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Summer Trombone Workshop @ UVA / by
Peter Bonney
From July 20 through July 28, 2005
the first Summer Trombone Workshop was held at the University
of Virginia. The faculty was comprised of Haim Avitsur,
artistic director, along with Nitzan Haroz and Dave Taylor. According to the workshop literature, it
was aimed at students and young professionals; the participants were mostly
undergraduates, but ranged in age and experience from very advanced high
school students to masters candidates, and one adult amateur (yours
truly). The workshop was structured
as a series of trombone ensemble rehearsals, master classes, private
lessons and other events, culminating in a concert on the final
evening. Participants each appeared
in four master classes (two with Mr. Avitsur and one with each of Mr.
Taylor and Mr. Haroz), as well as private lessons with each faculty member.
The seminar kicked off with a brief
introduction from Mr. Avitsur, and then we jumped right into a trombone
ensemble rehearsal. It was very
clear that the week was going to be a lot more than just a series of
lessons and classes – Mr. Avitsur intended the ensemble to be a major focus
of the workshop and a key component of our study (more on that later).
Overall, I found the workshop to be
an incredible musical experience.
The faculty members challenged everything about my music making –
musical choices, technique, even why I perform and what I hope to get out
of it. This article is a brief
synopsis of the workshop, what we learned and some of the more interesting
highlights.
How would you
like your Hindemith today?
The bulk of our time at STW05 was,
necessarily, spent in master classes – 12 participants times four 30-minute
sessions each equals one packed schedule.
Fortunately, the master classes were also the most illuminating and
revealing sessions of the seminar.
As one might imagine with 3 different
faculty members, each possessing both a very strong personality and a
unique approach to his life as a musician, there was a great deal of
content that was conflicting.
Sometimes the direction was downright contradictory. Mr. Avitsur assured us at the beginning
of the workshop that it was entirely intentional, and he very much hoped we
left with our heads spinning.
The best example of this phenomenon
was one participant’s performance of the Hindemith sonata for each faculty
member. First up was Mr. Avitsur,
who admonished the participant for using slide vibrato on this piece – “No
hand vibrato!” he shouted when it appeared in the opening phrase. Taking Mr. Avitsur’s opinion to heart,
the same participant delivered a vibrato-free rendition to Mr. Haroz, who
encouraged him to add a modest jaw vibrato to a few long notes here and
there. But not a lot – “if the
piece starts to sound ‘romantic’ it is too much!” Finally, not quite knowing how to approach the issue anymore,
the participant performed the sonata for Mr. Taylor with a mix of slide
vibrato, jaw vibrato and no vibrato.
Mr. Taylor was strongly in favor of a rather wide slide vibrato for
him because he felt it was his natural approach, and with refinement he
could use it almost throughout (“the old Russian style” as Taylor
said), not just on long notes. He
noted that his own teacher, Davis Schumann, had performed it in this
way. Personally, the lesson I took
away from this and other conflicts of opinion is that for trombonists,
there is no established orthodoxy – we are still writing our own history,
and any number of approaches to a given piece can be considered
artistically valid.
Look ma, no conductor!
As mentioned earlier, another major
focus of our time was the trombone ensemble. It had 13 members, including Mr. Avitsur. But, notably, it had no conductor. On the program: J.S. Bach’s “Passacaglia
in C Minor”, Walter Ross’s “Introduction and Allegro for 12 Trombones”, and
Gordon Jacob’s “Trombone Octet”.
So how exactly do 13 trombonists with
no conductor manage to play dense, complex, contrapuntal music together,
without sounding robotic, and without resorting to one of them waving his
or her slide up and down frantically?
The exact same way, as it turns out, that 3 or 4 trombonists manage
to do it – by listening to each other and trusting each other. I, for one, was skeptical that it would
work having never played in or seen a large chamber ensemble of wind or
brass musicians perform undirected.
And it was a challenge – it is very easy for individual voices to be
lost among 13 trombones. But
through very systematic rehearsal, focusing on who and what to listen for,
the group began to seemingly think and move as a single unit. By the end, we were incorporating
expressive phrasing and tempo changes without discussion. I felt almost as connected to my peers
and their non-verbal cues as I would in a quartet.
Just groove on the awesomeness
The highlight of the workshop was,
naturally, the opportunity to generally pick the brains of such successful
and opinionated musicians.
All three faculty members gave a solo
recital, each of which strongly reflected their individual personalities
and musical approaches. Mr. Avitsur
gave the first recital, and befitting his commitment to performing new and
original music for trombone, his program consisted entirely of works by
contemporary (and living) composers, including one premier. The closest thing to a “standard” was
the Ewazen Sonata, to which Mr. Avitsur applied a fresh and distinctive
approach.
Mr. Taylor followed with the second
recital. Entitled “Triple Double”,
this program was a blend of original works for bass trombone and
transcriptions, approached and performed in his inimitable improvisatory
style. The program’s title was a
play on the three versions of Schubert’s “Der Doppelganger” that Mr. Taylor
performed. The recital was a
virtuosic display of the incredible palette of color and expression that
can be achieved by a bass trombonist.
Mr. Haroz was last to perform during
the seminar. His program was a mix
of standard repertoire, Brahms lieder and contemporary works, reflecting
Mr. Haroz’s varied tastes. The
highlight of the performance was undoubtedly his astonishing and emotional
rendition of the Sulek Sonata, featuring a truly revelatory performance by
accompanist Kyle Adams.
Mr. Adams also provided one of the
other highlights of the workshop – a joint lecture  with Mr. Avitsur on performing the Bach Cello Suites on
trombone. The lecture focused on
the Prelude to the 2nd Suite.
Mr. Adams demonstrated on piano how familiarity with the implied
harmonic structure can be your guide to unraveling which notes to
emphasize, which to de-emphasize, how to phrase and even where to
breathe. Approaching the Bach
Suites is a daunting task, but playing through the chord progressions on
piano can open new avenues of exploration for the frustrated trombonist.
In addition to their individual
recitals, Messrs. Avitsur, Haroz and Taylor performed as a trio at the
final concert. They performed works
by Frigyes Hidas, Gunther Schuller, Gene Pritsker as we as Arcangelo
Corelli and Giovanni Pergolesi. The
performance was outstanding, but their open rehearsal the night before the
final concert was an event in its  own right. After
a long day of lessons and master classes for all three, the evening’s open
rehearsal was an amazing demonstration of the concentration, commitment and
physical endurance of true top-flight musicians. Watching them maintain focus through a grueling 3 hour
rehearsal running late into the evening, with no visible drop-off in
performance quality, showed us all what it means to be a professional.
Besides performances, lectures,
lessons and classes, the faculty also set aside one night for an open
round-table discussion. No topics
were off-limits, and everyone was remarkably candid with their thoughts and
opinions. Among other topics, we
discussed how to approach contemporary music as a listener, with Mr.
Taylor’s recital as the catalyst.
One participant remarked that he thought enjoyed it, but he couldn’t
really say why or give a clear analysis of what he heard. Mr. Taylor asked him if he enjoyed the
trombone playing, to which he replied, “Yes, it was awesome.”
“So just groove on the awesomeness,”
responded Mr. Taylor.
Hangin’ on the Corner
In general, the University
of Virginia was a
beautiful place to hold the seminar.
The heat wasn’t great, but for me at least the green expanses were a
pleasant break from New York City. Also, Monticello
was well worth a visit on our off day.
But of course we weren’t there for a
vacation, we were there to learn and practice. In that respect, the facilities at the University
of Virginia were very
good. The dorm rooms are spacious,
clean and well air-conditioned, the main concert hall is top-quality, and
there are plenty of decent (and cheap) restaurants off campus at “The
Corner”, a short walk from the music department. Practice rooms aren’t great – they are a bit small and a bit
too few in numbers – but they are very well soundproofed, and many
participants ended up practicing in the dorms anyway. The dorms were surprisingly
accommodating for a dozen trombonists – we had two full entryways to
ourselves in a small and isolated building complex. It was every bit as loud as one might
imagine, but there were no complaints about the noise.
The Future
Several months later, I feel
confident in saying that I am not the same musician I was before the
workshop. The lessons I learned
through instruction, observation and rehearsal have profoundly impacted not
only my playing but my personal approach to music and general.
Next year’s workshop will be held at
Syracuse University, July 12-20. If
you feel that you have a lot of work to do as a trombone player (who among
us doesn’t?) I highly recommend applying.
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