The Brass Junkies Episode 180: Matt Neff of the North Carolina Symphony

As you will hear, Matt is a really good friend. We used to teach together and played next to each other in the American Festival Pops Orchestra for years.

We had so much back there that I’m not sure how we never got in any trouble!

Matt is a killer classical player and a killer jazz player! Both of them sound like his home base and that’s not easy to do.

I loved hearing him talk about taking lessons after he already had a major gig and crediting that with winning the North Carolina Symphony audition upon his retirement from the United States Air Force Band.

You can watch the episode on YouTube below or head over to Pedal Note Media for all of the links to where to find it.

Enjoy!

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On This Episode of The Brass Junkies:

• His brand new awarding of tenure with the North Carolina Symphony!

• The North Carolina Symphony’s significant outreach across the state

• Getting a lesson with Jim Nova to overcome nerves with auditions

• The negative self-talk he experienced in his Pittsburgh Symphony audition and how he dealt with it moving forward

• How he used taking 20-25 professional auditions during his time in the Navy Band to “check himself” as a musician

• Changing his pants while driving down I-95

• The different kind of practicing you do when you are preparing for auditions

• Matt’s 17-year run in the Navy Concert Band in Washington, DC

• The Ashley Alexander recording Matt heard as a kid featuring Commodores bass trombonist Lee Goss (the loudest bass trombonist to ever live according to Matt)

• His 2-hour audition for The Commodores including playing with the band, the trombone section and playing tunes with the rhythm section

• The variety he’s experienced in his career and why it’s so important to him

• Throwing Matt Niess under the bus

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The Brass Junkies Episode 179: Chris Lee of the National Arts Centre Orchestra

Canadian tuba virtuoso Chris Lee joined us for TBJ179!

Chris and I go back 30 years (how are we that old??) We met as students at the Empire Brass Seminar at Tanglewood. As you’ll hear, that program had a profound impact on both of our careers.

And his stories about attending recording sessions with both Empire Brass and Canadian Brass are amazing! I had no idea he had experienced either of those things. Truly incredible behind the scenes look, especially at such a young age!

It was also wild to hear him talk about being one of the people premiering the brand new Wynton Marsalis Tuba Concerto. Exciting stuff!

You can watch the episode on YouTube below or head over to Pedal Note Media for all of the links to where to find it.

Enjoy!

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On This Episode of The Brass Junkies:

• Getting to be in the recording studio with both Empire Brass and Canadian Brass and what he learned from each experience

• Intonation is a social skill

• The need to fit in most of the time and stick out occasionally as an orchestral tuba player

• The life and legacy of Dennis Miller

• Playing on Charles Dutiot’s final recording with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra courtesy of Dennis Miller

• The brand new Wynton Marsalis Tuba Concerto that he is performing in June 17th with the National Arts Center Orchestra (which will be live stream!)

• Multiphonics and how he practices it

• His process for when he first looks at a piece of music

• The lessons he learned from mentor Dan Perantoni

• How a great teacher can have a different view of your limitations than you do

• The value in not teaching every first year student the same

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Principal Horn of the Cleveland Orchestra Nathaniel Silberschlag on Being Your Best

The last sentence here from Nathaniel Silberschlag, Principal Horn of the Cleveland Orchestra, from Episode 171 of The Brass Junkies really floored me:

"I honestly just was not that nervous about (his Kennedy Center Opera audition) because I didn't have any high expectations for myself. And I think because of that it lent itself to… taking no prisoners.

And I was like, I'm just going to give this my best shot. I can only be the best me on a given day."

The last 11 words from that quote had a profound impact on me.

I can only be the best me on a given day.

I love it when something so obvious is said so eloquently in a way that I need to hear. All I can do is try to be the best version of me at any given time.

While this point is obvious, the way he puts it is brilliant. His job isn’t to be great. His job is only to be the best he can be today.

None of us is promised linear progress in anything. Not even one of the best horn players in the world like Nathaniel!

There will be plenty of times when something isn’t as good on Thursday as it was on Wednesday, or even a week ago. Rather than getting held up on where we should be (in our minds, of course!), Nathaniel is encouraging us to focus simply on being our best possible version today. And that has nothing to do with last week!

Thanks for the reminder, Nathaniel. This is something I need to be reminded of from time to time!

(The above GIF is from the part of the interview when Nathaniel told us about how he had to tell the Kennedy Center Opera section that he couldn’t go out for a drink after winning the audition because he was 19 and because his father was waiting for him in the car. We were dying.)

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You can watch our entire interview with Nathaniel Silberschlag on YouTube below or find links to all the other places you can find it here.

Roger Bobo on Having the Courage to Be Creative

Some serious wisdom here from Roger Bobo in Episode 174 of The Brass Junkies:

"And I think that I would also advise people to allow themselves to be unique. Allow yourself to be different. Take the chance and do something different and it may go for you...

It's so important I think to have the courage to be unique. Because if you're following somebody else's MO, then you're going to be a shadow of somebody else."

YES!

We are taught to blend in from a very early age.

No one gets sent to the principal's office for blending in.

It doesn’t take courage to wear the same clothing as everyone else.

It doesn’t take courage to play a senior recital that looks and sounds exactly like every other senior recital.

It does take courage to be unique. And that is what gets traction in the world today.

Do whatever it takes to muster the courage to be unique. Because blending in is a sucker's bet.

Thanks for the reminder, Maestro Bobo.

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You can watch our entire interview with Roger Bobo on YouTube below or listen on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Brass Junkies Episode 171: Nathaniel Silberschlag

Between The Brass Junkies and The Entrepreneurial Musician I have done close to 400 interviews and this was one of my favorites.

Nathaniel Silberschlag is a true mensch. His energy and approach to both music and life left me in the kind of good mood that sticks around for a while afterwards. He is a gift.

You can watch the episode on YouTube below or head over to Pedal Note Media for all of the links to where to find it.

Enjoy!

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On This Episode of The Brass Junkies:

• Being the 10th member of his family to go to Juilliard

• The specialized horn he started playing on when he was three years old

• How Julie Landsman told his parents she wasn’t available to teach him as a 12-year-old but gave him one Skype lesson and then was so impressed that she agreed to teach him anytime she came to DC

• How Julie introduced him to Sylvia Alimena who he studied with through high school and was a major influence on his life

• The one thing that each of his four private teachers all focused on

• His use of specific images and colors to get a clear idea of what he’s trying to sound like

• The importance of painting your picture away from the horn through things like singing

• Jen Montone’s Process Cues

• How his approach to sound has informed his teaching

• The specific visualization he uses when performing Mozart concertos

• How the best teachers teach you how to teach yourself (and how to be teachers)

• The value of watching great teachers teach

• The experience and pressure of trying to become a peer to brass legends who you’ve looked up to your entire life

• What it was like to win the Kennedy Center Opera House audition even though he fully didn’t expect to win it at the age of 19

• “I can only be the best me on a given day.”

• How his dad was waiting for him in the car while he kept advancing through the Kennedy Center Opera House audition

• All that he learned from sitting next to Geoffrey Pilkington including how and when to use your Assistant Principal

• His experience of playing Mahler 5 in Carnegie Hall in his first full week as Principal Horn of the Cleveland Orchestra with almost everyone he knew in the audience while being sick

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The Brass Junkies Episode 162: Jennifer Wharton

Jennifer Wharton is a creative force in the brass world and it was a blast getting to interview her!

I love hearing people who have managed to be able to have a significant creative output during this pandemic. I particularly found the discussion about how she managed to record an album during this time when they her group couldn’t even rehearse together.

And be sure to check out the Bonegasm album. It’s awesome!

You can watch the episode on YouTube below or head over to Pedal Note Media for all of the links.

Enjoy!

The Brass Junkies Episode 161: Thomas Gansch of Mnozil Brass

This guy is a legend!

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Mnozil Brass. It was at the ITG in Banff in 2008 and I actually stood on the wings and watched them from backstage. What a remarkable vantage point. I could see the crowd reacting to them. Saw them coming on and off. It was one of the best brass performances I’ve ever seen.

Thomas is a delight. He is a wonderful human being filled with so much creative energy that he barely has time to get it all out. And he just has a great attitude about everything: playing, touring, life.

This was one of my favorites (which I feel like I’ve been saying a lot lately but we’ve had an exceptional run of Brass Junkies interviews lately!)

You can watch the episode on YouTube below or head over to Pedal Note Media for all of the links.

Enjoy!

The Brass Junkies Episode 160: Nicole Cash

This was a really special episode. I had the privilege of attending Northwestern University with Nicole Cash. We overlapped by three years. She was one of the best players in the deepest studio in the entire school of music. We then played for a summer together in the National Repertory Orchestra. Again, she was a superstar there.

She ended up all the way in the San Francisco Symphony which surprised no one who knew her.

Her career was then tragically cut short by focal distonia. It was a huge loss for the horn world and the musical world at large.

Nicole was so generous in this interview. She was honest and open and vulnerable and she is amazing. I left this conversation with a serious dose of perspective and very appreciative of having my health.

You can watch the episode on YouTube below or head over to Pedal Note Media for all of the links.

The best interviews change the audience and change the interviewers. This was one of those.

Thank you, Nicole. It was an honor to play with you.

The Brass Junkies Episode 159: Bente Illevold

This was one of my favorite interviews yet and that’s saying something since we recently passed #150!

Norwegian euphonium superstar Bente Illevold has created a remarkable career for herself. Her entrepreneurial spirit is contagious. This interview is must listen for anyone aspiring to have a career in the music business.

You can find various links to the episode here or catch it on YouTube below.

Enjoy!

The Brass Junkies Episode 158: Mark Gould

This interview we did with former Principal Trumpet of the Metropolitan Opera, Mark Gould, is phenomenal. And I’m not talking about our interviewing skills!

What a fascinating conversation about performing, teaching, being creative, being human.

Seriously, don’t miss this one. And literally every musician I know should buy his brand new book, Gould on Music.

You can find various links to the episode here or catch it on YouTube below.

Enjoy!