Hags888

Hi Ed,

I have a question for you. I'm trying to put together a demo CD to send off to job applications and I'm wondering what the best repertoire choices should be? Should I choose only pieces that show me playing at my best, or should I pick pieces to show off what "repertoire" I know? Is it better to put together a sort of "degree recital" with standard rep from each historical music period, or should I just pick pieces I know I will sound good on? What are prospective employers (namely, Universities) looking for in a "Demo CD"?

I'm looking at the following for a Demo CD:

Haydn Concerto
Purcell Sonata
Hindemith Sonate
Mathews, Indiscretions (a piece I commissioned and premeired)
A Blues (something simple, like Straight No Chaser)
Orchestral Excerpts (Mahler 5, Pictures, Pines, Petrouchka)
Etudes (Charlier 2, a Bitsch and a Verne Reynolds)

My concern is that I need something more "flashy" or something that is more difficult, like a Tomasi/Chaynes, or a more difficult pic piece. Also, I'm afraid it might be too much. Any thoughts?

Best,

Scott

ecarroll

Scott,

What sort of job are you looking for? Let's start there...

Best,
EC

Hags888

It would be a demo CD for a college teaching jobs. Ideally I make one CD that I could use for anything.

ecarroll

Scott,

My gut feeling is to start by abandoning the idea of a "one size fits all" CD. They don't and it won't. Create an audio portfolio of your work and burn different mixes for different job opportunities.

Your website looks terrific. You have a good resume and it's terrific that you have jazz language alongside the other stuff. It will come as no surprise to those that watch this forum that I applaud your commission. Do more of this and include it in your materials (many will notice that you have vision).

That said, I think it's best that you send what YOU feel the strongest about sending, rather than worrying about what you imagine the listener as wanting to hear (you'll most often be wrong).

If it were me, I'd lose the Purcell Sonata (not much there) (unless you happen to really LOVE it). I assume that you're doing your DMA with David and I know that he's really into the Charliers (as am I). I'd skip the common #2 though and play one of the more adventuresome ones (?) Are the Bitsch and Reynolds etudes really necessary? What about adding a concerto written after 1796 (!)? A Russian concerto (Tamberg) might fill the bill, or consider one of the newer ones from Europe. I think that you might also add a showpiece. I happen to like Hoehe's Slavic Fantasy but there are many others (not many play Belstedt's Napoli, for instance). Round out your repertoire with something new and challanging.

Looking above, take the last paragraph with a grain of salt. Do, however, take the first to heart and consider adding more range to your repertoire (?)

Thoughts streaming,
EC

Hags888

That is a very good point. Some of the jobs that have recently been posted want classcial and jazz, while others make no mention of jazz. So, adding jazz stuff to the Demo CD for a "non-jazz" job wouldn't make a lot of sense. I suppose that my Demo CD list from the original post would be more of a portfolio that I would pull stuff from.

With that in mind, your comment about range, do you mean range in the musical sense (i.e. more variety of music), or practical (i.e., "high notes")? In terms of my range I'm limited in that anything above a high-F (above 3rd ledger line) is pretty much unplayable for me. Also, if I have to play a lot above high D, I'll opt to pull out an Eb or a picc. Also, if I lose the Purcell, then my picc playing is not represented. I guess I was seeing the Demo CD as a sample of "everything I can do", and thus I felt like I should have tracks with playing on Bb, C, Eb, picc and both classical, jazz, and early music...and then of course tweaking my portfolio for the job I'm applying for. I wanted to be sure to include standard repertoire as well as some unconvential stuff (hence, Haydn/Hindemith...and then the commisioned piece and Reynolds etude).

And yes, I'm finishing up my DMA with Dave (and Gary Bordner!) at UMN. I've got their opinions as well, but I always like to get as much different input as I can with these sorts of things.

Scott

ecarroll

Scott,

I meant musical range.

Why not find a better piece to play on the piccolo trumpet? A number of baroque sonatas for flute/violin might suffice or, perhaps, Tomasi's Semaine Saint a Cuzco?

Take a look in the UMinn library for Telemann's Zwölf Methodischen Sonaten. They're terrific -- lot's of music and not too high. It can be had via inter-library loan, if necessary.

Best to David,
EC

Hags888

Excellent. Thank you for the advice and suggestions. I'll definitely take it to heart.

Scott

ecarroll

My pleasure, Scott

Cheers,
EC

TrentAustin

Scott,

I really think in today's trumpet world as a professional its extremely vital that a trumpet instructor has jazz experience. I don't see it as hurting your cause if you put a real high quality clip of your improvisations on a portfolio. Maybe EC would disagree, but IMO we need more teachers who are able to play all styles.

-T

krossum

Trent-

Although I agree with you on principle, I’m going to have to go with Ed on this one. I’ve found stylistic bigotry on each side of the Classical/Jazz fence. Very few people would say it out loud; but there is a minority view of those ‘sloppy jazzers’ within the classical community and an occasional opinion of those ‘uptight classical cats’ among the jazz community. I think a specifically targeted demo would avoid unnecessarily touching on any of those above mentioned biases. I would assume that a solid resume would include listings of all different styles; again if appropriate. Most musicians – thankfully – appreciate all musical styles and are very open to expanding their own listening palette.

We could extend this stylistic exploration to rock/funk, polka, mariachi, etc. It’s interesting that we don’t consider some of these styles as appropriate for a demo recording. Does this reflect our own personal bias? (Rhetorical question)

Review panels expect to be given what they ask for. If they don’t ask for jazz on a specific audition/ demo – don’t give it to them.

Hmmm…
-Kelly