Student Competition: Mock Orchestral Competition
8:30 a.m. Wheeler Concert Hall

Judith Saxton, Chair
Brandon Craswell
Brian Shaw
Steve Marx
Mark Allen

Marc Geelhoed, Reporter
Wheeler Concert Hall was filled with trumpet players at 8:30 in the morning to hear the Mock Orchestral Audition. The judges for the audition were Murray Greig, professor of music at the Royal College of Music in Manchester, England; Edward Carroll, soloist and music director of the Lake Placid Institute; and Roger Voisin, retired principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the competition was chaired by Judith Saxton professor of trumpet at Wichita State

Compeitors and Judith Saxton

University. The finalists were Steven Marx, a junior at Grand Valley State University, a student of Richard Stoelzel and Michael Bowman, Douglas Fraley, a senior at Ithaca College and a student of Frank Campos, Brandon Craswell, a Master’s student at Indiana University and a student of John Rommel, and Brian Shaw, a student of Parker Melvin at Eastern Illinois University. Excerpts were as follows: the offstage trumpet-call from Beethoven’s Second Leonore Overture, the lyrical solo from Harold in Italy, a solo excerpt “Chocolat” from the Nutcracker, the final outburst at the end of Don Quixote, and the opening of The Trumpet Shall Sound, from Messiah. There were also two sight-reading excerpts, one from Harold in Italy and one from the first movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6.

Judges, Ed Carroll, Roger Voisin, Murray Grieg

The first to audition was Steven Marx. He played a good, clear Leonore 2, avoiding the large accelerando that is sometimes heard. The final G and E-flat were played with ease and presence. Don Quixote was performed aggressively and loud, and was what one expected when listening to Strauss. Next up was Douglas Fraley. He phrased Leonore 2 nicely, with a discernable line connecting the fanfares. The Trumpet Shall Sound was played with good dynamic contrast, and his ornaments and French-overture-style eighth-notes were outstanding. Brandon Craswell followed Fraley. The influence of John Rommel is clearly evident in Craswell’s sound. The Leonore call was loud and full the first time, and projected even more the second. Being an offstage excerpt, the loudness was entirely in character for the excerpt. Craswell picked up his E-flat trumpet for Chocolat, performing it with precise articulation and good intonation. The Mahler 6 excerpt was wonderful. You could almost hear the entire orchestra behind the strength of his sound. The final candidate was Brian Shaw, who will be attending the Eastman School of Music in the fall. Shaw asked the judges if he could perform with his back to the room while playing the Leonore call, and they granted his request. He interpreted the excerpt with a pretty sound, and with a measured and unhurried air. His version of The Trumpet Shall Sound was softer than the other candidates, and also a little quicker. The result created a chamber-music atmosphere.

The candidates deserve much praise for playing so well early in the morning to an audience of fellow-trumpet-players. They learned that morning of the committee’s final choices for the excerpts, and they performed them with confidence and accuracy. Both audience and candidates anticipated the judges’ final decision which will be announced at the Banquet on Saturday.

Judith Saxton, Chair