carnival for six trumpets

This story takes place in First Congregational Church in Minneapolis. I composed this piece, I don’t recall the year, I dedicated the composition to my family. I was the leader of the Dorian Brass Quintet at the time. Our quintet practiced at the church for free, as long as we performed in church three times a year. We also performed concerts twice a year which we invited church members and family members to. Carnival for Six Trumpets was performed at one of our concerts. We had two rehearsals for this composition, we were not actually ready to perform it but nevertheless we performed it at the concert. (I wish I could recall the year, but it escapes me). While our quintet always had two trumpets, the other four were only needed for my composition. So, while we were performing upstairs our repertoire during the concert, the other four trumpet players went downstairs and got high on pot. When it was intermission, and we had a 15-minute break, I talked to the other trumpet players before the second half of the concert started.

Carnival was next on the program after intermission. The whole evening seemed a bit off to me. Well, we performed the piece, and some how the group of our six trumpets, got through the performance without completely falling apart. Was I happy with our performance? No, not really. I invited my former trumpet teacher to the performance and afterward he thanked me for the invite, I think he liked the piece, but who knows, that was so long ago I’ve forgotten.

t wasn’t until a few weeks later, that I found out the other 4 trumpet players I hired for my composition, went downstairs that night of the concert to get high, I suppose to help them get through the piece. In their defense it was a difficult composition to perform with only two rehearsals, which did not go well. They must have panicked and needed some help getting through the piece.

I look back on my life with Dorian Brass with all the many places, music, and performances we had, that I realize just how fortunate and fun, my journey in music has been.