My earliest memory of getting involved with music was 5th grade. I immigrated to Detroit, Michigan from Odessa, Ukraine in 1979. I was able to speak English fairly well by 5th grade, when musical instruments were introduced to our class by Mr. Osborne. He played guitar and sang "Puff the Magic Dragon" to unsuspecting youngsters who didn't read too much into the lyrics of the tune. Mr. Osborne thought that trumpet would be good for me, and I've been playing the horn, exclusively, since then.
I played in all kinds of youth bands and one of my fondest memories was soloing in jazz band on Coconut Champagne (Maynard Ferguson's arrangement, and a decent one from Japanese MF clones!) and A Night in Tunisia, a jazz standard. Mrs. Golden was our teacher in high school, and she taught the 9th and 10th graders to be the best band we could be, whether it was symphony or marching band. We came in 2nd place in a state marching band competition in 10th grade -- that was just about the best feeling!
We played in competitions, solo & ensembles and I won many medals at those events. Like Harold Wolfe (another Resa's Pieces trumpeter), I also played Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in B-flat.
Probably the most people I ever played for would be 100,000+ fans at the University of Michigan stadium in Ann Arbor. I was part of the 225 member Michigan Marching Band, and we blew our brains out every Saturday before, during and after each home Wolverine football game. Playing "Victors" down the field will forever be embedded in my mind, and I try to attend the homecoming weekend every year to recapture that feeling at my alma mater.
After dropping the trumpet for about 10 years, I found out about Resa's Pieces through a girlfriend. I joined, formed some amazing friendships. And there's lots of opportunity to volunteer (I maintain this website for example). The variety of people in age and background who make beautiful music together is just what I was looking for! I am glad I found the band before they hit the "big time"!
This video also explains why I love music - check it out at 15:00 and 24:00 especially.
