A Flourish of Trumpets for an Emerging Instrument

Traditionally a loud supportive voice from the back of the orchestra, the trumpet has been slowly coming up in the ranks. In fact, this weekend, two separate events in the Southland will usher the trumpet to stage center.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is hosting a “Trumpet Summit” at Hollywood Bowl on Thursday night, featuring guest artists Doc Severinsen and Hakan Hardenberger, as well as the entire Philharmonic trumpet section.

Coincidentally, the International Trumpet Guild will hold its annual conference at UC Santa Barbara, Thursday through Sunday. While the timing of these events may have been serendipitous, the trend is not: The trumpet has been working its way out of the section for years.

“The trumpet is an instrument which will have more and more focus in classical music life,” said Hardenberger, the Swedish-born soloist who will make his debut with the Philharmonic. “It is an instrument that suits the modern person and the modern concert hall.”

The trend toward the trumpet began, it is generally acknowledged, with the high-profile career of Maurice Andre. In the ‘80s, Wynton Marsalis’ twin careers in jazz and with classical repertory also helped to pique public interest in the instrument.

“It’s not only public interest,” Hardenberger said. “For the first time in history, the greatest composers are writing for our instrument, which has not been the case at all before. I think it’s because this is an instrument with such an enormous range of dynamics and emotions.”

Robert Karon, a lecturer in trumpet at UC Santa Barbara and this year’s guild conference host, is convinced that, while the trumpet may have been “coming out” in recent years, its lure has never waned.

“Throughout history, the trumpet has been an important part of people’s lives,” he said. “I don’t think there is anybody who wouldn’t recognize the trumpet.”

The guild is a worldwide organization with a 4,000-musician-strong membership, covering various styles. That diversity is part and parcel of the guild’s intent, according to Karon.

“Even for the players who go to this thing, the trumpet has become rather specialized,” Karon said.

“People who play jazz don’t usually go play with a symphony orchestra, and people who play in the orchestra don’t usually go and play in jazz clubs at night. So I wanted to be able to provide a good cross-section.”

Thus, Karon mapped out a wide-ranging conference schedule that includes classical repertoire as fresh as the premiere of Robert Rodriguez’s “Invocation of Orpheus” (commissioned by the guild) and as ancient as the music of the L.A. Baroque Orchestra, featuring the West German Friedemann Immer, a natural-trumpet specialist.

Other guests at the Trumpet Guild conference will include L.A.-based jazz players Bill Watrous (and his big band) and Clay Jenkins, Cuban jazz legend Arturo Sandoval, French virtuoso Eric Aubier, the Montreal Symphony trumpet section, the Japanese ensemble Trumpets 5, and Mariachi Sol de Mexico.

Meanwhile, at the Bowl, the concept of a full-scale concert devoted to the trumpeter’s art is new even to Hardenberger, 38, who has found international success as a professional trumpet soloist. “There are occasions when trumpet players get together and just perform for each other,” Hardenberger said, “but (the concert) is something else, a very good idea.”

The Bowl program presents a portrait of the trumpet as both a solo voice and in ensemble, for up to seven parts.

Doc Severinsen is a rarity to be both a jazz player and an orchestral soloist; Hardenberger exists in the relatively lonely realm of the trumpet soloist. After studying in Paris, his teacher, Pierre Thibaud, persuaded him that there was life beyond the symphony trumpet section. He went on to study further with Thomas Stevens, the principal trumpeter of the L.A. Philharmonic.

Hardenberger promotes and commissions new works for the trumpet. A coming recording project focuses on works written for Hardenberger by British composers Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies and Michael Blake Watkins.

At the Bowl, Hardenberger will play the 1948 Trumpet Concerto by French composer Henri Tomasi, the most contemporary piece in a program that also includes Mozart, Richard Strauss, Biber and Altenburgh. The Tomasi work has become a pillar in the expanding dimension of trumpet repertory.

“It is one of the first big trumpet concertos in which the trumpet is featured in not too silly a way,” said Hardenberger. “There is too much prejudice involved in trumpet writing.

“I think the biggest challenge for a composer who writes for the trumpet today is to write something which does not have the circus aspect, is not militaristic and is not jazz influenced. If they can do that, then they’re really good,” he said with a laugh.