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Our trumpet inspiration for this week features Alison Balsom, a world-class trumpet soloist. This video shows her performing the 3rd movement of Antonio Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in A Minor, written around 1711.

Balsom is performing this violin concerto on a rotary piccolo trumpet. The rotary valves are similar to valves on a French horn, which is why they look different than the piston valves we typically see on trumpets. She is accompanied by a full string ensemble and harpsichord (the instrument that looks like a small piano).

Here’s a link to a recording of the same piece performed on violin (the 3rd movement starts at 6:00). Vivaldi also wrote music for trumpet, including his Concerto for Two Trumpets in C.

This performance not only displays incredible technical mastery, but Balsom also brigs a great deal of excitement and musical energy to a piece written over 300 years ago!

Listening guide questions:

1. How does the rotary piccolo trumpet look and sound different than the trumpet you normally play?
2. This piece was written in a different historical time period (1711). What images does it bring to mind?

This week’s trumpet inspiration is perhaps the most beautiful brass performance I’ve ever heard: Song for Hope by Peter Meechan. It features three of today’s great principal trumpet players: L to R David Bilger (Philadelphia), Michael Sachs (Cleveland), and Ryan Anthony (Dallas). The conductor is Phil Smith (retired principal trumpet, New York Philharmonic), and the accompanying musicians are members of the Dallas Symphony.

This was recorded live in 2015 at a concert for Cancer Blows — a charitable organization led by Ryan Anthony that organizes world-class trumpet concerts to raise money for cancer research.

Performances like this remind us of the most fundamental ways music can touch people, and they inspire us to be better musicians and better to one another.

 

Listening guide questions:

1. Think of some adjectives to describe the sounds/tone qualities of each of the 3 soloists.
2. How does this piece make you feel? What emotions and images do you think the composer is trying to evoke?

Today’s trumpet inspiration comes from Caleb Hudson, a member of the Canadian Brass and trumpet professor at Colorado State University. Here he performs Partita No. 1 by J.S.Bach originally written for violin — which explains the lack of breathing opportunities! I think this video is especially relevant this time of year, since many of my students are working on etudes that often push technical limits. I encourage you to draw inspiration from two specific aspects of his playing:

1. He produces a beautiful sound, even when the music is technically demanding.
2. His physical approach to the trumpet is very relaxed, despite the technical challenges of the music.

On top of this, his phrasing is impeccable! We can all use this as a reminder to play technical passages as musically as possible. Bravo Caleb on such an incredible performance!