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RODDY o-iii<O
Trumpet Celebrity Interviews
[ a celebration of the artistry of ALL styles of Trumpet ]
B R I A N E V A N S
Would you like to add your web address /email at this point?
atguild@optusnet.com.au
Was your family background musical?
Not formally. My Dad had a fine voice which he used in amateur musicals and talent quests. His mother was a self-taught piano player and my whole family had a healthy respect for the value of music. We used to sing a lot when in the car and I was encouraged to try music at age seven when I started banjo mandolin lessons. we couldn't afford a piano.
What made you decide to play trumpet?
My brother played cornet in the high school brass band so I joined when I got there. I actually started on an E flat tenor horn (alto saxhorn)
At what age did you start?
I was 12 then. Went onto cornet/trumpet when I was almost 13.
On leaving your education, have you always been a full time musician?
Yes
Describe your early experiences of semi / pro work please.
As a school kid, I got invited to play in a few local musical shows like Mame and Bye Bye Birdie. These were often a bit rough but, since they were also the full book, one got a pretty fair idea of what it would take to do that sort of work for a living. Later, I also did some work in scratch orchestras accompanying oratorios etc. I joined the army band once university failed me and gathered valuable experience both in that ensemble and outside it. Once in the army band, I freelanced a little on the side and got my first exposure to real pit work (Jesus Christ Superstar), off stage at the opera and also club work on trumpet and bass guitar.
Who were your teachers?
My first learning was done from within my school band under it's conductor, Cliff Goodchild, who was tubist with the Sydney Symphony(SSO). Later I took lessons at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Alan Mann (Barry Tuckwell's teacher); Arthur Stender (former solo cornet with the Australian Commonwealth Band in 1926); and John Battersby (a commercial player from England). After joining the ABC National Training Orchestra in 1974, I studied with Gordon Webb former principal of the LPO and SSO. I also has lessons with Dan Mendelow(SSO) and a wonderful hour with Vincent Cichowicz.
What Orchestral experience have you had?
I have played casual with the Sydney Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra and Sydney Phil harmonia and have held a full time position with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra (which plays for Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet, at the Sydney Opera House -
www.opera-australia.org.au/ since 1975, playing all chairs in the section at various times.
What session (Jingles / TV) experience have you had?
Not a whole lot. Maybe one every few years. Seems you record a jingle in Australia and it runs for years, because you only get paid once. There was an Army Reserve ad that featured most of the orchestra playing 1812 Overture, which appeared to run for decades!
What small group / ensemble experience have you had?
Some brass chamber music back in '70's and '80's when there seemed to be more time for such things. Everything from trios to 14 piece. I have enjoyed singing/playing in a trio situation recently, playing standards and semi-jazz stuff.
Other playing experiences?
I have done a few concertos with my former community band - Waverley Bondi Beach Band, including Australian premiere of the Gareth Wood Concerto for trumpet and Brass Band.
If playing incudes all things musical then I have to mention my singing experiences. My study started soon after joining the opera orchestra and I fell in love with the craft. It has taken me to Chicago where I studied with Norman Gulbrandsen at De Paul and was solo tenor at Rockefeller Chapel - University of Chicago. I sang opera and operetta in Chicago as well as back home in Sydney. In 1988 I even managed to perform on stage with the Australian Opera while maintaining a full roster of trumpet playing in the same season. That was as part of the Bi-Centennial production of Die Meistersingers. One night I'd be prancing around the stage as an apprentice in that show, the next I'd be under the stage playing in the trumpet section for La Boheme. They were fun times. Somehow, I even managed to fit in several hours a week of Barbershop Quartet gigs at a new shopping centre.
Have you a solo recording available?
No
Any funny / interesting on the road type stories?
Driving through the Adelaide hills trying the beautiful South Australian wines comes to mind but I probably should mention my first tour with the orchestra when many of us were staying at the same hotel and discovered that everyone's keys fitted all the locks. Some of us had to watch certain members very carefully after that....
Mostly, however, we don't tour since we are required full time in Sydney.
Any news on new projects?
My main project has been for the past few years, the continued promotion and encouragement of the Australian Trumpet Guild. As founding President, I take great pleasure in knowing the Guild still exists (we started in 1998) and that there is prospect of many more years to come. As a chapter of the ITG, we have the same objects as well as being able to focus more locally in Australia. Our quarterly Journal ("Mouthpiece") continues to improve and has been well received internationally too. It is gratifying to play a role in trying to bring and keep trumpet players together in this way. (try www.australiantrumpetguild.com It's not the ITG but there is a bulletin board)
Any funny / interesting stories about other famous trumpet players?
So many. My favourite goes back to 1978 when I was playing lead in the ballet "Caravans" with the AB. Obviously all Ellington charts, from the title, and really a pretty tough book. We were about 2/3rds through and approaching the end of one of the toughest songs when the conductor suddenly stopped just before the end. There we were, wailing in the stratosphere when the "train" suddenly derailed and the notes gradually petered out like oranges falling from the back of a truck. The confused conductor foolishly asked "what happened?" to which the 1st trombone replied "You dropped a &^$#ing bar" - Of course we were all close miked! This set off a chain reaction of laughter which lasted well into the next song. I was confronted with the sight of the trombones, seated in front of me, taking turns collapsing into convulsions of laughter whilst I attempted to stay "composed" so that I could add my subtle little solo licks that were something like those in Walton's "Popular Song" . Something you can only laugh at well after the event.
The coda to the story was that the conductor never kept his place in that song and always took his queue from the drummer - who was a bar ahead that night - go figure!
Favourite four albums?
Tuscan skies - Andrea Boccelli
Come follow me - Nathan Tasker
Anything by Chicago
Anything by Steely Dan
Favourite two movies?
For 2002?....
A Beautiful Mind
Lord of the Rings
Favourite three foods?
Asian
Pasta
Sauerbratenwww.travelsafety.cjb.net)
Non-musical hobbies / points of interest you enjoy?
I like to do the home handyman thing and I used to try to play golf until I developed skiers thumb. Mostly I enjoy watching my daughter grow up and keeping a watch on ways to promote our road safety campaign (
Treat the trumpet as a musical instrument - not a weapon. Listen to all forms of music and all types of instrumentalists. Absorb the things you hear and find ways to include them appropriately in your music so that the scope of your playing will be enhanced and your options for creativity will be manifold. Meld all these together so you become an individual and communicate with your instrument.
We have nothing without a beautiful sound....
End of interview sentiment.
Playing music for a living is a privilege - especially doing it where I do, at the Sydney Opera House. Much is made of trumpet being the "best" instrument or playing music for a living as being a so much better than other jobs because we get to do what we love. That's all fine, so long as we understand that it is still work. It takes hard work to get there, hard work to stay there and the work itself can be very hard. If you are lucky, you are surrounded by fine colleagues and have some wonderful musical highs. However, you also need to be ready for times when the gig is not based in Utopia and it is more of a grind than a cakewalk. Those nights when you really feel you don't want to do it or you may even feel you can't do it. Those are the times when you find out if you are really a professional or just wishing you were back at music camp because no matter how you feel, the audience has paid to hear the real thing and you have to supply it. No ifs or buts. On the upside, if you can overcome such moments and do the professional job, the satisfaction can actually be greater than if everything was running perfectly and you were feeling great.Food for thought.....
Thank you very much indeed for sharing your thoughts with the
' Trumpet Web Community '14th August 2002.