Mother, father instrumental in trumpeter’s music path

Some little boys want to grow up to be astronauts or firefighters.

Scott Quackenbush, who performs a Haydn concerto this Saturday with the Omaha Symphony, always wanted to be a trumpet player.

“My dad played saxophone and my mom played piano, so I always wanted to be a musician,” said Quackenbush, the symphony’s principal trumpet player. “I picked trumpet because it was loud and because it was the instrument that usually played the melody in my school band.”

Not long after taking up trumpet in seventh grade, Quackenbush heard trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ recording “Carnaval,” made in collaboration with the Eastman Wind Ensemble.

That Grammy-nominated album inspired Quackenbush to attend the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

“I learned that Eastman had a great track record of getting its graduates into good orchestras,” Quackenbush said.

That success had a lot to do with the Eastman Wind Ensemble.

Founded in 1952 by legendary band director Frederick Fennell, the wind ensemble redefined the collegiate concert band.

Fennell focused on playing original wind music instead of transcriptions of familiar old orchestral warhorses. He also emphasized instrumental virtuosity.

Quackenbush will need all the technique he can muster to perform Haydn’s Concerto in E-flat major for Trumpet and Orchestra.

The piece calls on the trumpeter to play every chromatic note across a two-octave range. Not surprisingly, the trumpeter seemingly needs the lung capacity of an Olympic runner.

“The Haydn is definitely a test piece for trumpet players,” Quackenbush said.

Contact the writer:

444-1076, john.pitcher@owh.com

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