<p>S is collecting information about trumpet faculty in the US in order to narrow down college/conservatory choices (his school greatly penalizes absences, so unfortunately, he needs to research in advance instead of just going and taking lots of lessons everywhere). He's interested in performance and doesn't mind tough teachers (I don't know why...he's insisting on taking APUSH from a teacher who is insanely tough on the kids and has a notorious reputation...he's a glutton for punishment, I guess). We know Terry Everson is wonderful, but we don't know about any of the faculty elsewhere. For example, we know Jens is at UCLA, but know little about his teaching style and how his students fare when they graduate. S is trying to find students in studios who would be willing to give him some info about teaching style and personality. It's tough researching this so any help would be greatly appreciated! Please PM me if you would prefer.</p>
<p>Must say that the policies I've seen posted here regarding limited "excused" absences for college visits seem a bit Pleistocene. I remember one poster saying students are only allowed four days total between junior and senior years for college visits. </p>
<p>With careful planning, four days may work for a "standard" liberal arts major, but it certainly would be a hardship for the music major. Heck, we burned up more than 4 days for auditions alone! We did try to use time during teacher institute days, and other "school" holidays that weren't real business or university holidays, but DD had to have taken a good 10 days off during her last two HS years. I'm grateful that our HS has no set policy on the number of college visit absences.</p>
<p>This leaves a parent a real dilemna; just "lie" about absences with a letter from a friendly doctor or go and tell the school board to get their collective heads out of the sand and get a policy established that reflects reality?</p>
<p>My son is a trumpet performance major at Indiana University, studying under Edmund Cord. He really likes Cord and is learning a lot at IU. He has also worked a little with the other two trumpet professors at IU and had positive experiences, although he likes Cord best. IU is a wonderful place for trumpet performance. </p>
<p>Northwestern is, according to my son, currently about the top school for trumpet, with the husband-wife team of Barbara Butler and Charles Geyer. They are turning out a lot of top performers.</p>
<p>Other schools my son visited (He only visited the ones where he was accepted.) were University of North Texas, Lawrence University, and University of Northern Colorado. He was not able to schedule a lesson at UNT, but it is a top brass school, particularly for jazz. He liked the trumpet teacher at Lawrence, John Daniel, but found the college too small and isolated for what he wanted. He was particularly impressed by the trumpet professor at Northern Colorado, Robert Murray. Murray is a former student of my son's former teacher, which is why he knew about him. My son says that the trumpet program at UNC is very strong and growing under Murray.</p>
<p>My son was also unable to travel and have lessons ahead of time, not due to scheduling, but to finances. However, he did have lessons at his top choices after acceptance, which worked fine for him.</p>
<p>Imperial: School will not listen. Parents do not exist (except to pay tuition). I agree with you...it's a lot of pressure on the kids to do everything they need to do junior and senior years without additional limitations. They give a week in Feb for college visits, but one can only fit in so many lessons in that time. I may have S's music teacher at the school go to bat for him...but I think we'll have to plan extremely carefully.
Susan: This is great info...thank you! You are the second person to mention Cord (one of my son's good friends is in his studio at the moment). I did not see a great improvement in his playing after a year, however...but he may be getting rid of some bad habits (and hitting the beer a little too hard:) How many kids does Cord accept? How many trumpet players are at IU? I've heard it's an excellent environment for trumpeters.
I have heard of Butler and Geyer...do they teach together? Does one take a lesson with one of them or both? What are they like?
S is not a jazz player at this point, but IU and Northwestern are definitely on his hit lists. Anyone know anything about the conservatories?
Thanks again!</p>
<p>Matt Muckey just graduated from Northwestern in June and even before he graduated, he was named Associate Principal for the New York Philharmonic.</p>
<p>Roy Poper, the trumpet teacher at Oberlin, is turning out terrific musicians. </p>
<p>Top teachers might have 2 or 3 openings at the most for over 50 applicants, all top quality musicians.</p>
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You are the second person to mention Cord (one of my son's good friends is in his studio at the moment). I did not see a great improvement in his playing after a year, however...How many kids does Cord accept? How many trumpet players are at IU? I've heard it's an excellent environment for trumpeters.
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<p>Edmund Cord was on sabbatical this past semester, so those in his studio had a succession of temporary teachers, which may explain why that student did not improve much. Some of the temps were good, some not so good (according to son). My son is really excited about having Cord back this year.</p>
<p>I am not sure how many trumpet players are at IU, although I know there are quite a few. I'm sure my son has told me, but I forget... I will try to ask him. (He is an RA this year and is extremely busy with new freshmen at the moment...) I do know my son was the last one accepted into Cord's studio this past year. My son had heard that things were very competitive at IU, and that it was not a nurturing environment, but he found that NOT to be true. The trumpet players seem to be quite close and very encouraging to each other. My son has been very happy there.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, I forgot in the earlier post to mention Roy Poper of Oberlin. My son applied there, but didn't get in, and he knows someone there who likes it a lot.</p>
<p>I'm a reformed trumpet player, so I know the conservatory scene reasonably well. First off, a plug for my school: NEC has two teachers, Charlie Schleuter and Ben Wright. Ben is an excellent teacher and has turned out some very fine students. Charlie is kind of hit and miss. He's had some very good students and some very bad students. The overall education at NEC is top notch, and the trumpet studio is fairly small (12-14 players, usually) so there are plenty of performance opportunities. The Boston area also has quite a good freelance scene, and many of our trumpet players sub with the Boston Phil, Boston Civic, etc.
As for other schools, I have a friend at Eastman who seems to be doing very well there and speaks highly of the program. I've also heard good players out of MSM. Juilliard has an excellent trumpet studio, but it's damn near impossible to get into. I've heard many good things about the music program at Rice, but the last time I looked at their trumpet studio Armando Ghitalla was still there/alive. I don't know how the new teacher is. You might also want to look at Cincinnati and Michigan. I applied to CCM as a composition major and didn't like the faculty members or the city, but the school itself seemed to be very good. A friend of mine from Tanglewood is at Michigan and seems to be doing very well in the program, though I honestly haven't heard him play in quite a while. One of the few good departments at San Francisco Conservatory is brass, and Dave Burkhart is a superb teacher and a superb player.
You mentioned BU/Terry Everson. Terry is a fantastic teacher and has some good students, but (as I've said in another post) I find the undergrad program at BU to be somewhat lacking.
Hope this all helps.</p>
<p>Beethoven's 10th...Ok, those odds are why I keep telling S to study. There are just a lot of very fine trumpet players out there. If S was really doing this right, he should probably have gone to Interlochen Arts instead of a regular high school. I had not heard of Roy...so thank you very much for the recommendation! We heard Phil Smith play Lincoln Portraits (the man defies description...his sound just floats..it's hard to explain, but I've never heard anything like it in my life) and thought we saw Matt (a very very young looking trumpet player... What an amazing first gig... was he a Barbara or Charles student?
Susan...Ah, that would explain it. I'm glad Cord is back. I also think this particular student (who was a star around these parts) also discovered that there are a lot of very fine players in the world and that took him slightly by surprise. I'm glad IU isn't intensely competitive..although for me (a violinist) brass players generally tend to be just the most well-adjusted and supportive lot (and I love trumpet moms:)
MahlerSnob...S is very interested in NEC...he played with a NEC horn player in one of his chamber ensembles this summer and heard all about it. Is Schleuter retired? We also heard Ben is auditioning for the principal spot at SFS...but that may just be rumor. And who really does the teaching at Julliard anyway? Does Smith or Marsalis really teach a full studio? We heard Caleb Hudson (acclaimed young trumpet player) is going there but haven't heard who he'll be studying with..We will also look into Michigan and Cinn. We've heard good things about Dave as well and SFC is really beefing up their trumpet studio now that they have a new building. They got some really good players this year (S has also played with them). Thanks so much (and thanks for the input re BU! Really appreciate it).</p>
<p>Answering the questions I see, let me know if you have more:
Schleuter retired from the BSO in May. However, he is still teaching and as far as I know he doesn't have plans to stop teaching. The new principal trumpet, Tom Rolfs (formerly the associate prin.), will hopefully teach at NEC at some point in the near future.
Ben was a finalist in SF, but I'm still not too clear on the results of that audition. As far as I know, Ben will be staying in the BSO for at least another year. Even if he does go to SF mid-season (always a possibility), I've been told that he will be flying to Boston once or twice a month to give lessons to his students at NEC. I doubt such a thing would continue for more than one year.
The teaching at Juilliard is primarily done by Ray Mase, Mark Gould, and Kevin Cobb. Phil Smith takes two students at a time - one undergrad, one grad. I'm not sure how Wynton works, but I imagine he focuses on jazz students. In any case, Mase, Gould, and Cobb are all excellent teachers.
As for SF - I grew up in San Francisco, and know many people who have gone through SFCM in the past 10 years or so. There have been some excellent trumpet players. I don't know how the school will change now that it is moving into a new building, but - as I told someone else here - you might want to wait a little bit before applying there to see how things develop. Schools always change considerably when they move from one campus to another, and it's difficult to predict how they will change. </p>
<p>One last thing, re Matt Muckey. I don't know Matt personally, but I know several people who were in San Francisco Youth with him or went to Tanglewood with him. He's a superb player, but he was a superb player before he got to Northwestern. I'm sure NW had something to do with his current success, but I don't know if it's really fair - to the school or to Matt - to give NW full credit, just as NEC can't really take credit for producing Bud Herseth. These people are freaks, and they would be freaks regardless of where they went to school.</p>
<p>S is a vocal performance major at UCLA with friends who play trumpet. The trumpet program is tops. People come especially to study with Jens Lindemann. The trumpet ensemble has been winning top awards at the national level for the past few years. See the link below and search on trumpet at UCLA.</p>
<p>MahlerSnob...Thank you very very much. It's so helpful to discuss this with you. I had NO idea Matt was a San Franciscan and played in SFYO! Was he a Dave student? Since you are from SF, could you please tell me who are the really good teachers in SF besides Dave? Mario? Laurie? Joyce? Jim?
I totally agree regarding the freaks...those who were just born to it. There are a lot of excellent players, but the freaks come along, a few in each generation, and become the Buds, Phils, ChrisMs,
Wyntons and Matts. The new kid on the block may be this Caleb Hudson I've been hearing a lot about.
Here's another question...do you think kids who want a shot at all of this should just focus on music? S had a roommate at Tanglewood who is homeschooling to prepare for college auditions. Maybe that is the way to do it...Do you have any advice about college auditions (since it sounds as if you've been there and done that) I think it's also damn near impossible to get into Julliard...but I'm curious how to prepare for the audition.
Operamom. Thanks so much for the link. I will research that right away! I've heard about the the trumpet ensemble and ITG..in fact, I've heard them perform..they are very good. I don't know how Jens is as a private teacher (and I'd like to know!), but he's a beast on the trumpet. I also don't know how UCLA compares with places like Northwestern and Oberlin.
Anyone heard about Chris Gekker?</p>
<p>First...I'll comment on Chris Gekker. He is one of the best studio trumpet teachers in the country. He now teaches at U of Maryland College Park. Their music program isn't the strongest in the country, but they have far and away the nicest facilities we saw anywhere. However, be aware that they accept one trumpet performance undergrad...if that. </p>
<p>OK..a lot depends on what your son is looking for in a college, conservatory or university program. My son is a senior trumpet performance major at Boston University, and for him the number one reason was Terry Everson. And, not wishing to cause a ruckus here...the BU program is a fine undergrad program which also has many ensemble and playing opportunities. Many of the students at BU also either play in or sub with the same orchestras that the NEC players play for. Anyway...just my (parent) humble opinion here...the private instrument teacher needs to be a performance student's number one criteria. What clicks for one student does not necessarily click with another. There are some dynamite private teachers out there who are with less than stellar programs. For example, Grand Valley State University (go ahead...say WHAT???) in Michigan has an incredible trumpet studio. Look at the National Trumpet Competition and you will see that students from that studio have taken top places in both solo and ensemble playing in recent years (as have the students from Terry Everson's studio, by the way). And they are routinely on the rosters of summer programs like Aspen. They recruit heavily from Interlochen...and they have been very successful. Other teachers DS loved...Chris Gekker at U of Maryland (but they typically accept only one undergrad performance major, if that), Ben Wright (at NEC...but may be moving...he is wonderful), Arizona State (dynamite brass program with a trumpet teacher who apparently is very devoted to his studio), Northwestern University (very good studio teachers), Manhattan, Cleveland Institute of Music, UCLA, Rice, Juilliard, Eastman. As noted, U of North Texas has an outstanding brass program, particularly their jazz program. The UNT program is HUGE...as is Indiana's. In fact, they jockey back and forth on being the "largest music program". </p>
<p>One thing DS considered was location. He felt it was very important to be somewhere where there were many playing opportunities AND opportunities to listen to good orchestral playing. His search was in urban areas only (DC, Boston, Pittsburgh, Dallas). His grad school search is for NYC, Houston, Chicago, LA). So location is important. Also, at Oberlin, for example, the teaching faculty teaches at Oberlin and they are typically very available to the students. At places where the teachers are affiliated with a major orchestra, those teachers are sometimes touring with the orchestra or have other obligations (e.g. the BSO actually has concerts during the day).</p>
<p>thumper, I meant no offense with my comments about BU. I'm glad your son has had a good experience there. However, I know many people there who haven't been very happy. </p>
<p>Symphony - Matt is actually from Sacramento and the only teacher I know he studied with is a freelancer (and fellow NU grad) named Scott Macomber. As far as other teachers around SF, Dave is really your best bet. I've heard good things about Laurie and Jim. I've had a few lessons with Mario, and I wouldn't recommend him. Another person I'd recommend is one of my former teachers, Mark Inouye. Mark is associate in SF, although he's been on leave for the past two seasons to be acting principal in Houston. Word on the street is that he will be back in town this year.
As far as the auditions go, I don't think it's entirely necessary to drop out of school for auditions. I do have a friend who did that a few years ago and is now at Eastman, but he got lucky. Take the auditions you really want to take. Don't just take every one that comes up. Teachers will probably be understanding. Especially since your son will be a second semester senior by the time the auditions come around. As far as preparation, you might try contacting some of the big teachers in your area to do sort-of mock auditions/lessons: playing through the audition rep and having a lesson on it. I don't know where you are located, but I gather from your knowledge of Bay Area players/teachers that you are from somewhere in California. In the Bay Area I'd recommend contacting people like Mark Inouye (if he's back yet), Glenn Fischtal, Dave, Jim, etc. Just get some outside opinions and some experience playing for teachers who are unfamiliar. There isn't a good way to prepare for the joys of playing auditions after flying and dealing with jetlag, changes in temperature and humidity, etc., but playing through the rep as many times as possible for as many people as possible is the best preperation I know of.</p>
<p>Thumper, Totally agree with you...the teacher is the number one priority and the location is key as well. Thank you so much for your recommendations (as always). You are incredibly knowledgeble and helpful. I know that my son has most of those schools on his list and he's trying to figure out what he wants (or should want) in a program. He trying to figure out whether the advantages/disadvantages of studying in a big institution like IU, a conservatory like NEC or a college/conservatory program like NU. He's also trying to figure out what it would be like to study with teachers who have ongoing professional careers as perfomers, such as Jens and David Hickman (and other mentioned who play in orchestras) versus taking from teachers dedicated primarily to teaching. He's also trying to get a sense of what the teachers are like personally, but probably taking lessons will answer those questions. I'm hoping Ben comes to this neck of the woods. I had NO idea Chris only takes one performance student. Good heavens. S loved Terry this summer (what a great guy). He's on the list for sure. I keep hearing great things about Arizona State..I think that's the Hickman studio. S plans to take a lesson from him. I thought I'd help S narrow the search, but it looks as if we're going to have to cast a wide net and just take our lumps with his school absences. After reading everything you all have said, the take away is definitely that he needs to take lessons so he can see whether the teachers and programs are a good fit for him.
Mahler- We are indeed from Norcal and know of Scott (who may still be teaching in the Prep Div of SFC). We (and many of S's friends...another trumpet player in his quintet especially) are big Mark Inouye fans. If awarding the principal seats in symphonies was done American Idol style, Mark would have it hands down (hear that MTT?) He has a dedicated following out here and S's quintet is mighty happy he's back in town. S would love to have lessons with him if he's willing...thank you so much for the recommendation! Mark probably also knows a thing or two about auditioning. I also loved your recommendation about the mock auditions. That is brilliant. Hadn't even THOUGHT about jet lag, so that was a good head's up. Just another thing...and come to think of it, how many auditions could one possibly play in a week anyway...so that means more travelling back and forth.
Thanks very much Thumper and Mahler...you both have helped tremendously, and S and I both really appreciate it!!!</p>
<p>I just got home from dropping off DS at Eastman, where he is one of 3 freshmen trumpet performance majors. He "clicked" with James Thompson early last year in the lesson/application/audition process and is really excited about studying with him. In addition to the teacher, DS was impressed by the emphasis on preparing well-rounded musicians, requiring wind players to participate in wind ensemble, orchestra, and chamber groups, and having separate large ensembles for freshmen/sophomores and juniors/seniors. We have heard that at some of the other conservatories where freshmen compete with seniors and grad students for ensemble placement, freshmen may do very few performances during the first year.</p>
<p>This was the first trip to Rochester for DH and me, and we found lots to like. Eastman is located in a realtively safe and vibrant part of town, with excellent dormitory, classroom, performance, and library facilities and even a YMCA with pool and indoor running track (big draw for DS) within a nice compact area. Move-in day was extremely well-organized, with lots of info conveyed to parents by deans and administrators at information and Q&A sessions. Very class act. I'll be happy to provide more info as the year progresses.</p>
<p>Just a final thought about Juilliard. This was the only school to which I accompanied DS to the audition. Without a doubt, Juilliard would be a great place for the right kid. I perceived an intensely competetive atmosphere in an almost overwhelming environment. Caleb Hudson, the only incoming freshman selected, was DS's roommate last year at Interlochen Academy, and if anyone will be successful in that situation, Caleb will.</p>
<p>I know of at least one new undergrad Juilliard trumpet who is entering this year as a transfer, so there were at least two openings. It's definitely all music, all the time, though S doesn't feel it's overwhelming or competitive (in horn, at least.)</p>
<p>symphonymom, I talked to my son today, so I can answer a couple of your questions. Ed Cord has 18 students in his studio. There are about 60 trumpet players, including undergrads and grads, at IU. My son says they added a lot of good grad students this year, but only a couple of freshmen. He said it is more competitive trying to get into good ensembles this year, since the grad students are taking many of the spots.</p>
<p>Susam,
Great information! Thank you and please thank your son. Do they give preference to the grad students or are they just better because they've had more experience? Do you know how many freshmen Cord takes per year? I appreciate your talking with you son and wish him a fabulous year this year!</p>
<p>Grad students audition just like the undergrads; they just tend to be better. I think the number Ed Cord takes a year varies. Last year they had more freshman trumpet players than this year, son says. I would say he probably averages 2-3 new freshman a year. But it sounds like this year it was only 1-2. There are also two other trumpet professors there.</p>
<p>That makes sense...experience counts:) That's very few freshmen in Cord's studio...he's the one my son is interested in as well...your son is lucky! When you count the spaces for freshmen trumpet players nationwide, I think I still have fingers left over...sigh..
Thanks very much again for the info.</p>