Sounds of fanfare, hymns and harmonies filled Snow Fine Arts as the UCA Trumpet Ensemble performed a variety of solos, duos, quartets and ensemble pieces Nov. 3.
Angela King, visiting professor of trumpet, conducted the ensemble of nine trumpeters.
King said there was not a main theme of the show but that the songs were chosen to “showcase the talent that we have cooking up here within the trumpet studio.”
“We start[ed] off with fanfare, just to open up … the whole show. And then we went into the more solo, some duos … and then we close with two larger ensemble pieces, ‘Amazing Grace,’ … and end with a fun ‘Sonoran Desert Harmonies,’” she said.
Landon Vaca, a junior music education major who played in the recital said, “I feel like it went well. It was really exciting to see some of the younger people in the studio all perform solos and some of the older people. It is a good time to remember that I’m starting to leave and new kids are starting to come up, and it’s really good watching them perform and do well.”
Vaca said, “It’s always fun to play, especially something that’s like, just your instrument. I thought it was cool that we had people show up, and it felt good to play for them and play the instrument that I enjoy and have a whole recital centered around it.”
Vaca said his favorite piece to play at the recital was “Amazing Grace” arranged by Marcus Grant.
“It’s not the typical ‘Amazing Grace.’ It was a little bit more punchy, but it was still exciting and still had beautiful moments and I think with as chaotic of a semester as it’s been, it was good to have something like that to bring some peace,” Vaca said.
Vaca said this recital was part of a studio class for the applied lessons class.
“This was kind of like a culmination of what we’ve done all semester,” Vaca said.
Vaca said that the studio has helped him as a music education major because it has given him the opportunity to teach and learn from his peers.
“It’s just a constant learning experience in a way that you don’t really get in any other class. You learn a lot through rehearsal, and just having that three times a week has been really nice.”
At the end of the performance, King told the audience that the ensemble was trying to raise money in order to travel and perform in Italy at the Orvieto Musica Festival: TrumpetFest in June of 2025.
“Yeah, it’s an immersive cultural experience for the students, they can go to Italy and learn how to perform in front of international guests, artists, international musicians, performing with Italian students, learning a whole new, different way of how to approach music when we’re over there and performing with students in Italy, in the culture there so it’s definitely an immersive experience that we hope to bring back to UCA,” King said.
“It’s just a chamber ensemble that we’ll bring to Italy, and we’ll perform around the city. We’ll perform with other universities within the area,” King said.
King said that people can make donations to the trip by visiting uca.edu/go/trumpet.
The UCA Trumpet Ensemble will not perform again until the spring but the livestream of the performance can be viewed on the UCA Department of Music YouTube, @ucadepartmentofmusic6057.
