The principal trombone and principal trumpet have to be sympatico. They have to be on the same page.
The great composers in jazz write music that’s not only fun to listen to, but it’s fun to play.
Find what you love doing and then get to grinding. And find the fun and love in that grinding.
World domination for brass is my goal within 10 years.
With opera cues, you don’t have to count everything. It’ll be like 85 bars rest, 144 bars rest and then ‘canon explosion.’ That’s a pretty obvious cue.
In the old days, we'd have copying parties. . . you copy violin 1, you copy violin 2.
My advice about playing opera. . . don’t drink too many liquids before you start.
When I walked out from behind the screen after being announced as the winner, there were gasps. The committee was flabbergasted. None of them expected a woman.
Homogenous sounding orchestras are actually going to be the death of the orchestras. I would rather hear someone have a psychotic event during a concert.
We started playing brass instruments very young. I think it was mostly from our curiosity of the shiny metal objects in the forbidden room.
Woody Shaw was an intense person and that’s why his music had that intensity. He believed in what he believed in and wasn’t scared to say it. He was 100% focused!
