What to know
- Who can participate: Anyone interested in playing or learning to play the trumpet
- Meeting days: Tuesdays and Sundays
- Meeting times: 7-8 p.m. on every other Tuesday, 1-3 p.m. on Sundays
- Meeting locations: Cline Library Room 298 on Tuesdays, Kitt School of Music Room 286 on Sundays
About the club
A new addition to the university’s club directory, the Trumpet Club of NAU provides a space for all things brassy, booming and brazen, regardless of one’s major or experience level. Roughly 15 full-time members participate in the club’s weekly music theory workshops and jazz band practice sessions, hoping to share their passion for the instrument across campus and throughout the state.
Q&A
Last year, juniors Avery Caldwell and Jorge Vinnicio Solano found themselves raising their hands in a music class. They were responding to Kitt School of Music assistant professor Kevin Tague’s call for students willing to spearhead a club all about the trumpet, his eyes on the prospect of building a team to compete in the National Trumpet Competition in the spring.
Since then, Caldwell and Solano have used their prowess in studying music education and music performance, respectively, to make the club their own and serve as its co-founders and co-presidents. Read on to find out more about the club’s creation, its long-term goals and how its co-founders fell in love with the trumpet in elementary school.
Tell us a bit about this club’s history. How was this club formed? What is your mission statement?
Solano: The first thing I like to tell people is, about a year ago, our professor was sitting there at our weekly meeting. We have this weekly class time with all of the trumpet players who are enrolled as music students. So, at the end of it, he goes, “Hey, by the way: Trumpet Club. Let’s make it happen. Who wants to do it?” Avery and I both raised our hands. Over the course of the next couple months, we’d catch each other and ask, “What did he mean by that?”
Eventually, we put together this idea of making an organization to connect all of the trumpet players on campus, not just the music students. Avery and I are both very much involved in the marching band, and a big part of our population from the trumpets and our band as a whole are non-music majors. One of the biggest things they wish they could do is have more opportunities to play their instrument outside of marching band, or maybe they have a friend who did music in high school and decided to no longer pursue it and their instrument is in the case at home or they brought it with them and don’t know what to do with it.
So, ultimately, we decided to use TCNAU—The Trumpet Club of NAU—to give people those opportunities and get them playing again.
Caldwell: The biggest reason why our professor wanted this club to exist is because there’s this big trumpet event that’s called the NTC, or the National Trumpet Competition. It’s huge. It puts your name on the map as a trumpet player.
Last year, we got a group of trumpet players from the trumpet studio, and we submitted a tape. If that tape had been accepted and we placed a certain way, we would have had the opportunity to travel to the National Trumpet Competition and perform there. But that trip costs money. One of the things we saw that club funding can do is fund trips, so we created this as an opportunity.
The word I like to use for my reason for creating TCNAU is “resource.” We’re a resource for trumpet players to use as a dedicated time and space to play the trumpet and a resource to connect with other trumpet players. It’s also a resource in terms of ASNAU funding from the university to pay for these trips because I know that, personally, I would not be able to do a trip like that if we did not have a way to get funding.
The competition is in the spring, but we’re submitting a tape for it now. TCNAU is going to try and collect as much funding as we can to get people who would normally not be able to go to this national competition to go there.
So, yes, our professor wanted as many trumpets as possible to get out to the competition. We were like, “We’re going to put a pin in that,” and worked to create this really cool club and space, but that is also something that we can do in the future.
What kinds of things does the Trumpet Club do throughout the year, both at regular meetings and any other events?
Solano: We have two different types of meetings. Every other Tuesday night, we meet in Cline Library and discuss broad topics. For example, during one of our meetings, we talked about how connecting with music and not just playing it can enrich your experience as a musician. One of the topics we discussed was how the top musicians in our space don’t just stop listening to music once they become professionals. They’re listening to who’s winning Grammys every year or the rising artists in any field. The music you listen to impacts you as a trumpet player and really broadens those horizons.
Every Sunday from 1-3 p.m., we meet in the band room at the Kitt School of Music, where we play trumpet ensemble music. It’s a super informal thing. We have the first half dedicated to more fun pop tunes. We have this pretty solid arrangement of “Happy” by Pharrell Williams and were all surprised by how good it turned out.
The second half is devoted more to an activity that Avery had going on for the past couple years, and we sort of merged the two. He’s got a jazz trumpet ensemble where they go and read jazz trumpet music. We wanted to extend that to all of the trumpet members at TCNAU.
Caldwell: That trumpet thing is another resource or opportunity because the Kitt School of Music only offers two jazz bands, including only five trumpet players per jazz band. Only 10 trumpet players out of the 20-something in the studio, plus the additional maybe 15 who are not involved in the Kitt School of Music. There are not a lot of spaces.
I didn’t get in my first year here. I was like, “Man, I love jazz, and I really want to play jazz with other people.” So, I got this book of jazz trumpet charts and was like, “Hey, do you guys want to play these with me every Sunday?” Then it became a thing, and that group actually performed in the Kitt School of Music at one of the student showcases last semester. Now, that is a part of TCNAU.
Now that you have a couple months of leading this club under your belts, what do you hope to achieve in the future through TCNAU?
Caldwell: Playing the trumpet is obviously a performance-based thing, so performing anywhere would be a really great opportunity. We actually did get an opportunity for our ensemble to perform for this nationwide thing called “Play the Polls,” but unfortunately, it was right smack dab in the middle of a school day. We can’t really pull enough trumpet players to do that.
Performance opportunities are the main things that we’re looking for, and right now, since we are new, we’re still working on securing stuff and recruiting members. We’re trying to get our name out there, and once the foundation is built, we will hopefully be playing anywhere we can get.
There’s also an event for music educators in every state. In Arizona, it’s the Arizona Music Educators Association. Every year, they have a two-day conference down in Mesa. That is a huge convention with a bunch of different teachers from all across Arizona, special guests and musical performances.
It’s a really great networking experience to interact with people who are actually in the field. In the spring, I’m planning to do a trip where we get some ASNAU funding for a fleet vehicle and take as many interested trumpet players as possible. That’s something I’m really excited about. Only two people from the Kitt School of Music went last spring, so spreading the word and getting people to go down there would be an awesome thing.
Solano: Our bottom line is securing more opportunities to perform and not only represent the Kitt School of Music but potentially the university as a whole. We also just want to make our name known throughout the ASNAU space, and if an event would like some live music, they’ll think of us.
There’s also something else we’re cooking up behind the scenes with the Audio Engineering Club. We’re looking at partnering with them to get them some experience in recording and us experience in performing by having them record some of our music. It’ll be really cool to start working with them. Shout out Jordan Strohmeyer with the Audio Engineering Club!
What drew you guys to the trumpet? How long have you been playing?
Caldwell: This exact question was an icebreaker for our first meeting. I’ve been playing for 11 years, I think, with this being my 11th year. I don’t know what first drew me to the trumpet. Probably my elementary school band director being like, “Here. Play this.” I’ve just kept playing since then.
What continues to draw me to the trumpet is its very rich history in jazz specifically. I love the sound of the trumpet, and I love jazz trumpeters. Some of my favorite musicians of all time are jazz trumpet players. Even some of the most famous musicians of all time are jazz trumpet players. I love being part of that and helping to keep jazz moving in the very small way that I do.
Solano: I’ve been playing the trumpet for about 14 years now. I started when I was in elementary school. Growing up, music was always a big part of my family. My grandfather was a jazz musician. He was a guitar player. At home, there was never not music playing, and oftentimes, growing up with a Mexican background, I listened to a lot of cumbia and salsa.
What drew me to those genres of music were those really, really high trumpet parts. I could never get enough of those as a kid. I couldn’t articulate why. I didn’t understand what it was that was drawing me to that music. When I eventually learned that this was something you could do on the trumpet, I knew I would absolutely love to get to do that myself someday.
Caldwell: And he does do it. A lot.
Solano: Just a little bit.
The Trumpet Club is marketed as being for any trumpet musician, regardless of major or experience level. Why emphasize that composition? How does having this range of experience impact the club?
Caldwell: It’s very nice because of the culture that NAU has and the culture that the Kitt School of Music has in the sense that it’s not really competitive. It’s very accepting and inclusive. It just welcomes anybody with open arms. That stems into the Trumpet Club. All of the members who join don’t even really compare skill levels or backgrounds. It really is our main goal to get as many trumpet players from as many backgrounds and skill sets as we can.
Solano: It also provides a phenomenal spot to enrich the members and ourselves as educators. Whether you’re majoring in performance, composition, history or education, you will have to teach. You’ll have to write, play and teach. That’s the nature of the way music is now. So, having these moments in the Sunday rehearsals and delving into concepts a little further, it’s often surprising how many trumpet players who you’d maybe expect to know these things don’t.
It’s a great experience for us to go, “OK, how do we teach this concept?” At this point, I may be a little more familiar with something, so I may have forgotten what it felt like to be new or inexperienced in certain areas. It’s a great moment to be able to step back and figure out how to teach.
Do you have a favorite memory with the club so far?
Caldwell: Our big “yippee!” moment was when we created the club and submitted the application. We were waiting to see if we got approved or denied. So, when that hit our email, I was just like, “Yo, check your email.” We had this moment where we said, “That’s our logo that we made, and that’s the name of the club.” It was real, official and approved through ASNAU.
One of our members, who’s an English education major and doesn’t even have a music minor or anything like that, said, “Hey, do you need a social media manager?” We were like, “Sure, why not?” She designed a really cool poster for us. We printed it out and got it approved through the Kitt School of Music, so those posters are hanging all over. It felt even more official then.
She also started “Trumpet Tuesdays” on Instagram, where she introduced the club, the presidents and our members through these “Member Spotlights.” We’ve had those coming out every Tuesday since the club has existed. It feels really cool and official to have a real Instagram. Those are probably my favorite memories of our rich two-month history.
Solano: I was in my living room, sitting down and enjoying some dinner. It was an average Thursday night, and I got a text from Avery. He was like, “Dude, check your email.” It was really cool getting to see our logo and our name put out there. The ASNAU people knew who we were, and that was really fulfilling, knowing that everyone strives to leave an impact wherever they go. Knowing that, at that moment, that’s what ours was going to be was really cool.
What advice do you have for someone looking to join the Trumpet Club?
Solano: We pride ourselves in having only one requisite to join the club, and that is that you’re interested in the trumpet. If that is you, please come find us or shoot us a message. We’re happy to answer any questions and get you more resources, especially if you’re not a student in the Kitt School of Music.
That’s really it. If you’re interested in playing the trumpet, come find us. We’re happy to have you.
Is having a trumpet a requisite to join the club?
Caldwell: Honestly, if someone came up and said, “Yeah, I used to play trumpet in middle school, and I just want to trumpet with trumpeters again,” I have two trumpets and would be more than happy to bring an extra one to the meeting so we could play together.
Solano: I’ve got a spare horn and a few spare mouthpieces. You don’t even need a trumpet. We’ll make it work.
Find out more about TCNAU’s upcoming events by following @tcnau on Instagram.