Hello to you all,
Please allow me a few notes of introduction as we launch this new forum.
Music is my vocation; it is what I do.
I'm famously inept at most everything else. I can't fix things around the house, am afraid of ladders, use my fingers when adding, and am passionately interested in a cursed baseball team. I do, however, know how to listen carefully, how to observe keenly, and am reasonably skilled at placing what I hear, see, and know into some sort of context--precisely why I'm drawn to teaching during this "second half" of my career. I thank my friends at CalArts, McGill, and Dartmouth for recognizing this!
Context is key in the new world of the internet.
Just a short generation ago, my teachers (Renold Schilke, John Lindenau, Vincent Cichowicz, William Vacchiano, and Gerard Schwarz for those of you keeping chronological score) were the keepers of the secrets to trumpet and musical success. Now as I peruse various internet blogs I'm astonished to read high-schoolers confidently (and often accurately) quoting Arnold Jacobs. The "information" is out there, and can be read by anyone who understands the English language. As we turn each doorknob we realize that somebody on the other side is turning it too.
The trick is determining what to do with this new-found information, and how to make it our own in the context of a rich, musical life.
Download was the term I chose to express my altogether altruistic reasons in accepting a forum at TrumpetMaster (a title that gives me pause during the year of Dokshitzer's death, to say the least!). My intention in joining this community--and let me say, right off the bat, that the presence of Manny and Wilmer, both old friends, was a huge incentive--is to share the perspective of another who has lived and performed in many places in the world as an orchestral musician, chamber musician, and soloist while satisfying a hankering to off/up/download some personal insights, musical interests, and musical goals.
Lastly, as you will discover as this forum develops, I consider the trumpet to be a means to an end, not an end itself. . . and the person tugging on the other side of the door to be a friend.
Looking forward,
EC
http://www.calarts.edu/~ecarroll/director.html