Marie Speziale (L) and Ginger Turner

The 2004 fall tour of the US Army Field Band took them to the great state of Texas. During their rather brief stay in the Lone Star State, they made stops in Fort Worth and San Antonio among other places. On her day off, the trumpet section leader of the band made the trip down to Houston to give a masterclass at Rice University's Shepherd School of music. Although Master-Sergeant Ginger Turner arrived in uniform on Wednesday, November 3rd, she set a very relaxed tone for the class, even encouraging us to call her simply by her first name.

Ginger has been stationed at Fort Meade, just outside of Washington D.C. as the US Army Field Band's Principal Trumpet for 13 years. The class was less of a traditional masterclass setting where students perform and are critiqued, but more of an information or question & answer session to provide students and faculty with more information about military band opportunities. She was well-prepared with handouts ranging from diagrams of salary and pension growth, to a chart listing all of the positions available in the top military bands, totaling over 140 trumpet jobs and over 370 positions for brass across 18 different bands in all branches of the military. She spoke about the audition process, the difference between the bands of the different branches of the military, the salary and benefits, the chamber music opportunities and her own personal journey that brought her to where she is now. Ginger fielded tough questions about the way of life in the military, the height/weight requirements, the quality of music and musicians, and what kind of personalities would make a good fit. In the afternoon Ginger did allow a small amount of time to hear a few of the trumpet players from Ms. Speziale's studio in a private lesson setting. Ryan Gardner played the Bitsch Scarlatti Variations, James McClarty played some of the Fasch Concerto on his piccolo, and Chris Scanlon played a portion of the Tomasi Concerto. It was a pleasure to host Master Sergeant Ginger Turner at the Shepherd school for the day. Her insights into the world of the Military band proved very helpful in shedding light on this alluring opportunity for young professional musicians.

The author: Christopher Scanlon, student of Marie Speziale, is a second year Master of Music trumpet performance major at The Shepherd School of Music, Rice University. A fellow at the 2004 Tanglewood Music Center, Chris received the Voisin Trumpet Award for outstanding achievement.

Websites:
The United States Army Field Band
The Shepherd School of Music, Rice University