The trumpet studio at DePaul strives to be one of the best of its kind in terms of its practicality, relevance to current professional standards and its effectiveness for preparing students to perform at the highest level.
Faculty
The Trumpet Studio
Individual Lessons
Weekly lessons are the centerpiece of each student's experience in the DePaul trumpet studio. Instruction is individualized to each player's rate of progress. Students are encouraged to set achievable goals and find solutions to playing problems that develop skills of daily discipline. Students are also encouraged to use one another as resources for insight and support, and hopefully continue that into their professional careers to make them good colleagues as well as good musicians.
Performance Class
Performance class is a weekly opportunity for students to perform for one another. Each week involves an assignment to prepare material relevant to professional attainment along with an opportunity for discussion and constructive input from each student. In addition to gradually gaining confidence and poise under the pressure of performance, students learn important communication skills that help them to be supportive of one another, offering constructive suggestions for improvement.
Performance Class topics include: imitative duets with woodwind or string instruments; audition tape preparation; performances on piccolo and E flat trumpets; performances on the German rotary valved trumpets; sight reading; and technical Etudes.
Masterclasses
At least once each quarter Performance Class time is used to host a professional guest master class. Over the last several years the guests the DePaul Trumpet Studio has hosted have included: Chris Martin of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ed Hoffman of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Bill Williams of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
Excerpt Class
At the beginning of each quarter, students from the trumpet studio are invited to audition for the orchestral excerpt class. Four students are selected, though all are welcome to attend, to rehearse and play the standard orchestral repertoire that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is playing at that time. Students work together to develop exceptional skills as section players and are allowed to attend selected Chicago Symphony Orchestra rehearsals.
The purpose of Excerpt Class extends beyond the objective of becoming familiar with the most difficult pieces in the standard orchestral repertoire. Students are also challenged to listen attentively to the rest of the section as they play and adapt their intonation, style and sound to create the best possible match with the other players. In this way, students are given the opportunity to learn exceptional section skills that will help them as professionals, no matter what type of music or group they play with.
The audition for this class is structured to be very similar in procedure to those administered by professional symphony orchestras and offers students the opportunity to improve their preparation and performance skills that will lead to future success.
Trumpet Ensemble
This ensemble offers another opportunity for students to improve their section playing and communication skills. The DePaul Trumpet Ensemble performs at least one time every quarter in various locations around downtown Chicago and was also a prize winner at the 2006 National Trumpet Competition in Washington, DC.
Alumni Accomplishments
Graduates of the DePaul Trumpet studio have gone on to perform with the following ensembles:
- Chicago Symphony Orchestra
- Stuttgart Radio Orchestra
- London Symphony Orchestra, London, Ontario
- Hamilton Symphony Orchestra, Hamilton, Ontario
- Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener, Ontario
- The President's Own Marine Band
- U.S. Army Fife and Drum Corps
- Green Bay Symphony
- South Bend Symphony
- Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra
- Northwest Indiana Symphony
- Kenosha Symphony
- Chicago Jazz Ensemble
- The Chicago Jazz Orchestra
- Chicago's Theater Orchestras
- New York's Broadway Theater Orchestras
- Woody Herman's Big Band
- Maynard Ferguson's Bands