 |
| May 05, 2024 |
Welcome! Click here to Login
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Click to visit the
Official Town Site
|
|
|
|
|
|
General News: Professional Trumpeter Talks of his Craft
|
| He will play a baroque trumpet Sunday |
|
| to classical. |
|
| John Charles Thomas and Bari Mort will perform a benefit concert Thursday evening. |
|
| John Charles Thomas presents a lecture recital Tuesday. |
July 12, 2007
If you go to Storm King Art Center this Sunday afternoon you will be able to catch an appearance by local trumpeter John Charles Thomas who has prepared a program for children to learn about brass instruments. He will be back at the art center in early August playing a Gershwin program with a pianist.
At either performance you will find that John, a Cornwall-on-Hudson village resident, knows his instruments and how to play them with technical skills and artistry.
A member of two orchestras and a private teacher, John says that he loves playing live music that connects with his audience. “Music is really fleeting, “ he says, “ and how well you play will conjure up memories.”
John talks about the embouchure that is so important to a trumpet player, the position of the player’s lips and the strength of the surrounding muscles. He says daily practice, often hours long, is essential for a trumpet player to maintain good embouchure or “chops.” “As a professional musician, playing is an athletic performance,” John explains.
He knows about the sports world because he once thought he wanted to become a football player, then realized that music was more fun and something that he could do the rest of his life.
John got his first trumpet from the family attic, an instrument that his father had played in an ad-hoc big band aboard the Navy cruiser Portland back in World War II. He started playing at the Lutheran church that his family belonged to and says that he got tremendous encouragement there.
He went on to get a degree in trumpet performance at Jordan Conservatory of Music in Indianapolis then went off to Vienna on a scholarship. While in Europe he got picked up by the New York Harlem Orchestra, which was performing Gershwin’s "Porgy and Bess."
After two years and still in his mid-20s, John returned to the states to study with acclaimed trumpeter Allan Dean, a master of modern tunes and early brass pieces. Through Dean’s teachings, John acquired a tremendous knowledge of early music and when he plays on Sunday at the art center he will bring period instruments that bring alive the musical pieces from each era.
Despite having worked under the direction of the premier world conductors of classical music, John’s talents aren’t confined to any one style or period and he plays everything from jazz to orchestra and chamber music and in the bands of rock artists.
As the principal trumpet in the Ridgefield (Ct.) Orchestra, he plays a range of music from classic to contemporary. In the Queens Symphony, he often plays concerts series that reflect the great cultural diversity of that New York City borough, including Asian and Latin composers that many Americans may not know.
John is also a member of the Grammy award-winning Chestnut Brass Company and the Modern Brass Quartet and has made both musical recordings and movie soundtracks.
When he is not performing, practicing, or teaching students, John finds time to enjoy his life in the village with his wife, Maria, an art book designer. The couple moved here in 1991 and despite initial concerns, John finds that he is working with better musicians outside the city. He has played at the Potluck Concerts that are held monthly at the Cornwall Presbyterian Church, a series he calls a tremendous gift to the community with their very low costs and very high quality.
If you are lucky, you may catch John performing at the church, but you will definitely find him at the Storm King Art Center this Sunday and again on August 4.
Comments:
No comments have been posted.
Add a Comment:
Please signup or login to add a comment.
|
 |
|
|
|
