Whole lotta trumpet at GTMF this weekend – JH News&Guide
Lots of classical music has been composed for trumpet over the years, but that wasn’t the case back when Joseph Haydn composed his own Trumpet Concerto in 1797.
“The way this came about is this virtuoso trumpeter invented an instrument that could play a significantly higher number of notes than the tradition trumpet,” said Conrad Jones, who will perform this “quintessential classical trumpet blockbuster” with the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra this Friday and Saturday.
The earlier trumpet was OK for fanfares and hunting calls but could not play all 12 tones of the Western scale. Around 1792, Austrian Anton Weidinger cut holes into his instrument, like the keys on a clarinet, and expanded its possibilities.
“He convinced Haydn to write a concerto for him,” said Jones, associate principal trumpet for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 2023, and the piece soon took its rightful place in music history. “It’s been famous for centuries, even to the point where the third movement was used in ‘Squid Games.’”
Jones grew up on Long Island with music teacher parents. “All my family’s friends were music teachers,” he said.
He started cello at 5, switched to trumpet around 9, and was soon attending Juilliard’s pre-college program. A teacher there suggested he attend a performance of the Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, which proved to be “life-changing.”
“I wanted to be around that all the time.”
Jones’ first love was jazz. He devoted himself to classical fundamentals — first at the Cleveland Institute and later at the Coburn School in Los Angeles — always figuring he would eventually move back to New York City to play jazz.
“But I just kept following what spoke to me the most, which was that orchestral, classical trumpet sound … the full spectrum of colors and emotions, the wide, dynamic nature of what a trumpet can do. You can play soft and mellow, and that can scratch your soul in a haunting way, and when it’s soaring over an orchestra it elicits a totally different emotional response. … It can make you feel something you can’t put a finger on. I want to make people feel that same way. Practicing in the morning, that’s what I’m trying to cultivate.”
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