Ask yourself if you have 10 years of experience or have been having the same experience for 10 years . . .

The School of Music at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) has become a vital destination for talented students who are interested in creative music education. CalArts provides an artistic, not simply vocational, atmosphere that values the evolution of music as well as the teaching of music, and we believe that our graduates are better prepared to participate in what is sure to be the multi-dimensional musical environment of the coming decades.

Members of the faculty regularly perform with our students and we avoid similar, codified, solutions to intensely personal questions -- choosing instead to employ individualized methods that develop musical invention in parallel with musical discipline.

Many of our students also expand their work to create original and collaborative art that fully utilizes the resources of our schools of theater, dance, and film. In addition to learning and performing the virtuoso solo/chamber trumpet repertoire (performances in the past two years include Berio's Sequenza X, J. S. Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto, Jolivet's Heptade, Didkovsky's Slim in Beaten Dreamers, Gruber's Exposed Throat and Frankenstein, Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat, and many other similar works by Max Davies, Kagel, Scelsi, faculty and student composers, etc.).

CalArtians often choose to participate in free improvisation ensembles, small jazz groups, African drumming ensembles, Indonesian gamelan, small and large brass ensembles, take acting and dance lessons, and learn cutting edge integrated media. In short, they gain a broad set of musical, performance, creative, and entrepreneurial skills which will enable them to become true artists and leaders in the emerging musical world. Recent guest Mark Gould called CalArts "the most relevant music school in the country". Other guests visiting the trumpet class over the past few years have included Tom Stevens, John Wallace (CalArts enjoys a reciprocal arrangement with the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama), Michael Sachs, James Thompson, Gabriele Cassone, Markus Stockhausen, Rob Roy McGregor, Jim Wilt, Tom Dambly, and Mario Guarneri. Artists such as Anthony Braxton, Jusef Lateef, John Zorn, and Gaven Bryers are often in residence. Our new concert venue, REDCAT, at the fabulous new Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles, is the most technologically advanced of its kind.

Members of the brass faculty include trumpeters Edward Carroll (coordinator), John Fumo (jazz trumpet), and Wadada Leo Smith (improvisation), hornist Robin Graham, trombonists James Miller and Alex Iles (jazz trombone), and tubist Doug Tornquist.

Our classes are small (i.e. we cap the class at a maximum of 7 trumpet majors).

Members of the CalArts trumpet class have recently been featured at: SOUNDS LIKE NOW Festival (La MaMa, NYC), FESTIVAL OF NEW TRUMPET (Tonic, NYC), LONDON SINFONIETTA (Queen Elizabeth Hall, London), TRUMPETS! (Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow) the CEAIT Festival (Valencia, CA), FESTIVAL FIATI (Novara, Italy), THE DARTINGTON FESTIVAL (UK), THE CHOSEN VALE INTERNATIONAL TRUMPET SEMINAR (New Hampshire), and the SCREAM Festival (Los Angeles).

CalArts is a partner in the Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar, held each June in Enfield, New Hampshire.

A note to prospective trumpet students
from Coordinator, Edward Carroll:

• Artistry comes first
I joined the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) four years ago after becoming convinced that the focus of their training is primarily artistic, not simply vocational. It's vital to understand the difference between technical support and musical goals. My students work hard on fundamental technique in order to have the freedom and flexibility to explore complex new works, but I firmly believe that those with a solid technique but without their own original voice will be left behind in the new musical climate. We need original artists now, more than ever, and anyone who has followed the careers of the California Ear Unit (CalArts alums), Eighth Blackbird, Matt Haimovitz, Dave Douglas, the Youngblood Brass Band, or the Meridian Arts Ensemble can see that it can be done.

• Choosing a grad school
When considering an advanced degree, I believe that it's more important to choose a specific musical environment than working with an individual teacher. I'm not selling myself short -- I believe that I'm a very good teacher -- but a graduate degree shouldn't simply be two more years of undergraduate study with better parts and more interesting pieces to play. Hopefully, you will have a clear sense of where your career is heading before the decision to continue in graduate school is taken, and the school that you choose should be able to clearly support that path. For example, Rice (I was particularly impressed by their orchestras when giving a class there a few years ago), Juilliard, and McGill have fabulous student orchestras, while CalArts chooses to feature solo and chamber music settings, along with multi-disciplinary projects (theater, dance, media), rather than conducted ensembles.

• Audition repertoire
What you play is far less important than how beautifully you play it. Choose music to audition with that you wish to be heard playing. Be prepared, additionally, to discuss your musical dreams and how you hope to achieve them. I believe absolutely that only those who tenaciously hold onto their musical dreams will become important performers.

• Consider who your peers will be
We learn as much from our peers as we do our teachers, and many of the musicians that surround you today will be with you, in some fashion or another, throughout your career. The composer that you sit next to in theory class might become the next Peter Maxwell Davies.

• What else do you bring to the table?
I hated piano class when I was a student many years ago at Juilliard, having resisted piano teaching throughout my life. Consider this: Terry Everson (trumpet instructor in Boston) is not only a good trumpeter, he's also a terrific pianist and plays with his students in lessons and sometimes accompanies their recitals. Who's more attractive to a search committee, Terry or yourself? Do you have skills in integrated media? On a second instrument? (there was a fabulous trumpeter named Sarah at the Royal Academy of Music in London when I was the International Chair of Brass Studies there who had completed a degree in classical saxophone at the Guildhall. Imagine starting a group with someone like her (bari sax -- wow!). What about research and management skills? It's important to stand out from others in the crowd. We all have the best sound.

• Don't be afraid to take responsibility for creating your own career
A teacher will (and should) open every possible door for you after graduation. Mentoring is a huge part of what we do, particularly when we know and believe in our students. Each student, however, must prove equal to the challenge of continuing with music after graduation by showing the ambition, quality, and imagination to recognize the possibilities, project his/herself within the opportunity, and step through.

POSTER from Spring '05 semester concert: