| Callum James, age 7, loses his front milk teeth, auditions, and performs in concert | January 28 , 2004 | |||||
   |
||||||
|
|
||||||
Callum James, age 7, lost both his front teeth, got a new B-flat trumpet, and performed Neruda's Trumpet Concerto first movement, and Rondo for Lifey by Bernstein, all in less than a week! If anyone can inspire the trumpet world with his joy and love for our instrument, it must be this remarkably hard-working young musician from England. Among his latest accomplishments are these: On August 31st 2003 Callum served as principal trumpet in the Under 11 National Children's Orchestra concert held, along with all the NCO age-grouped orchestras, in Birmingham, England. The program consisted of numerous pieces played by each orchestra. The dazzled audience of 2000 also witnessed Callum's performance of passages from the third movement of Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in a charming sequential interplay with four performers from the other orchestras. On October 2nd Callum also auditioned for a position in the National Children's Orchestra for the next year, "I didn't have to do it, but I wanted to." he smiled. He earned his position in the orchestra one year ago by auditioning with the second movement of Haydn's concerto - he was then only six years old. He told his mother afterwards that he had played both the sight reading pieces all the way through even though he was told that only a few lines of each piece were required. To the undersigned on the telephone that very night he explained "Oh, it was such fun, I got to play in a really big hall, and me mum said I made no mistakes!"
On 25th September Callum auditioned for a place at the renowned Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, where they accept students from age eight. A classmate accidentally knocked out one of Callum's front teeth on the day before his audition, leaving the boy more than devastated by the prospects for playing his horn the next day. (He had already lost the other front tooth a little earlier.) But when Callum came home after school and tried his trumpet, both the Neruda and Rondo for Lifey were still there. After hearing his brilliant performance, Chetham's invited him to come back for the second round of auditions in February 2004, but told him to first change his embouchure to a centred position on his lips. Callum is therefore working meticulously to regain his former register up to high C with his mouthpiece perfectly centred. On October 7th it was finally time for Callum to get his own pro model, silver plated, Bach Stradivarius B-flat to play on. 24 hours later he performed both the Neruda and Rondo for Lifey on the new trumpet and his one year old favourite Warburton mouthpiece in a concert in Chester. I was fortunate to witness a brilliant performance over the telephone before Callum went to school the next morning. How he got out those high Cs and that rich, confident sound before breakfast remains a delightful puzzle. Callum's latest e-mail on November 17th, reads: " I HAVE GOT A REPLIE FROM THE NATIONAL CHILDRENS ORCHESTRA AND I GOT IN AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE GOT A CONCERT ON DECEMBER THE 5TH AT PORTSUNLIGHT!!! I AM PLAYING FLOR PEETES ARIA. IT,S THE 2ND MOVEMENT OF HIS SONATA!! AND THE DANCE OF THE SNOW MEN!! THIS IS FROM THE SNOW MAN SUITE!!!!!! IT IS WRITTEN BY HOWARD BLAKE!!!!!" Websites: Previous ITG stories (from the 2002 Conference):
|
||||||
|
|