Every musician is in some way a combination, among other things, of the ideas they glean from their teachers. I've been very fortunate to have three excellent principal teachers who I studied with in high school, undergrad, and grad school. This is a little bit about what I picked up from each of them along the way. It helps explain a lot of how I teach and mentor my own students in the here and now.
Growing up in Lubbock, TX there wasn't much of an emphasis on private lessons like there tends to be in the major Texas areas like DFW, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. Even though I was doing well on trombone in junior high and had studied piano privately for many years, it never crossed my mind that there were people who taught trombone lessons. My sophomore year I finally started private lessons with Brent Luna, who is currently a band director somewhere in TX. When he graduated from Texas Tech, he recommended Christan Griego, who was also a student at Texas Tech at the time and is now the head of research and development for Edwards and creator of his own extensive line of brass mouthpieces.
Christan was and still is a work horse. He was putting himself through college by teaching lessons in Lubbock. Not an easy task. He was also constantly trying to figure out how to make trombones work better. Taking them apart and reassembling, making tools to use for cleaning, fiddling with mouthpieces. In lessons we spent a lot of time in the Arban book, and some of the ideas I first learned from him in high school, I still use with my students today. Now Christan is sort of an entrepreneurial role model. He is always willing to help with insight on the business side of things and was the person who brought me into the Edwards brand. Just in the last 6 years, he has designed trombones for Joe Alessi, James Markey, and Ian Bousfield. That's pretty amazing! He found his niche and stuck with it, making the absolute most out of his opportunities from early in school until now.
After graduating high school, I stayed in Lubbock to attend Texas Tech where I studied with Don Lucas, currently Professor of Trombone at Boston University, and previous president of the ITA. Don is a larger than life personality who helped me discover the expressive side of music more than anyone else I have encountered. I was rather reserved and cautious in high school, and that led to a serious issues with performance anxiety. I learned how trombone could be an outlet for the part of my personality that I kept pretty well hidden. Expressing more of a full array of emotions and ideas through music allowed me to develop that side of myself personally and socially. With Don music was always the primary goal. Technique was definitely a regular part of our lessons, but it was there to serve the music. Breathing was there to serve the music, etc. He also exposed me to a great deal of less standard trombone solo repertoire, constantly commissioned new works, some of which I have added to my recital list, and showed an uncompromising approach to leading trombone choir and preparing quartets. He will always be a mentor as a world class soloist and professor.
Then for my masters degree, after three years away from serious trombone study, I attended SMU specifically to study with John Kitzman, principal trombone of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. I knew from a long time back that I wanted to perform in an orchestra professionally. Anytime there was an opportunity to do so growing up, youth orchestra, festivals and camps, at TTU, I auditioned and was fortunate to play a lot of great orchestral rep as a student. John was a so good at communicating the style of orchestral playing, the details of each excerpt, and how to prepare them for auditions. He was intense and passionate about playing things in such a way that they honor the intentions of the composer to the best of our knowledge. I had to let go of a lot of my own personal thoughts about the music and try to play things correctly and precisely. This provided a proper foundation for approaching orchestral rep in context, and then learning how to add the personal touch within that context. John also was very gracious in providing opportunities to play with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as a sub and extra player. Sitting on the Meyerson in the middle of a world class orchestra performing the greatest pieces ever written under renowned conductors will remain one my most cherished musical experiences. There is no better classroom than this. What an amazing gift, both in musical exposure, and in building confidence as a performer.
When I look at where I am in my career, I can see how I got hooked on each of these aspects of music from my various teachers: solo and orchestral playing, pedagogy and studio development, and entrepreneurship and hard work. Now I am honestly not sure where I want to focus my energy! I love playing in orchestras, teaching at a university, and operating a small business on the side, and while I am not nearly at the level in each of them as my teachers, I get to do all three! If I did this for the rest of my career, I can say that I would be a satisfied musician. But I don't see them letting up on their ends, so I definitely can't let up either.
