International Trumpet Guild Conference 2013

Story time, folks! It's time for a freestyle informal blog post. I'm not even going to spell check or edit this one, or make any attempt to sound "professional"... I'm going to speak from the heart because it represents my incredible heartwarming first-ever ITG experience. Care to read on? :) GO! Just kidding. Stop for a moment... because the ITG experience for VCU doesn't actually start at ITG...

Before the Conference...

So we're headed to the Richmond Airport, right? My alarm went off at 4:25am on Tuesday the 11th... early flight to prepare for, and I know I'm going to be exhausted by the time we perform at 9pm in Michigan. But it's cool because VCU's entire trumpet ensemble got funding to attend the ITG conference. The vast majority of our expenses and logistical organizing were taken care of by our Professor Rex Richardson and the college of VCU. What happened when we got there, though, was an unprecedented experience for us -- 5 minutes before boarding our plane, the guards and police evacuate the ENTIRE airport and - over the course of maybe 30 minutes - push us all completely off site towards the parking lot area. Hundreds of people stand around frustrated, trying to figure out what happened and why we're all out here... Turns out the airport received a bomb threat by phone serious enough for them to kick us all outside for about 3 hours. Guess we're not making our flight...

Photo Credit: Caitlin Costello

But the experience ended up putting VCU's Trumpet Ensemble on the news! After an hour or so, ensemble members got restless and decided to warm up in their practice mutes. Meanwhile, WRIC 8 and NBC 12 news stations show up on site to get live coverage of the bomb threat situation, they see the trumpets out, and they decide to come talk to us. They asked us if we had anything to play for them, that they might put us up on live television... So we did. "Marcus wrote this piece!!" the ensemble members said, pointing at me after we played a movement from the Grant Suite for Six Trumpets. Haha, thanks guys :) before we left the airport, we got some great coverage on the news as an ensemble, and a couple of us were interviewed individually to be included on the news story. Very cool.

Meanwhile, VCU's Music Office gets our flights get re-routed to split the ensemble onto two different flights... and then RE-re-routed because one of the flights was scheduled to take us to a connection at the Atlanta Airport, where we learned the power was out, and we'd have to find a different flight. (Good grief!) Between it all, we arrive at the Grand Rapids Airport in Michigan for the ITG Conference at 4:28pm... after originally planning to arrive at 10:57am!

At the Conference!

Once we got there, it was quite an amazing experience! VCU performed before two big audiences, and probably the most intelligent audiences our trumpet ensemble could ever perform for. On Tuesday at 9pm, we premiered our trumpet ensemble arrangement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, Mvt. I (audio recording above).On Wednesday at 4pm, we performed the Grant Suite for Six Trumpets. Both our performances were received well! So well that an anonymous spectator who saw our performance on Wednesday saw us at a restaurant eating together and paid for all of our drinks "because [we] played so well", our waiter said. How incredibly nice!

I got to speak with a few of my heroes at the conference. Allen Vizzutti gave me a hug, Vince DiMartino complimented our ensemble on our performance, Adam Rapa gave me great composing advice, even Natalie Dungey talked for a little while, and so many others shared their time with me. I learned a long time ago that "famous" people are people just like us, and most of them are as kind and as humble as can be. But if there's anything I learned by going to this conference, it's that this fact goes even a step further: internationally known musicians - trumpet players, in particular - treat each other like family, and the trumpet community functions as a brotherhood of extremely intelligent, caring, talented, and supportive musicians who love what they do and love to share it with each other. I can't wait to return to the conference next year!


http://msgrantmusic.com

Summer 2013 Update

As summer continues to unfold, my website has been updated, my career continues to expand, and a blog update is necessary! Here's what I've been up to lately!


2013 International Trumpet Guild (ITG) Conference (June 11th-15th):

Those of you who have been following closely are already aware of the unfortunate occurrence regarding the intended premiere at the National Trumpet Competition this past March. Virginia Commonwealth University's Trumpet Ensemble was accepted into NTC Semifinals to perform my arrangement of "Beethoven's 5th Symphony for 8 trumpets, Mvt. I"; however, an unavoidable schedule conflict forced the ensemble to cancel their plans to compete in the competition, and the arrangement remains un-premiered outside of VCU's campus. After a change in personnel and the re-visiting of the arrangement, Beethoven's 5th is now scheduled for an ITG premiere THIS TUESDAY NIGHT, JUNE 11TH  as a prelude to Rex Richardson's 9pm concert with the Grand Rapids Symphonic Band and the Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra.

The following evening, Wednesday, June 12th, VCU's Trumpet Ensemble will also perform the ITG premiere of my original composition "Suite for Six Trumpets" as a prelude to the 4pm Crossover Concert featuring Vincent DiMartino, Jens Lindemann, Bill Lucas, Adam Rapa, Rex Richardson, and Allen Vizzutti. Suite For Six Trumpets as been performed in various parts of the world by various ensembles - including the United States Army Band "Pershing's Own" Celebratory Trumpet Ensemble - but this marks the first ITG performance of the colorful composition.

The 2013 ITG Conference will be held at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.


Some Marching-Arts-Related Updates:

1) For the past three seasons, I have assisted on staff with my alma mater's marching band, the Thomas Dale High School Marching Knights in Chester, VA. For this upcoming season, I was named the winds arranger for the marching band. This is a very exciting experience that I'm very much looking forward to, and I will try my best to get some pictures and videos of the band during band camp and throughout the season for those interested in watching the band's progress through the season.

2) To anyone who missed the big announcement and transition, my organization's Facebook page "Enlightened Productions: Youth Marching Arts Composers" NO LONGER EXISTS! We have replaced that page with "Enlightened Productions" <---- Click to head to the page and support us with a "like". Click here to hear about why we made the change.

3) Part of the marching band show that Jesse Stevens and I co-composed entitled "A Love Story: Featuring Selections by Gustav Mahler" was purchased this summer by a marching band on the East Coast. This serves as the first show music that has been purchased directly through Enlightened Productions and brings great excitement to the organization as we continue to grow and develop.

4) The final marching arts related news involves a step into the drum corps world but shall be left off the table for now. If you're clever, you can figure it out as it continues to unfold, and a future announcement is highly likely once the details have been ironed out.

"I LOVE PEOPLE, I LOVE SERVICE, AND I LOVE MUSIC, SO SERVICE TO PEOPLE THROUGH MUSIC? IT'S A DREAM COME TRUE!!"