| Ghitalla told me a few stories about his lessons with Vacchiano. One was that Vacchiano wouldn't listen to the stuff Ghitalla was working on, because he knew it would sound fine already. He just kept throwing stuff on the stand that he knew Ghitalla would struggle to play. Ghitalla told me that he never once was able to predict what he would be asked to play in a lesson. Vacchiano sent Ghitalla to play principal trumpet in the NYC opera with the instructions, "tell the conductor you have lots of opera experience." He did, the conductor knew it wasn't true but just smiled. He got through the gig and shortly thereafter moved to Houston to play principal trumpet. |