I studied trumpet with Rob Parton for about three years in high school, starting in my sophomore year. I saw exponential improvement during that time, and prepared various trumpet standards including the Haydn Concerto, Arutunian Concerto, and Bozza’s Rustiques. Rob encouraged me to send in a tape for that year’s National Trumpet Competition, so with the help of my accompanist Sam Clein, I put a recording together and sent it in.

NTC sent me an email in December to invite me to the competition. I continued to practice Rustiques for the next four months, then flew out to the University of North Texas in March.

The event

NTC isn’t a one-day event where a bunch of random trumpeters play their prepared piece a few times before heading home. Similar to the International Trumpet Guild conference, there are performances, masterclasses, and a huge room for trumpet makers to show off their most expensive works of metal tubing.

Unfortunately, since I was saving my chops for the judged performances, I didn’t get to try out much of the equipment at the event. There was plenty of noise in the room, though - trumpet players love their high notes.

I did catch a fantastic performance by the One O’Clock Lab Band, UNT’s top big band. It was all trumpet-heavy stuff, including a rendition of Gillespie’s “Things to Come” that left my ears ringing.

The competition

There were more than 30 high schoolers accepted to the quarterfinal round. My first performance was in a medium-sized classroom with mediocre acoustics, but the judges all gave good remarks. Rob later said that this first run was the best of my three performances.

After a few hours of waiting, the judges distributed a list of 8 semifinalists, and I found out that the semifinals would be held that same day. I was under the impression that there would be one round each day, so my face wasn’t entirely prepared.

My semifinals run was nerve-wracking. I got to listen to most of my competitors that round - they all seemed more consistent than me. Nonetheless, I played well enough to make it to the finals.

I didn’t play my best during the finals - small mistakes scattered throughout detracted from the impression I was trying to give. Nonetheless, I’m still pretty happy with it - the judges awarded me third place, which was more than I would’ve ever expected.