Skip to main content

Student progress

I have only one student leaving this year to go off to college.  She will be attending the Hartt School of Music as a double major in Trumpet performance and Music Education.  All of my other students will be continuing their studies with me next year working very hard and making progress.  My adult students continue to work hard and see terrific progress.  My beginners always start with a good sound because of my work on sound production from the beginning.  It pays off to invest time in the beginning explaining and demonstrating how to control air and tongue placement.
Plans are in the works to have a regional audition workshop day either this year or next.  If you're in the New Haven area let me know if you or your junior or senior level student/son or daughter would be interested in this helpful prep day.  Plans are for early October.
My brass ensemble at Neighborhood Music School continues to progress.  I hope to add more players to this group or start another brass quartet/quintet group.  We need more of every brass instrument, especially trombones and french horns (who doesn't).  If you're interested are in high school or are a very advanced junior high student, please let me know or call the office at Neighborhood Music School in New Haven.
We're always in need of high level high school trumpets and trombones for the New Haven Youth Orchestra.  The orchestra plays at a very high level, and is under the direction of Yale's own wind ensemble conductor, Dr. Thomas Duffy.  Last years two performances included Gershwin's American in Paris, Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis, and Brahm's Academic Overture, just to name a few.
The youth Orchestra just started a collaboration with the New Haven Symphony offering full scholarships to advanced brass players.  Students travel from as far away as an hour in the New Haven area to play in this prestigious ensemble where I am the brass coach.

Please, spread the word if you know any high school students who might be interested in this great opportunity! Auditions will be very early in mid to late August!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review of the New Bach C Trumpets and Eb

Just had a chance to try the new line of Bach Artisan C trumpets as well as the "Philly" and "Chicago" C trumpets. For me, the "Philly" C was great. I loved the response, flexibility, intonation, and sound of all the C's I tried. The "Chicago" model was quite good as well, but was a bit more zippy for me. Both instruments were close in feel and response. I preferred the "Philly" model. Very nice horn! I was quite surprised to find I didn't like the Artisan Model. It was a good horn with nice color, but I felt the flexibility was a bit stiff, and the sound was good, but different enough for me to prefer the "Philly" sound. I felt there were some standard intonation issues that didn't work so well for me. Unfortunately, I didn't get to try a silver plated one as someone bought it before the day began. Jury is still out for me on this. But, I can't imagine the flexibility issues (for me) will change on the s...
Post a Comment
Read more

District Congratulations

All of my students who auditioned for districts did extremely well this year. Those that did not make it came VERY close. I am very proud of you all! Late congratulations go to Mark Soo who made Senior District and had a wonderful time at the event. Congratulations go to Michael Soo who as a Freshman missed getting into Senior Districts by one point. Michael made first chair in Junior Districts! Michael has only been playing for 2 years, so this is quite a feat! Congratulations to Christopher Souza who made Districts as a 7th grader. You rock, Chris!! Congratulations to everyone for working so hard and getting up in front of a judge with confidence!
Post a Comment
Read more
Life in the pit I spend many, many hours in pits performing shows.  While what you see in the seats of a show is quite different and exciting, most musicians get barely a glimpse of what's happening on stage, if at all.  Here is a video of me in cramped quarters playing a demanding show, Newsies, which is a terrific show to play with temps that are not ideal.  You barely take the horn off your face, as you can see in the video, going from loud, rhythmic playing to soft delicate entrances.  The quality of the recording isn't great as it's from my phone, as you can see, but it gives you an idea of what goes on in a pit.  Enjoy!
Post a Comment
Read more