Trumpet Orchestral Excerpts

Six Packs for college and music academy trumpet classes

It is a very common occurrence these days to find that there are many college students who take their first auditions and, while they know a specific excerpt very well, basically have no idea about the piece as a whole and how the excerpt relates to the piece, and what the composer might have intended with the specific excerpt asked on the audition. It is important to remember that when a composer wrote a passage that is now used for orchestral audition, that passage was part of a complete piece and the composer’s intention was not to write a passage that would later become an excerpt. The only intention was how the specific excerpt would relate to the piece.

Over the past number of years I have been shocked at how little students know about the piece from which an excerpt was chosen. I have asked students from different colleges and academies in the United States and Europe to identify pieces that are standard repertoire pieces and have found the results to be extremely discouraging, As an example, out of a group of 30 brass students, not one was able to identify the beginning of Petroushka or the opening of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. That is only a very small example of this lack of knowledge.

So the Six Pack system is designed for college trumpet classes, and there are three options – 1) for a class lasting an hour, 2) for a class lasting 1 ½ hours, and 3) for a class lasting 2 hours. Each Pack contains six days of classes, which can be spread over the course of a semester. I will conduct these master class online, and Included in each session will be links to youtube performances which will show different interpretations, not only of the specific excerpts asked for an audition, but the piece in it’s entirety. In addition, there will be written material regarding the piece and composer, and recommended supplementary reading.

Finally, certain sessions will recommend other instrumentalists joining the master class. An example of this would be to have a student string quartet play the opening of the Schumann Symphony #2 (in addition, trumpet students will be asked to play the opening violin line, which not only will give more of an appreciate of the musical elements involved but can also be used as a flow study.

These Six Packs will first begin with the standard excerpt literature and then broaden into other standard repertoire in the symphonic literature. Listed below are the three options listed above:

Six Pack 1 Hour ($1,000)

Six Pack #1

Six Pack #2

Six Pack #3

Six Pack 1 ½ Hours ($1,200)

Six Pack #1

Six Pack #2

Six Pack #3

Six Pack 2 Hours ($1,500)

Six Pack #1

Six Pack #2

Six Pack #3

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