| Western Carolina University Trumpet Festival | July 22, 2006 | ||||||||||||||
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This year’s Western Carolina University Trumpet Festival continued a trend of impressive festivals hosted at this University. The festival’s host, trumpet professor Dr. P. Bradley Ulrich, continued his ambitious plans, following his success with last year’s festival featuring Chris Gekker and Ingrid Jensen. Dr. Ulrich’s repeatedly-achieved goal with this festival is to bring a prominent jazz and classical clinician, as well as several trumpet professors and trumpet ensembles, to the small mountain town of Cullowhee and to spread their messages of fine trumpet playing to the sometimes secluded Western North Carolina. Each successive year, the festival becomes larger and involves more and more participants of all ages. This year the festival’s numbers grew to over one hundred and fifty participants from thirteen states, and nine exhibitors including such industry leaders as Blackburn Trumpets. The headliners of this year’s festival were Byron Stripling and Chris Martin. Mr. Stripling, noted for his warm stage presence, powerful trumpet playing, and his Broadway depiction of Louis Armstrong in Satchmo, was the jazz clinician. The classical artist was Mr. Martin, the recent winner of the coveted position of principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who was recently awarded tenure in record time. Both of these men gave new definition to the term, “gracing us with their presence,” and were the epitome of class. The guest university trumpet scholars for this year were Dr. Rick Bogard from the University of Texas at Arlington, Dr. Grant Peters from Missouri State University, and Mr. Mark Clodfelter from the University of Kentucky. These three gentlemen were a pleasure to have at the festival and their expertise and experience were more than enlightening. The festival began on Friday, January 13th promptly at 5:15pm with a warm introduction by Dr. Ulrich which led to trumpet ensemble rehearsals. One of the festival’s trademarks is mass trumpet ensembles that give the participants time to interact and play trumpet together. The high school ensemble consisting of 35 students was led by Dr. Bogard and the collegiate/professional group was conducted by Mr. Clodfelter. These groups have a history of success despite short rehearsal times, and these clinicians did not disappoint, running tight, to-the-point rehearsals that quickly and successfully solved issues in their pieces while still teaching. Eight o’clock brought a much-anticipated recital by Mr. Stripling in the University’s brand new $30 million Fine and Performing Arts Center. Mr. Stripling’s began his recital with a walk-on play and sing solo. The first characteristic of Mr. Stripling’s recital that caught my attention was the warmth and personality he brought to the stage. The second but by no means lesser characteristic was the power behind his sound. One sometimes hears the expression, “lasers from the bell” in regards to a trumpet player’s sound: the audience was truly treated to lasers. Mr. Stripling was joined on stage after his introductory solo by a combo of Pavel Wlosok (piano), the principal jazz professor at WCU, Eliot Wadopia (bass) and Byron Hedgepeth (drums). The quartet worked extremely well together despite a very short rehearsal time. Mr. Stripling ran a sometimes risky To Be Announced program that progressed flawlessly, making for a recital which gave a true representation of his personality and charm, despite being limited to one hour by the threat of snow. Immediately following the concert was a reception in the student union, hosted by the university. This gave everyone a chance to mingle and to participate in a jam session by the WCU Student Technology Ensemble. The snow fell as promised on Friday night, threatening Saturday’s events. However, due to the determination of the festival’s hosts and guests, Saturday’s events were well attended and received. Saturday morning began with a warm-up session led by Dr. Rick Bogard. The focus of Dr. Bogard’s presentation was to take the typical trumpet player (if there is such), through a well-rounded warm-up. He began with a discussion of breathing and the use of a breathing tube to feel the correct breath. This is a simple but very useful tool. He segued from this into a discussion of the pedal tone’s use in a warm-up. This is also a very important skill, not necessarily for everyday playing, but for developing range and flexibility. The presentation was extraordinarily well presented and organized, and I am sure made an impact on the warm-ups of all present. The next event at the festival was the much-anticipated Chris Martin master class. Mr. Martin opened his class by performing the Otto Ketting Intrada, a very appropriate selection that gave the audience a feel for Martin’s playing and musicality. Mr. Martin then discussed his journey in earning his new post in Chicago. He constantly welcomed questions and made himself accessible to the audience by telling anecdotes of his trials and tribulations within his career. He then invited a student to come up and play. The student, from the University of Kentucky, was preparing for an audition and had selected a few excerpts to play for Mr. Martin. The student was well prepared and played well under the pressure of the situation, with Martin complimenting him on his preparedness and sound. He shared his insight by giving several suggestions and playing examples for the student. The master class continued on for another hour and provided ideas and good examples of how orchestral excerpts should be played. Overall, this was a very impressive master class; not just because of Mr. Martin’s accessibility and advice to the audience, but also because his interaction with the students proved him to be a worthy teacher, as well as performer. After lunch, another eagerly anticipated master class was taught by Mr. Stripling. He took more of a lecture approach to his master class which, due to his exuberant personality, was riveting. His goal was to give students an idea of what was needed to make it in the world of professional trumpet playing. He explained the need for dedication and love of music – not just trumpet music – in a player’s life. Within this discussion, he brought up the need for good warm-ups, good fundamentals, good listening and the need to practice every day. As trumpet players, we need a good eye-opening wake-up to the realities of the professional music world, especially those who are in training, and I believe Mr. Stripling provided his audience with that. He stressed the need for fundamentals, especially Clarke Studies and scales, and the need to constantly listen to all kinds of music in order to develop our ears. The combination of these two master classes provided the audience with a well-rounded approach to the professional world of trumpet playing. Between master classes, participants worked hard in their trumpet ensembles to prepare for the evening trumpet ensemble concert. This concert came off without at hitch and demonstrated the skill of the conductors’ abilities to prepare groups in a short time. All the ensembles including Western Carolina, Auburn, University of Kentucky, and the faculty group performed very well, as well as the high school, college/professional and mass ensembles. These events are always thrilling to watch and hear, and provide memorable experiences for all involved. Saturday night brought on yet another exciting event: Chris Martin’s recital. He was accompanied by the very capable and talented Dr. Lillian Buss-Pearson, one of the piano professors at WCU. The program for this recital was an ambitious program that included works by Fasch, Tomasi, Boehme, Peaslee, Turrin, and Arban. Mr. Martin opened his recital with the Fasch Concerto. His piccolo trumpet sound was radiant, yet compact and accurate. This first taste of Mr. Martin’s sound left the audience on the edge of their seats and wanting to hear more. Next was the often taxing Triptyque by Tomasi: Martin performed this and his next piece, Arban’s Fantasie Brilliante, flawlessly and with grace. The rest of his program was filled with other difficult pieces, such as the Peaslee Nightsongs, Joseph Turrin’s Caprice, and Oskar Boehme’s Trumpet Concerto. He also performed two encores of works by Arban. This very difficult program proved Martin’s versatility across most trumpet styles and his tenacity in playing all of them in one recital. Technically, his skills were well-crafted and very well rehearsed, with very succinct tonguing and controlled vibrato, and left the listener feeling more than confident about the abilities of the performer in front of them. This recital would certainly make an indelible impression upon all those in attendance. The event was also followed by a reception at the student union. Sunday brought one last event: a teaching forum led by Dr. Grant Peters. This forum began with a symposium of Grade IV trumpet literature, performed by the trumpet professors in attendance at the festival. This symposium was intended to bring to light some of the lesser-known trumpet pieces that can be played by young college students. These performances were followed by a round-table discussion of new ideas in the trumpet world and a discussion of problems that were often presented to teachers in young trumpet students. This discussion was very enlightening and brought out some very insightful answers to problems such as pinched tone, embouchure placement, embouchure changes, and many others. The Western Carolina Trumpet festival is a perfect model of how such festivals should be; professionals teaching about and sharing their insights on the art of trumpet playing with students of all ages in a no-stigma, no-ego environment. This event is a growing idea that celebrates our art and expands our views of how it can be enjoyed. We all look forward to next year’s festival.
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