- [Announcer] In partnership with the Curtis Institute of Music, WHYY presents the following program.

- I come from a very musical family.

I have three older brothers, 10 years difference, five years difference, and two years difference from me.

And they all played piano when I was growing up.

I started playing the piano when I was four years old, I was very, you know, enticed to the instrument because all my older brothers played it.

I was always hearing it in the house.

You know, somebody was practicing.

I started playing the trombone when I was in fifth grade, it was really a classic scene.

It's you know, the band teacher, it's the first band class.

And we're looking at all the different instruments that are laid out.

It's like, which one would you like to play?

And I thought I wanted to play oboe 'cause I was reading all of these books about like unique musical instruments at the time.

And I thought the oboe was so cool.

The double reed, everything.

So I wanted to play oboe and it's like, "Oh, we don't have an oboe."

And then, you know, naturally I just chose, I guess the next closest thing, which is the trombone, but I thought it looked very cool.

It would be fun to play.

You know, I saw it in cartoons and everything.

The big slide things that the fun sounds that people could make.

I joined, I believe in grade seven, brass band, a community, brass band, Hannaford Youth Brass Band, and a that's like a British style sort of brass band.

And it was a very kind of new experience.

There were really challenging trombone parts.

You know, I was in grade seven, I'd never really practiced.

I was like, holy smokes.

Like this is really hard.

And it just got me really excited about the trombone.

Like I realized there was a whole kind of another way of playing this instrument.

The sound of the trombone is really like nothing else.

It's simultaneously powerful, heroic, and interesting, but can also be very kind of introspective and cantabile, singing-like, and because of that, just that huge variety and palette of sounds that the trombone can make.

From the OSM Brass Competition, I would certainly recommend you take a listen to the Tomasi Concerto.

I've chosen to Henry Tomasi's "Concerto for Trombone," a three movement work composed in 1956.

I absolutely love to play this piece because it demonstrates all the different sounds and colors that are possible on the trombone.

The first movement is in two parts, a slower andante and a more upbeat scherzo verse, displaying a wide range of character over such different styles.

(gentle music) The second movement entitled "Nocturne" shows a much more intimate and cantabile side of Tomasi through his use of the trombone's upper register, introspective melodies, and a smoky blues section.

His clever use of mutes helps to evoke different moods within this movement.

The straight group being used in more extroverted sections and a cup mute in the more reflective one.

(gentle music) (music intensifies) (music calms) The dazzling finale, "Tambourin," shows off the brilliance of the trombone as it quickly weaves its way through every register.

(upbeat music) My greatest challenge with learning the trombone has definitely been expectation that I placed upon myself.

It's a very taxing instrument to play, pretty much all brass instruments are, and we're kind of limited to the amount of time that we can really have the horn to our face in a day, just because, you know, the little muscles get so tired.

And so I'll hear these recordings that, you know, were months in the making and then they're recorded and I'll try to play them or try to learn those pieces and find myself very frustrated that I'm not sounding like, you know, how I want to.

And that's kind of a double-edged sword because it's good to place expectations on yourself so that you can, you know, keep pushing yourself to get better, but at the same time to have unrealistic expectations for your own sound or, you know, what kind of thing you're trying to say with your music can be not very good.

(gentle music) Elise Arancio is a good friend and a good colleague at Curtis and it was really exciting for me to get to work with her on this piece.

"A Negative Space" is a very cool piece because it's based on people's kind of lived experiences during this COVID pandemic.

Being in a space that is not entirely home to them, sort of a negative space rather than a positive space.

And so it was very interesting.

This was my first time playing ever with a recorded tape, which is exciting and Elise did a great job with it.

She had, it was supposed to be sounds that you can hear from your bedroom.

So there was like, you know, her metals clanging, like her awards, you could hear the airplane outside, birds, just different, you know, outdoor sounds, indoor sounds.

There was just a very exciting piece to put together.

Very accelerating to record.

(gentle cacophonous music)