoniumist (probably a word.) He is now the Director of Bands at Butler University and believes in living a forward-focused life.
Oh, and he suffered a severe wally-ball injury and has a thing for ficus trees.
Links:
You can help offset the costs of producing the show by making a small donation athttps://www.patreon.com/thebrassjunkies. Your support is greatly appreciated!
Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass
Filed under *always* be ready. From the Washington Post:
NEW YORK — Francesco Anile got to make his Metropolitan Opera debut in a T-shirt, blue jeans and sneakers. With 5 minutes notice.
The 54-year-old Italian tenor was in the green room during the last act of Saturday’s performance of Verdi’s “Otello,” which was being broadcast on radio throughout the world, when he was told by a stage director that Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko was sick and unable to sing the title role in the fourth act.
Five minutes warning to take the stage as the star of the opera. With the Metropolitan Opera. Wearing blue jeans and sneakers. You can't make this stuff up.
You always have to be ready for the call. You might never get a second one.
In fact, just last week I was able to attend the dress rehearsal of the Washington National Opera's production of Siegfried. The understudy had to fill in for Brünnhilde because the soprano playing that role twisted her ankle badly during a scene in the Die Walküre dress rehearsal.
The understudy filled in with just a few minutes notice during the Die Walküre rehearsal and sang the entire role in the Siegfried dress. You just never know when your number is going to come up.
I got a call at my apartment in Tempe, Arizona at around 9:00 pm on a Tuesday back in January of 2000. It was the Boston Brass asking if I could sub for them in an emergency situation. At 5:00 am the next morning I was checking in for a flight to Colorado. I proceeded to play with them for 14 years.
You never know when the call is coming. Are you ready?
Here's the full article from the Washington Post.
EDIT: My friend James Hicks, Principal Tuba in the Navy Band, read this and posted this as a comment on my Facebook page:
"I was once teaching lessons in the northwest Chicago suburbs and got a call from Gene (Pokorny of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) at 10am to come in and play Till (Eulenspiegel) on the 3pm matinee that afternoon. Also, got called one Sunday morning at 11am to drive up to Milwaukee to sightread a John Williams program with MSO on a 3pm matinee. You never know...."
You truly never know!
"Under pressure, you don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training. That’s why we train so hard."
—Chad Winkler in Episode 30 of The Brass Junkies
This is probably the most succinct quote about preparation I've ever heard. When Chad mentioned this in our interview with him at Duquesne University we made him repeat it.
I personally love hearing stories of the people like Chad who were able to win a job with the likes of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (which is his hometown orchestra on top of it all...talk about pressure!). When you hear him in his interview talk about the path he took to get to that point and all of the preparation that went into it, it takes a little of the mystique out of wondering "How could I ever win a job like that?"
Not that it is simply as easy as preparing a lot and then winning. But you hear over and over again from people like Chad how intentional and thorough their training was leading up to an audition like that.
I hate saying nice things about trumpet players, but when you hear how much effort went into his preparation for the audition for his dream job you have to say he deserved to win it.
But please don't tell him I said that. :)
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Matt Vaughn, Co-Principal Trombone with the Philadelphia Orchestra sits down with me and Lance for a fun and wide-ranging conversation. Matt talks not only about his highly successful career, but about what it is like being a twin, what he listens for in auditions and what it was like to take on the role of Mother Teresa in Air Force Basic Training.
Oh, and he once played a gig at Cedar Point with his pants down. Allegedly.
Links:
Matt's Website
Philadelphia Orchestra bio
Book: No More Mr. Nice Guy
Book: The New Toughness Training for Sports
Book: The Inner Game of Tennis
TED Talk: Power Posing
You can help offset the costs of producing the show by making a small donation at https://www.patreon.com/thebrassjunkies. Your support is greatly appreciated!
Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass
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Chad Winkler, fourth/utility trumpet for the Pittsburgh Symphony, sat down with Lance and me for our first ever live taping of the Brass Junkies. We spoke to him where both he and Lance teach at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
Chad spoke about the many different professional auditions he took before winning the big job with his hometown Pittsburgh Symphony. He also talked about what it was like growing up with a famous trumpet teacher as a father.
My two favorite moments from the interview were when he shared the best quote about preparation I've ever heard and when he and I got into a fight about hockey!
Links:
You can help offset the costs of producing the show by making a small donation athttps://www.patreon.com/thebrassjunkies. Your support is greatly appreciated!
Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass
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We finally had a chance to sit down with our former colleague from Boston Brass, Chris Castellanos! When we caught up to him he was in Flower Mound, Texas with Boston Brass.
Chris had a long run in Dallas Brass before joining Boston Brass and also performed Phantom of the Opera over 1,000 times in Las Vegas before that show closed a few years ago. He's had an incredible career for someone who has yet to turn 40.
My favorite part of the interview was when we scared him by telling him we wanted back in the band...
Links:
www.chriscastellanos.com
www.bostonbrass.com
YouTube Channel
You can help offset the costs of producing the show by making a small donation athttps://www.patreon.com/thebrassjunkies. Your support is greatly appreciated!
Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass