Ashley Hall-Tighe Trumpet Interview

Welcome to the show notes for Episode #130 of The Other Side of the Bell – A Trumpet Podcast. This episode features trumpeter Ashley Hall-Tighe. Listen to or download the episode below:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

About Ashley Hall-Tighe

Ashley Hall-Tighe Links

Website:
ashleyhalltighe.com

Latest album, Upcycle, on Maple Rise Music:
https://maplerisemusic.com/upcycle

Los Angeles Brass Alliance
https://www.instagram.com/losangelesbrassalliance/

International Women’s Brass Conference, May 19-24, Hartford, Connecticut.
Register: myiwbc.org
Sign up sheet for valve alignments: bobreeves.com/iwbc

International Trumpet Guild Conference, May 27-31, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Sign up sheet for valve alignments: bobreeves.com/itg

William Adam Trumpet Festival, June 19-22, Clarksville, Tennessee.
williamadamtrumpet.com
Sign up sheet for valve alignments: bobreeves.com/williamadam

Podcast Credits

• “A Room with a View“ – composed and performed by Howie Shear
• Audio Engineer – Ted Cragg
• Cover Art – Phil Jordan
• Podcast Host – John Snell

Transcript

Please note, this transcript is automatically generated. It may contain spelling and other errors. If you would like to assist us in editing or translating this transcript, please let us know at info@bobreeves.com.

[00:00:00]  JOHN SNELL: Hello, and welcome to the other side of the Bell, a podcast dedicated to everything trumpet brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass. We’ll help you take your trumpet plane to the next level. I’m John Snell, trumpet specialist here at Bob Reeves Brass, and I’ll be your host for this episode. Joining me today is Trumpeter educator and coach Ashley Hall-Tighe.

 

We’ll get to Ashley’s interview here in a moment after a word from our sponsor and some trumpet news.

 

[00:01:00] NEWS: Well, first of all, I want to give a huge shout out to all the new followers and subscribers we have over the last couple episodes, both Kenny [00:02:00] Rampton and Lee Loughnane. We got a lot of feedback on our YouTube channel and, directly via our social media channels and email, so thank you.

 

Welcome new listeners! You have quite the backlog of trumpet content that you can go through, only 130 some odd episodes now. So that should keep you busy when you’re not practicing or when you’re on the treadmill or commuting to and from gigs. And also huge thank you to Lee and Kenny, for being on the podcast.

 

I want to keep the news relatively short today, now that we’re doing two episodes a month, there’s only so much you can hear me talk about, where we’re traveling and valve alignments and all the mouthpieces we bring in. Guard bags, et cetera. However, listen to this: there’s a new group here in town, here in LA, that we’ve been honored to sponsor, from their infancy, when they were just starting out.

 

It’s the Los Angeles Brass Alliance, Also known as Lab A. So their next concert is coming up. If you’re in the LA area, you’re not gonna wanna miss this. May 4th at 7:00 PM at the [00:03:00] Glendale First Baptist Church. It’s their second installation of Next Up. It’s a free concert,

 

generously sponsored by us, by Bob Reeves Brass. but next up, spotlights Lab A’s annual collaboration between emerging LA based composers and brass musicians. Lab A strongly believes that students, freelancers, and performers are responsible for ensuring the rich and vibrant future of brass performance.

 

This concert is an investment in their musicians, these incredible composers, and the accessibility of new music to the Los Angeles Brass audiences. Their 2025 composer cohort hails from institutions such as Jacob School at Indiana University, the Herb Alpert School at UCLA, the Thornton School at USC, the Yale School of Music, the University of Northern Colorado, and Cal State Northridge.

 

Go Matadors. These eight composers have written for every flavor of brass ensemble From quintet to [00:04:00] brass orchestra, pushing the boundaries of music for Brass Ensemble Lab. A hopes to see you on May 4th in Glendale for their season finale and the celebration of these eight new works for brass.

 

More information is available@labrassalliance.org or check out. Los Angeles Brass Alliance on Instagram to keep up with their preparation for next up 2025. And if you didn’t catch all that we’ll, make sure we have the links to their website, to their social media and information for the concert. Again, May 4th at 7:00 PM here in Glendale, California, composers eight great compositions and new works.

 

So as I had mentioned early on, They’re really doing amazing things at Lab A, lots of great commissioning of new works, or featuring young composers and giving young brass players an outlet to play together, to network, to be coached, things like that. And, that’s exactly what Bob Reeves Brass believes in, and, you know, need more of [00:05:00] that, for the next generation of fine musicians, whether professional or, semi-professional or just as hobbyists.

 

We are proud to sponsor that organization and this concert, and we’re looking forward to doing more with them in the future. A quick bullet point for our travel. I do, I think I, I jumped the gun on the Dylan music trip. I know a number of you have emailed about the dates for that, and I’m looking at the calendar and I don’t think we’re gonna be able to get that out there before the summer.

 

There’s just not enough weeks between now and all the upcoming events. So I’m sorry for, prematurely getting you excited about our trip to Dylan. It is gonna happen, I promise. They’re very busy. We’re obviously very busy and just finding a weekend where it works, is difficult. So my apologies for getting everyone excited the last few episodes.

 

but it does not look like that’s gonna happen, the next few weeks. up until summer. What is gonna happen? Here’s the bullet points, coming up. First is IWBC, Memorial Day weekend, [00:06:00] May 19th. to the 25th, I believe, is the full conference, and then the vendors are the 21st to the 24th of May. That’s at the Hart School in Hartford, Connecticut.

 

We will be in the vendor room again. Proud to sponsor that conference. IWBC, the International Women’s Brass Conference. May 19th to the 25th. I hope to see you there. bobreeves.com/iwbc  is where you’ll be able to pre-book your alignment for that event. And, www.myiwbc.org is the link to register for the conference.

 

The following week, International Trumpet Guild Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah, University of Utah, right there, just, northeast of downtown, beautiful campus. We were there for IFA a few years ago and, bobreeves.com/itg is where you’ll get all the information for that conference, at least as far as Bob Brass is concerned.

 

and you can pre-book your alignment. They’re booking up fast. So if you’re gonna go. [00:07:00] No pressure, but get there sooner than later, to book your alignment. That is the following week after Memorial Day. So that’s May 28th, I think to the 31st. Trumpet Guild, the International Trumpet Guild website will have all that information, and bobreeves.com/ig

 

I get a week off in between. to see my family and to decompress. And then I fly out to, Clarksville, Tennessee. Austin P University, Rob Wa is hosting the William Adam Trumpet Festival this year, that’s a wonderful time just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Clarksville I believe is about an hour out, and I’ll be giving a presentation there on acoustics, equipment. And knowing me, I probably will not talk about equipment very much and get right to. Why we do what we do. you know, what’s the meaning of life getting right to the root of the subject.

 

yeah. June 19th to the 22nd is gonna be, the William Adam Trumpet Festival. If you [00:08:00] go to www.williamadamtrumpet.com, you can get all the information to attend the festival. And if you go to bobreeves.com/williamAdam, you’ll get, the link to pre-book your valve alignments and that’s another popular festival.

 

Last year I did a 17 hour day. This is not to brag, but I can, you know, I, I just can’t say no to people. There were so many alignments at the last Adam Festival. I did alignments from seven in the morning to 1145 at night. one of the days. and I don’t wanna do that again. I will if I have to, but I’d much rather have everyone pre-book and so we know, what we’re gonna do, how many we’re gonna do, and we can plan around that.

 

So the link for that, bobreeves.com/williamAdam, I got in trouble for prematurely talking about the Dylan music thing, but I do wanna mention that after William Adam, I’ll be going to Europe. I don’t know where yet, I [00:09:00] know I’m going to the UK to see an F1 race, something not trumpet related. But, I’m gonna try to book some dates in and around Scandinavia, maybe the UK.

 

So tune in here. Tune in on our social media for potential details for that. Okay? I promise to keep it short. It was relatively short. Thank you for listening. Let’s get right to my special guest today, Ashley Hall-Tighe.

 

Ashley Hall-Tighe bio: Today’s guest is internationally renowned trumpeter educator and certified life coach, Ashley Hall-Tighe. Praised by the Cincinnati Enquirer for her warm tone, stunning technique and expressive artistry, Ashley has captivated audiences worldwide performing everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts.

 

She currently serves as the principal trumpet of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and recently completed a global tour as a member of the iconic [00:10:00] Canadian Brass. Ashley recently released her solo debut album, Upcycle, featuring trumpet and piano transcriptions written by her husband, Nathaniel Tighe.

 

Passionate about holistic education and personal growth, Ashley has taught trumpet at institutions such as St. Olaf College and the LA School of Music, where she founded their career coaching program. Ashley is currently on the trumpet faculty at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. And now here’s my interview with Ashley Hall-Tighe.

 

Interview:

 

JOHN SNELL: Joining us on the other side of the bell today, all the way from Cincinnati, Ohio is Ashley Hall. Ty Ashley, how are you doing today?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: I am wonderful, John. Nice to see you.

 

JOHN SNELL: Likewise. And, you still got snow up there or is it,

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: It’s turning to spring, but this morning all the little buds on the trees did get some frost and so we were, it’s in that in between time here in Cincinnati.

 

JOHN SNELL: Well, I’m in my short sleeves. It was 80 degrees yesterday, so typical [00:11:00] la but enough about that. Let’s talk about the trumpet and let’s talk, right. start from right from the beginning. How did the trumpet find you? Or did you seek out the trumpet? I.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah, my mom, has degrees in music education and french horn performance. And so brass playing was always a part of our family growing up. And I grew up listening to actually cornett solos. The recordings of Herbert l Clark really caught my ear and it felt very, curious to me to be able to do this kind of music.

 

So I, started on the Cornet and my mom was my first teacher in. The middle of my fifth grade year, which was actually before our band program started us. we started in the sixth grade in this very small town in southwest Virginia. And so she gave me my initial introduction to the Cornet. Of course, the recordings were, my, my introduction too. And, yeah, so I always say she was my first teacher and then things really took off quite quickly. I started mid fifth grade and then by the sixth grade I was marching in the high school marching band. It was,

 

it felt very much [00:12:00] Immediate fit for me. It’s not that I didn’t struggle, but it’s that, I took off really fast and I think again, it was because I just grew up listening to this and the sound was already so much in my body. so yeah, I started marching in the high school band in sixth grade and then entered my first national competition. it was in 1994, the second year of the National Trumpet Competition, which just happened

 

as we.

 

JOHN SNELL: I was just there. Yeah.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah, and so I went in the seventh grade and won the junior high division in 1994, and that was really my first entry to the world of. intense performing. I would say I had a lot of, I just quirky habits, as it relates to how do you present yourself on a stage, and I learned so many of my most important lessons about how we, show up both authentically and professionally from those early years at the National Trumpet Competition. So,

 

yeah.

 

JOHN SNELL: I was thinking seventh grade I was playing Super Mario Brothers. And you’re, learning how to present yourself on stage. [00:13:00]

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Well, I, mean I played the Herbert l Clark stars in a velvety sky

 

and and that is what I won with. And then, because at that point they didn’t really know if they would let young kids then play in the high school division. So they, Denny Ale Brock invited me to come back and play the Hummel. third movement of the Humel trumpet concerto with a group that doesn’t exist anymore, but it was called The Capital Wins

 

Ensemble was a DC based band, and I came with my B flat trumpet, the only trumpet that I had, and I played the, third movement of the Humel for the NTC crowd.

 

But what’s funny about that is I was just this little country girl from southwest Virginia, and I didn’t know that. Ensembles tend to tune to a concert a and so right there in front of all of the trumpet players that you can imagine, the oboist gives me a nice concert A and not having perfect pitch myself.

 

I lovely. I laid down a lovely concert B flat and I still remember the like audible gasp followed by [00:14:00] Aw, she’s so cute. This little eighth grader. And so I turned to the oboist and I. I. just am like, could you please play me a concert B flat? And she’s oh, sure, So she gives me the note and then I play the, you know, third movement of the concerto.

 

And again, like NTC was really my, my playground for learning all of these different skills and I was incredibly raw when I first started. So,

 

yeah, fun.

 

JOHN SNELL: That’s Well, so, so you, I mean, you went to zero to 60 pretty quickly then if you started in fifth grade. I’m doing the math here. And by seventh grade you’re playing, Herbert l Clark solos. so was it just, I mean, you picked up the horn and it felt natural to you,

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: did. Yeah. I mean, I still remember same thing, it’s, strange because my mom told me, he was like, this is what you do when you double tongue and this is what you do to triple tongue. And I went up to my bedroom and I heard her say to my dad, she’s, Mike, she’s doing it like. That’s what you do, that’s how you do it. [00:15:00] so there was a lot of, natural propensity towards this very light cornet solo repertoire that felt very much innate and organic to how I wanted to be and the sound that I would say is absolutely true of me. And now at 43. so yeah, that did definitely happen. we’ll get to the, some of the later parts of my journey soon, but.

 

I would say that, the cornet repertoire, especially these Herbert El Clark solos and a little bit of the arban solos played really to my strengths at the time. And I had a, big open aperture, which meant that I could hunk low notes and virtuosic stuff up to about a high C all day long.

 

But anything beyond that, I didn’t have much flexibility. and I can talk about how that sort of broke down over time later, but. that was my early, days. A lot of cornet stuff, a lot of Ians, realizing that I loved doing this for people and that being on [00:16:00] stage made me truly happy, that I, loved to perform and to play music for people. and I was pretty good at it. So that also is good when you’re a kid, so,

 

JOHN SNELL: That always helps. and so I, you mentioned that you had your mom starting you off. Was it at, some point that she handed over the reins to

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: She did? Yeah.

 

pretty quickly. I was in the, around middle of sixth grade, seventh grade, there was a local trumpet teacher by the name of Mark Alderman, who, was a member of the International Trumpet Guild. And he introduced us to this whole world and he said, you know, you should become a member here and this is what the iron studies are and this is what you can do with this.

 

And so he was really my first formal trumpet teacher. And then he’s the one that also introduced me to the National Trumpet Competition and said, I think you should go and just give this a shot. I have no idea like where you’re gonna stack up, but I think you’re really good.

 

And then in the, it was probably the ninth grade, I knew that, you know, I was still competing.

 

I was playing solos like rustics and legend and auditioning for these summer festivals. [00:17:00] I went to Brevard when I was in the ninth grade and then EMF in the 10th grade and kind of. Knocked off some of these festivals early. but I knew that in my sophomore or freshman year, I needed to up the trumpet teacher level.

 

And so my father called the trumpet teacher at Virginia Tech University at the time. His name is Alan Batchelder, and I remember my dad calling and saying I’ve got this. My daughter is really good and she’s been entering some competitions and I think she could really benefit from kind of a college level professor.

 

And he’s I don’t take high school kids. but I’m happy to just have her come and let her play for me once and, but just my standard is pretty much, I don’t have time and I really gotta stay with my college crew. And I remember I went in and played for him and he was like, I’ll take her. Yes. And so I worked with him for. All the rest of my years of high school, and he kept pushing me to enter all these different competitions and, I competed a lot against not just trumpet players too. I entered, there’s a really, [00:18:00] I don’t even know if it’s prominent or not now, but Montgomery, Alabama, the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra.

 

I had a concerto competition and the. For high school kids and the top prize was $10,000, which is really significant. and I was like maybe a junior when I won that contest.

 

and so this really did set me up. Like I say that a lot of my inner struggles that I’ve had to really work through around competition defining my worth, came as a result of this time, but also. Competition was the, essential place where I grew and had a pulse on who was great out there and had a sense for I’m trying to become, an artist like these people that I’m hearing that I can’t quite get to yet. And so, I’m thankful that competitions have a mix for me, really. And when I think about what they are and what they meant.

 

But really it set me up not only to, work on these skills that I do now as a soloist, but to. yeah, [00:19:00] develop the professional skills that I’ve needed that have carried me and the networking that has been essential to, you know, setting me up for my career.

 

JOHN SNELL: Yeah, Having just gone to the National Comp National Competition, national Trump Competition. Sorry. Get waiting for my coffee to hit. I mean hard for my to wrap my head around that kind of dichotomy between, well, it’s a competition and it, you know, I.

 

Forces you to be your best and to really dig deep. And, but then also it’s trumpet, it’s music, it’s an art form. It’s supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to be a connection to the audience, not, you know, ticking off boxes kind of thing. So what, like, how do you wrap your head around it, especially at such a young age, and then now as a teacher?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah, I mean at, such a young age it was my world.

 

Competing became the world that I existed in, and I. I don’t know how much of it was just the environment I grew up in that I loved it and I thrived in it and I was always looking to beat that kid that was based here and that came in second to me or that I came in second to. [00:20:00] so yes, but I would say, Competition culture? No. Number one, I talk about this quite a lot, is that in, even in our little band program, we had a sign that hung above the band room, you know, Persian, whatever you call it, like the place where the conductor is. And it said second place is the first loser. And I say this in a lot of the classes that I teach now that internalizing messages like that and having competition be the thing that kind of set up my musical career, messed me up a little bit. So, I. Had a lot of kind of unwinding to do in separating my worth and identity as a human being. Separate from winning the top prize, separate from playing a perfect concert or not. Like all of those things get really messy and intertwined and it’s taken me a long time to. To do the work that’s [00:21:00] necessary to show up bravely and authentically and to know that whether you come in fifth or second or first, if you showed up and performed to the best of your ability with the connection that you wanted to bring, then that is what success ultimately means. but that wasn’t the message that was driven into me when I was really young. And it, like I said, it’s, taken a lot of decades of work to unwind some of those. internal and external things that I was living in when I was young.

 

JOHN SNELL: Fascinating, and we’ll get into those a little bit deeper, later. I wanna talk about your, your, the decisions into going into college. I mean, it seems based on your excellence and the things you’re doing, there was really no other choice than music. Is that correct? You want?

 

Okay. So that was pretty much taken care of.

 

What about your choice of schools for college

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: yeah. So the, and National Trumpet Competition really was this place where these professors started to say Hey Ashley, check out this [00:22:00] place. And Hey Ashley, what do you think about this? And there was one trumpet, teacher. His name was Alan Seabert, who was at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, who did the most incredible job of everyone of recruiting me from the eighth grade all the way up until the point that I was ready to sign on the dotted line.

 

And. He was diligent in sending my parents emails like, Hey, just letting you know I’m still here. I’m still really excited about Ashley and her life and what she’s up to, and I really hope she looks at Cincinnati. that was incredible and it made a big impression on our family. And yes, I auditioned at Eastman and got into Eastman, but really, Cincinnati had already very much been on my radar because of the way that Alan recruited me, to be honest. so I auditioned there. I was really good in academics as well, so I got really great academic scholarships and it was pretty obvious this was not gonna cost my family any money for us to be able to go to Cincinnati, and for this to be a really good decision for me. So I, Said yes to, to CCM and [00:23:00] studied with Alan my very first year. And then was given, a chance to look at the other teachers that were there. And at the time, Maurice, Betsy Alley was still on faculty at CCM and she was not teaching many people, but I really wanted to study with her and so. I was able to work out a scenario to become her, private student along with one other, student at the time. And I studied with her for my sophomore and junior years at, CCM. And then, she made the full break from CCM to go to IU fully and also at Rice. So she wasn’t doing anything more at, CCM. And so I was able to study with Phil Collins my final year. so I know

 

you have a connection with Phil.

 

JOHN SNELL: What a trio though. What a trio of teachers. That’s amazing. so where did they take your plane? I mean, here comes this, you know, promising young soloist who’s won competitions and you know, where did they take your plane?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah, I mean, I think [00:24:00] initially, Alan wanted to shift a couple of things with my amsu. I think he

 

instinctively knew that there was a little bit of, inefficiency in the way that I was actually set up. But I think the way that he did it was like with those amsu visualizers and like trying to like. Have me do something, in order to create a little bit more of a, like a directional approach. And it wasn’t where I was at 18, but I think instinctively he was on the right track, that there was something not quite set up well for the long game. For me, I wasn’t ready to look at it.

 

I was still happy to be like. You know, flashy, cornett soloist, Ashley.

 

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: when I got to Marie though, she definitely started to hear and see a lot more of those inconsistencies and I think that as I started to get just a little bit older, the window that it took for my lips to repair in the way that I was playing back then just took a little bit longer.

 

And so I would go through really big dips of inefficiency [00:25:00] where, I trusted a lot in the, muscle tissue itself, like the exact spot that the lips would go and how my lips felt. And it was always dependent on this little tiny tissue being exactly right. And if it wasn’t right, then it wouldn’t work.

 

Like it just didn’t sound good. And so,

 

she. I thought some of it, we explored all kinds of different things, but again, I, the hard part about that age for me was that I sounded really good when I sounded really good, that no one quite could figure out what would happen when I sounded really bad. And so it was really tricky, I think to Parse out what was fundamentally happening with my chops and with my production and my way of playing. And I think some of it is that we didn’t wanna really mess with it because when it was good, it was fine.

 

Phil got me when it broke down. So my senior year at CCM, I remember going to a practice room and it was one of those times maybe I’d played. Like something [00:26:00] really big. And then it was in one of those seasons that it needed to repair, but I couldn’t play above the staff and nothing was working. And I think that was the first time that I finally said I don’t know if I wanna do this trumpet thing anymore in this way. At least, like I don’t think I have the skills right now or the knowledge of my anatomy, physiology, how this all works to be able to even improve and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

 

And we worked with that all year, my senior year.

 

JOHN SNELL: Hmm.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: and I’ll get into who like really helped me, a couple of years later in a second, but my senior year was tough and I, remember Phil, like going to the Cincinnati Symphony colleagues there and being like, I’ve got this student and she sounds amazing.

 

And then she doesn’t sound amazing and I don’t know what to do and I don’t know how to help her. and I didn’t know what to do either because. You know what’s hard about my career is that, like, when it worked, it sounded really great. [00:27:00] and I even won my first job right out of undergrad with the third trumpet in the Dayton field, harmonic, set, like playing with the setup I used to have.

 

And what I’ve come to realize now is that essentially I used to play dry and I would take the mouthpiece and I’d kinda Tighten it, you know, move it in to where I would create this really open aperture here in the middle, and then. It would have this very like heavy, big, wide sound, but it would be pinned up against my teeth.

 

And so the more that I went up into the upper register or pushed on it at all, it would basically be like taking a donut and pushing it between two pieces of plexiglass. And the more that I pushed and the heavier I pushed, then the mo, the more the vibration would stop and it would not be flexible anymore. And it this. It came to its first like crash my senior year, but then it came more when the repertoire got harder and there was a concerto I was supposed to premiere [00:28:00] that had some pedals and had some high Ds. And I went and played it for the composer, Steve Winter Egg. And he and I couldn’t play really above the staff.

 

And he’s Ashley, like what are you gonna do? Like you have to play this with an orchestra next week. And. I was almost to the point where I was ready to like actually start doing the work, but I wasn’t there yet. And at that point I just said, well, I mean, I’m just gonna pray like I’m a person of faith and so I’m just gonna pray and God’s gonna help me.

 

We’re just gonna do this thing. And. That’s what I did. I went and I like did it and I played the concerto and it didn’t go badly and that was my life until I was about 26 and I kept doing, you know, this level of playing and this level of is it gonna work? I don’t know. Let’s see. And I remember then. Finding a teacher in Boston and his name is Steve Emery and he has this really wonderful mix of like deep understanding of how the trumpet works and physiology works, but also like how faith plays into this and how identity [00:29:00] plays into this and how we can get all up in our heads about all of these different things.

 

And he said to me, ’cause he was able to meet me where I was at the time, around the faith that I had and have at the TI at the time. And he said, you know. Do you ever think, I’ll never forget when he said this. Do you ever think that David wondered if his, like armor was gonna work when he went into battle

 

and he was like, I don’t think that, this is supposed to be the rest of your life.

 

Like that you’re gonna always have this question is, are things gonna work today? He’s I wanna teach you and help you develop a system that you can trust that yields, you know, consistency and reliability where you can. Play the trumpet from a place of trust and freedom and suppleness. And I was like, well that sounds great, because that’s never been my life.

 

JOHN SNELL: Sign me up. Sign me up. Where do I.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: exactly. And he’s you know, yes, there’s like aspects to our playing that re require repair and patience and you know, we. We may have a concert that’s really heavy and we need to take a little time to let this [00:30:00] relax, but never to the point that you’re talking about now. That’s my goal for you.

 

And so I took a leave of absence from the Dayton Philharmonic where I had my, job, I. And I took two years and went and studied with Steve at the Laundry School of Music and did an artist diploma there. And that was really where I was ready, like I was at the age where I was ready to then start to look at this stuff, and decide whether or not, like I’m either gonna figure out how to play this in the most relaxed and efficient way possible, or I just don’t wanna play the trumpet anymore.

 

I’m just done and so that was really the beginning was that time with Steve and the stuff that, that we worked on and then where we are now. So.

 

JOHN SNELL: yeah. That’s incredible. And it just, it’s like. Think that you, here you are, you’re, you graduated from school, you have your first job. You’re working professionally in a town, that you’re developing a network, and then to essentially give all of that up, that’s a big risk.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: It was a big risk.

 

Yeah.

 

yeah, and I, remember making that decision. [00:31:00] With, I didn’t even tell my parents. I remember, like I, I had signed on the line, I worked on the

 

loan, like the graduate loan documents for my, you know, getting, taking out money. And I like really wanted it to be something that I owned and that I wasn’t taking on all of the opinions of.

 

That’s ridiculous. Ashley. you have all these things. Why would you then go back and do this without this guarantee of this even working for you or setting you up for anything? So I didn’t ask anybody or tell anybody until I knew I was ready to move to Boston, other than of course, Steve and these little conversations I was having.

 

So,

 

JOHN SNELL: So, so you, pick up, you move there, work with Steve, and what kind of things did he have you do? How did he build your confidence up and fix your arm?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: So we started first with the body and the breath and kind of addressing the myths around breathing and. Things that I had internalized about how we interface with the instrument. I don’t know how much of this is my work now and with Steve, but [00:32:00] we, talked a lot about relaxation and passive expiration and how do we like take in air and let air go and use the natural respiratory.

 

System to power our instruments in the most efficient and relaxed way possible. And I think all of us internalized messages as we’re going on, our journeys as, brass players around like pushing from the diaphragm or push with the air, like all these things that we do and internalize that end up not being super useful.

 

So I needed to break it down to the granular level and figure out again. How I naturally breathe, and then how I can maintain natural breathing when I pick up the instrument. And then I remember spending, it was at least the first three to six months, just, playing kind of low Cs, low Gs breath attacks, and trying to get, first of all. the lips to not be impinged and pinned up against the back of my teeth, the top, the front of my teeth rather, but more like the [00:33:00] sails of a sailboat, receiving air and changing directions like away from the teeth and supple. and I did that with a lot of air starts, breath attacks. embracing sort of crackly sound at first until things start to become smaller until the chops touch and then are flexible. and that kind of training, like I said, I wouldn’t have been ready for it until I was in my mid twenties, right? Because that just takes hours of being willing to sit with yourself and be patient with yourself and let things start to settle and let go. But that’s the work that I did for the first little bit of my time there.

 

JOHN SNELL: And let me, I wanna make sure I heard you. I heard you correctly, you said four to six months of playing just low seas, low gs.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: yeah, just I didn’t play anything hard, any major repertoire. I just sat with my sound.

 

JOHN SNELL: Wow, that, I mean, that’s, it’s just incredible to think about that kind of dedication,

 

knowing all of the career you had up until that [00:34:00] point, you know, the, some of the folks I’ve worked with that things tend to come easier to them or they st had a quick start, so to speak. it’s really hard for them to slow down and

 

start at zero again.

 

That’s incredible. And very inspiring. It’s nice to know that’s possible.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: I think it’s important sometimes. I mean, I think it was hard and I will, would be remiss if I didn’t say that I was, pairing this work alongside therapy because I needed to also unwind these other messages and I, that’s when I started to do some of this deeper inner work, right? So that. The, patience that I needed to be able to sit there with my sound. I wasn’t then spiraling of what’s wrong with you? this is a big waste of your time. You had this huge career, right? All the stuff that we would say to ourselves, and I needed to have everything I. Like settled and separate in a sense from me, the human will be okay if the trumpet, [00:35:00] it never comes back.

 

And that was the thing that I also had to unwind and, figure out. And I’ve done that in various ways throughout the last even 15 years. but it. It’s really hard work. You’re right because you wanna, you love this because you wanna make music and you wanna do it at a high level, but this kind of settling and letting things relax and recover and relearning the interface between breath and lips and balance and efficiency. It does just, it takes freetraining and time and that was what I was there for. So.

 

JOHN SNELL: was there a point where things started to kick in?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Absolutely. Yeah.

 

I mean, I, got glimpses of it all the time. I think when you’re doing this work, you’re still having to oscillate between two. Habits, this new habit that you’re really starting to build and the old default habits that you know, you’ve been playing for the last 15 years of your life. And so where this would really be hard is when I would go to repertoire or especially repertoire [00:36:00] that I had old habits on, because all of the old stuff would still be there and my body would remember. this kind of gets me into something that I teach a lot now, is that. Whenever we’re growing in efficiency and things are starting to really settle and things are changing in our playing, it’s really common that we would go back to something we might’ve played for the first time in high school and everything just goes to crap.

 

And you’re like, why? Why can I not play pictures at an exhibition like. Why am I gripping in this way? This really weird way for this a flat thing. I don’t do that anymore. but you do because your body remembers instinctively how many times you did it when you were 15. And so I learned a lot from Steve and also have kind of in intuitively learned.

 

For myself over these last 15 years, developing systems and a different kind of approach to practice generally. but we have to also retrain on old repertoire, the new habit that you are now, like how you play now. And for me, that’s, I. Taking pictures, for instance,

 

[00:37:00] like I had to relearn it on a different key horn.

 

So I would pick up the E-flat and I would make sure that everything that I’m doing reflects the way that I play today, and that it’s just an F to F jump and it’s easy and it’s in balance and it’s not gripped. You know, as I jump to the upper note and then. With enough of that training, I have that sound and that way of modeling in my body.

 

I can usually then go back to the C with time and emulate the habit that I just now integrated. But again, that stuff is hard. It takes a lot of patience to do that.

 

JOHN SNELL: Well that’s, and that, but that’s brilliant though. Retraining on a different keyed horn to. Rework those neural pathways that connected your old habits. I mean, not, to make light of that, but my son does the same thing. He, one of the first things he learned on trumpet was the John Sena theme, and now that he’s gotten much, much better on the instrument, but he still wants to play the John Sena theme and he sounds like he’s been playing for two days.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Isn’t it so

 

JOHN SNELL: But it’s [00:38:00] exactly it. He goes right back to. How he used to play. so maybe I’ll work it. Maybe I’ll, give him a C trumpet and say, Elwood, learn how to play this on c trumpet. There we go.

 

and, well then here’s the other thing. I mean, during this time, I’m assuming you’re also playing in the school groups, like the orchestras and chamber music and things like that.

 

I mean, was that also difficult?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: at times. Yeah. And like I said, I was able to oscillate a little bit between the old habits and the new, that process is frustrating of course, because you’re trying to really do this deep work, you know, with Steve and the stuff I was trying to develop. And of course then I had to still play some, I. Was pretty good at advocating for myself though.

 

If there was a piece that was just gonna get me too far off track in the work that I was trying to do, I would just say I just can’t, that’s not where I am right now and I’m here to do this work. But I mean, the work, the foundation work that I did with Steve was absolutely essential. And I come back to it still today, for the, growth that I made and the player that I am now.

 

And, you know, [00:39:00] I, in 2008, won my principal trumpet job that I still have now with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. And that was the first gig that I did, post rebuild. Right. And I can’t stress enough to, to, people how important it is that when you know there are these inefficiencies to find the right kind of teacher who can help you with the physical and mental sides of this work because it’s as much of a mental game of patience and trust as it is the physical work that it takes to do it. and that’s been true really since I took that break at 26 all the way till now, and the work I continue to do.

 

JOHN SNELL: Was there, I mean, was there a point, was it while you were there at school, that you realized you’re now back on track? Or, I mean, how long was that process?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah,

 

I mean, I would say it’s hard to say. Like I would say that my artist diploma recital, I had much better sense of, I. Oh, I’m really playing in a really different way than I [00:40:00] used to. Like my senior recital at CCM, I was not sure if I was gonna make it through or my lips gonna die.

 

was it, gonna work? You know? But that recital, I was like, I had much, a much better system of, yeah. Of habits and trust that I didn’t have as strong of thoughts that this wasn’t gonna go well or that something was gonna break down. I think. That was where it started. But I think it deepened actually post, graduate work.

 

And I find this with students to be true actually quite a lot as well, that when we get out of the school environment in which we’re required to have to play, as you said in the orchestra and in the wind ensemble, and play this chamber piece and play with these people, that when you separate.

 

Out of that, and can just sit with the stuff that you’ve learned and are learning and can choose what things that you are saying yes to, playing things can settle even more. And that I started to feel the greatest gains really in the last 15 to 17 [00:41:00] years after I married my husband

 

Nate, and. Our work together really has set up kind of the player and teacher that I am now. And what I’ll say with that is that my husband did two degrees in trumpet performance too before he went and became a medical doctor. And he went to Eastman, studied with Thompson and then he went to BU and studied with

 

Terry and he is an incredibly efficient trumpet player and learned a lot from those two people. But where he started to have a lot of important aha moments was when he was in the anatomy lab, learning the anatomy and physiology of the body and how it’s all designed and respiratory mechanics and how this all interfaces where he started to say I think we could. Could take some of the things in brass playing that tend to be analogy or tend to be like abstract concepts that we know to be true and start to base some systems On On what science and physics have to [00:42:00] say already and what we know from acoustics literature and what we know based on what he was seeing in the anatomy lab about the diaphragm and the flexibility of the lungs, of the walls, of the lungs and all of this. And so, through his understanding and actually his work with me over the last 15 years. We have developed a system that I now deeply trust around, inspiratory capacity, for instance, like when we take and vary our inspiratory capacity, it impacts intraoral pressure. And if we think about what we’re giving to the trumpet at any given moment, then we can actually like. Think about are we blowing through this phrase and giving the trumpet exactly what it needs in order to be as efficient and as easy as possible.

 

And so with a lot more thought and planning and understanding about the interface between, acoustics physics and respiratory mechanics, I’ve been able to develop even greater way of being strategic about my own trumpet growth. Does that make sense?

 

JOHN SNELL: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. [00:43:00] And, that’s, amazing. And I, think that kind of points to, in many ways how we’ve improved as trumpet players over the generations. just, I mean, through utilizing the information that’s out there, you know, whether it be the human body or the acoustics of the instruments and the mouthpiece we’re using, things like that.

 

because I mean, as you, you’re aware, like so much of what we’re taught is just. Hand me down pedagogy from the teacher, you know? And not, a lot of Trump players sit and read an anatomy book or read an acoustics book. that’s amazing. let’s, I’d love to get into that more. We’ll come back to it.

 

’cause I, want to just with, in terms of your career, because I mean, you started out as a soloist. You played in the Dayton Symphony. I mean, what were your aspirations? Did you wanna be a soloist? Did you want to be a sit in an orchestra somewhere? Did you just, whatever comes at me, what did it look like?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah, I mean, I always knew instinctively that I loved being a, soloist, and I think this has continued to refine and be more clear over the years. I, never wanted [00:44:00] the pressure and the job of a principal trumpet in a major symphony orchestra, number one. And I think, some people are just geared towards that and I was not one of them.

 

And I think the reason for me that I come back to the trumpet now is because at the end of the day. When I was in eighth grade, and right now it’s about connection with my audience, the human part of me and them, and that’s why I love soloing so much is because it really is just me and my pianist or me out in front of the orchestra and this audience, and I. for me what feels most organic now is, that kind of a scenario where I get to talk and be a human and invite there to be a reciprocity with questions and that feels the most like me. And so my. Chamber music too. I mean, I’ve gotten to play with, of course, a lot of different chamber groups over the years and they do that well, so well because it’s, you know, intimate and you are creating and curating concerts that are gonna entertain and make people [00:45:00] laugh and make them think and make them feel.

 

And it’s not that orchestra doesn’t do that. Of course it does, but there’s a little less. Agency and autonomy in your, spot. ’cause you’re connected to a much greater hole that’s dictated by what the music director is doing in that moment. And that really works for some, but it wasn’t exactly what jived for me. So yeah, I mean that kind of, we can get into all of the different things if you want, but at the end of the day, it comes down to playing music to connect genuinely with people.

 

JOHN SNELL: So your focus was on soloing chamber music.

 

That sort of thing. so yeah, I, with that little side, let’s get back to respiratory mechanics.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Whatever you want,

 

John.

 

JOHN SNELL: yeah. ’cause that’s fascinating. I wanna, and I, you used the word efficiency,

 

number of times, which is something here at the shop, we, it’s one of our favorite words. so what does efficiency mean in, in your context when you

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah, I mean ultimately it’s about the definition, [00:46:00] minimal effort for maximum

 

result. And so we’re always trying to ask ourselves when we’re interfacing with our, trumpet, can this be easier? And is this the minimum amount of work that I need for the kind of result that I’m trying to get? That’s essentially the granular, you know, small definition of efficiency. what that looks like for me. I mean, there’s a masterclass that I. Did in 2019 at the National Trumpet Competition. That has a, lot of views on YouTube, if anyone wants to check it out. Where I break down sort of my strategic system for how I, approach a new piece, for instance, and. It has a lot to do with, some of Jim Thompson’s teachings, like this exercise called attack practice. We’ve been able to develop some data around to understand why attack practice works, and the way that Thompson teaches attack practice is you see a middle register note. It’s a like. Mid-range golf swing. You’re not going for a line drive and you’re not going for a putt. It’s just relaxed, middle breath.

 

And if we’re translating that [00:47:00] in, respiratory mechanic speak, we’re talking about inspiratory capacity being how much air your you have in your lungs. And I’m thinking of A 50% breath, like just middle point for anything really in the middle register.

 

JOHN SNELL: Hmm.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: so if that is, let’s say I start on an F or a B or something in the staff, I’m not gonna take a huge high breath, when I actually initially take my breath for that first note, and I’ll explain more about that in a second. So, attack practice, you’re practicing just the right breath. That yields the right kind of rate of flow and intraoral pressure to impact the note on a passive expiration. So we’re trying to passively let the air come out of our body, so we would play a B and then. You would play it and then you would take the horn off, breathe, or rest, and then breathe and then do it again. If we take a hundred percent of our inspiratory capacity, like line [00:48:00] drive, high, swing, all of it, then what often happens, and we’ll hear it in the sound and we let the air go, is above the center of the pitch. Brilliant, bright, sharp. Sound, which then we could either use more effort than we need to and manipulate it down with our chops, or we could then change again, something about the breath that puts everything in balance.

 

And that’s all. I mean, when I’m talking about this respiratory mechanics and strategic work, so. That exercise has been huge for helping me set up systems of trust and ease so that I see a note and I know exactly what that means in terms of the inspiratory capacity and what that yields in terms of, this is a lot of big words, how high or hot the in the intraoral pressure is coming at my chops. So we use the word pressure all the time with trumpet, but we usually we’re talking about like how intensely we’re holding onto the pinky ring and pushing into our lips.

 

JOHN SNELL: The, octave key. That’s the octave key. Yeah.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: The VE key,

 

[00:49:00] but when we’re talking about pressure, we’re just talking about the amount of force pushing up against either the inside of our body or the inside of our mouth into oral pressure. That kind of pressure, of course, is coming at our chops that we have to do something with, right? It’s coming at our sound and our lips. In the interface there. So the whole point is if we can change up a little bit about where we breathe to with a lot of thought and planning that it minimizes the amount of work our chops have to do in order to play any given note in any range.

 

So that’s something I teach on a lot and that’s been really useful for everything from solo work to my first Brandenburg to all of the different things that I’ve been doing recently is. When I have a system I can trust, I’m not then worried about, oh my gosh, is it gonna work? Am my, is my chops gonna shut down?

 

Am I gonna make it? Am I gonna die? all the things that our body does. But you have a system that yields consistent habits and consistent results, and that’s was essential for me. The second part of it is. Thompson at the beginning of the buzzing book talks about acoustical [00:50:00] breaks, which we instinctively know, like when we go on the very top of the staff, a G to an A feels like there’s just this wall between it.

 

You guys would know better than any like where these are that, you know, these spots around the Harmonic series that where we have to change something in order to, make it feel effortless and easy. But there is an acoustical shift there, and all Thompson talks about here is that we need to increase. A little bit of pressure in order to make sure that the lips, the lip air balance is there and present. So with the planning that I do in my music. am really conscious about middle register basically being no push. Like we’re not trying to push anything heavy on the horn at all. And if we are, it’s gonna yield us high above the center of the sound, and we want it to all be relaxed and in the most.

 

Easy balanced spot. When we cross into the upper register though anything between E and F, G and A C and D and beyond, we do have to lay our [00:51:00] foot on the gas and increase pressure flow, rate of flow, but not before. And that’s where we run into trouble. That’s where I used to run into trouble all the time, is that we’re expending way more energy than we need to on the trumpet. In areas that we don’t and not expending it when we do. Right? And so learning about all of this has meant that I’ve been able to be a little bit smarter about my preparation, and then of course a little bit more consistent in the performances as well.

 

JOHN SNELL: That’s, yeah, a great explanation. I wish that there’s a book in the works here with, manufacturers and teachers like about bridging the great divide here because

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: important, I mean.

 

JOHN SNELL: You know, have taking the acoustics, the actual physics of the mouthpiece in the instrument with the physics of your body, the anatomy of your body, and getting them to, match up, so that you’re, yeah, you’re not overblowing the, harmonics overblowing, the acoustics of the instrument and then thus doing too much work.

 

[00:52:00] Yeah.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: right.

 

JOHN SNELL: actually absolutely amazing to hear it put that way. and so, but So then what does that preparation look like? You, let’s say you, you’re working on it, you, let’s bring up the Brandenburg. ’cause I, saw on your social media

 

that was what, A month or two ago?

 

Relatively recently. And also incredible to think about someone who, like you said, high B, flat high C was difficult for you.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: yeah.

 

JOHN SNELL: and now you’re, you know, knocking a home run on the Brandenburg. so what did that, how did this, kind of mechanics work in your preparation for something like the Brandenburg?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah, I mean the Brandenburg is its own little marathon that we have to prepare for. Well, and there’s reasons that, you know, orchestral musicians have con, have statements in their contracts that say you can’t play anything major for two or three weeks before a Brandenburg. Just in the sense of the type of small aperture and finesse that it takes in the training is.

 

Just not something you’d wanna do right after you play an Alpine, for instance. Right? So different skill sets here. [00:53:00] for me, what this really looked like was, I worked a lot on whisper tones like this, the threshold right between sound and air, where the lips are just. Barely touching and really small.

 

And I worked on that quite a lot. I worked on, really soft chromatic on the piccolo and beyond making the distance between intervals as small as they could possibly be in terms of how I’m traveling between notes. I trained, I would say, for six months. It was on my purview, right? You’re always thinking about the Brandenburg and setting things up and doing that, but the.

 

The actual detailed, where am I gonna breathe and how much, and when work probably really intensely started in the last two months. for instance, like the, a’s were not coming out, like they just, I could not get the right balance unless I did the venting thing. And that’s weird because it doesn’t sound exactly the same.

 

And I kept telling myself, which I tell my students too, And the hide in. It’s not about the B flat and the Brandenburg is [00:54:00] not really all about the A’s, but we all know that we wanna be able to access them and them in with ease and with balance. I was talking to someone earlier, like nothing about the upper register is, quote, easy or relaxed.

 

There’s always gonna be some aspect of tension, right? Tension in balance that we’re trying to walk on this little tight tightrope. But what the, a part for instance, really meant is that number one, I needed to not breathe as often. And I made this whole entire plan that every time I was sip sipping between those eighth note, little rest BI was building up extra tension, which was.

 

Which was, horrible. Like it would not work. Nothing would come out. So first thing was I eliminated actually all of the breaths through that entire section and was very careful about where I took the breath. When second was I focused mostly on. Not playing the A’s for a couple of weeks and making sure that the ascent up was [00:55:00] fully in balance without the a being a part of what I was gonna try to go for.

 

And when I got the arpeggios fully in balance, then laying my foot ever so slightly on the gas in the moment, on the concert for the a’s all came out. But that kind of training is not what we love because we wanna know that it’s always there and that. Was really difficult for me ’cause I wasn’t sure even up until the moment that all of those things were gonna come out.

 

Right. And I was making tweaks to my plan even the day before based on what I heard in rehearsals. What I will tell you though is like next time I do the Brandenburg, which I have one on the books next year, I think, pretty soon we’re gonna finalize that one. Is that the system that I built and that was able to execute really pretty well.

 

my kids even gave me it like that was about 95% mom. I was like, I’ll take 95%. For my first Brandenburg. I like that. I was like, not that I need your grade,

 

JOHN SNELL: Yeah, I love it. I love it.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: but that like I have a system that I know I worked on [00:56:00] that my body will remember that I can trust. so yeah, I mean that’s the kind of, when I think about the kind of preparation that I do when I’m doing it really well, it’s one of strategy thought.

 

And the other thing I would say here too is that. That the trumpet is constantly giving us data and feedback, and what we tend to do, I’ll speak for myself, is I’m just like, well, that was crap. Let’s do it again. Or, that sounded bad. Let’s do that again. Rather than saying what was bad? What am I looking for more of?

 

And what did the sound tell me that I need to change? And so the way that. My own trumpet practice has dramatically changed is that it’s, coming much more from a place of data and relationship that I’m in a relationship with this piece of metal for better or worse, and it’s, it wants me to be kind and we, it’s gonna teach me and tell me what it needs me to change or do more or less of.

 

And the problem is we just don’t always listen. And that’s what I’m really trying to work [00:57:00] on. Now still as I’m continuing to grow in my skills. and yeah, and that’s why strategy and data has been hugely helpful for helping me quiet some of the, critic voices that tend to come up as well with our musical practice.

 

JOHN SNELL: yeah. Tho those, the voice in our head, which is, I mean, that’s a whole other podcast, but actually we talk a little bit about that as well. but, so, I mean, let’s go to the moment you’re walking on stage. ’cause that, speaking of the mental approach, you’ve done all this preparation, you have your plans, like what, what’s going through your head as you’re walking on stage?

 

Do

 

you have a plan for that? Do you have a, process,

 

once you switch into performance mode? I.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: I do. Yeah. I mean, and it, very much comes down to the ability of me to trust the process and the preparation. If I have not done the, prep, preparation, and diligent practice, I cannot trick my body into not feeling calm. Right. or not feeling afraid. I, [00:58:00] can’t, there’s no substitute for. Good prep, but if I know that I am prepared and that I’m in the best place that I can be, or that.

 

In light of all of the chaos that’s around, I’m gonna show up and do the best that I can in this moment. Then that’s what I tell myself is that you’re prepared. You can trust the work that you’ve done. Music is an incredible gift and they’re there to enjoy the gift that you bring. and I have to play that on loop still all the time.

 

or else we lose sight of what we do this for. Yeah.

 

JOHN SNELL: and you did it, you, you knocked out the Brandenburg and you got another one coming up next year. I, I wanna rewind a little bit because we

 

kinda left off with you, finishing your artistic diploma.

 

what, was that, that gray area then in terms of doing your bure change or your,

 

you know, fixing everything to then? Jumping into a, professional career. Were you [00:59:00] freelancing during that time, during your artist diploma, or were you just Yeah, I mean, you’ve mentioned you were basically just focusing on getting things together. what was that transition like then into the working world?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah, so I, I did my two years in Boston, freelanced a little bit at the end, but I moved back to Cincinnati at the end of my time in Boston and was able to resume my job with the Dayton Philharmonic, which held it for me for those two years.

 

JOHN SNELL: right. you were on leave

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: on leave. Yep. So I went back to my orchestra job, played, of course principal with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.

 

That was my first season with them. did a lot of educational shows. My husband and I developed a duo concert where we did, a show called Art and Music, making the connection, and we performed in 60 schools as a trumpet duo and talked about the connection between music and art history over time and how that changed.

 

And that was really fun to do. And it kept him, my husband in music while he was starting all of his post-back pre-med classes in preparation for medical school. and then. We did that for a [01:00:00] couple years in Cincinnati and then it was clear that we were gonna be moving for him to go to medical school in Minnesota.

 

And he did his medical training at the Mayo Clinic and in Rochester, Minnesota. He was really worried that I would not have anything to do because it’s little, a little cornfield. about an hour and a half outside of St. Paul and, and Minneapolis and. I wasn’t sure what I was gonna do either except that I knew that I wanted to teach.

 

And so I developed a studio pretty quickly when I was there of a lot of private students. I was able to teach for a year at St. Olaf College while Marty Hodel went on sabbatical. and it was also a time where I, had my, second reckoning with do I like the trumpet anymore? was.

 

Because of all of my years in competition and the identity that got very much mashed with perfectionism being like this, the litmus test of how great something was and how good of a mood I would be in after a performance. [01:01:00] if I missed a whole bunch of things, I was just in a like raunchy, horrible mood and couldn’t engage with the humans that I love until I had Yeah, been miserable for a day or two. nobody knows what that’s like. I realized that like I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play trumpet forever, and I wasn’t sure if, it actually made me happy, like the job of the trumpet. And I’ve, I told you before that a lot of what I do. Now with the trumpet is very much based in this.

 

Does this give me the chance to make a genuine and authentic connection with my audience? And that, realization really came from my very first major trumpet break on purpose. And this was the break that I took. After I’d had my daughter, I think I was just, I’d lost my joy. Like I didn’t know why I was doing this anymore and it was not connected to anything that I loved anymore.

 

and I took a six month break from all performing. I said, no more. I just, I [01:02:00] wanna see if I even like this and I wanna explore what else I would also wanna do if it’s not the trumpet, because when you’re a child prodigy and you grow up and. Everyone telling you this is gonna be your life. You have, you’re too good to not, you know that there’s more to you the human, but you’re never given that chance to even explore it.

 

Because that was the lot that was given to me. and I knew that I was actually really passionate about the mental health and psychology side of the performing arts, but just humans generally, like how we are in the world. and really passionate about doing it actually with Music Conservatory students because I felt.

 

Even in my own training that it was very myopic. you are this, you sell your soul for this, you do all this and you get the job instead of really nurturing the whole. And so I started taking, classes in clinical psych and did my undergrad classes, started a master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy, with the hope that I would go on and, continue this degree.

 

But in the end, I came back to [01:03:00] the trumpet after those six months and was able to. To really start to say yes to the things that brought me a lot of joy. And if I got into something that wasn’t quite it, I could easily let that go and just say, Hey, that was great. Not sure that’s for me forever.

 

and I was able to really start to mash that up with more of this mental health, mental resilience work that I had instinctively been doing with myself if we’ve been talking about this hour. But also the work I really wanted to be doing with, musicians more broadly. And so that’s what happened through there.

 

JOHN SNELL: Interesting, And, so that, I mean, yeah, I was starting to get a good picture of where we are today, all these little puzzle pieces and I’m, just like, so you, the six months you took off, was that like you gave yourself six months, like to the day

 

and you said, I’m gonna make a decision after six months, or was it a thing where

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: I didn’t know what was gonna happen, but I knew that I had a, an Easter gig that I thought I was gonna have to play. So I knew I was gonna get it back out and see what it felt like at that Easter gig. And then I remember I had [01:04:00] gotten called to play at ITG. And it was an American female soloist recital, and it was me and Mary Bowden and Barbara Hall, the three of us.

 

And I was like, oh, if there was ever a reentry into, does this bring me joy, then let’s just do it at the ITG.

 

JOHN SNELL: You know, a thousand trumpet players in this. Yeah, well, so I mean, what do you think it was about the trumpet that brought you back as opposed to going off in,

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah. I mean,

 

JOHN SNELL: or family counseling, something like that?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: I still like the trumpet. I mean, I think my husband’s just would you be okay if the trumpet went away? I mean, yes, but you still love to perform and you actually love to practice. And there is something for me about the. The practice every day and the time with myself and the quiet and the exploring of my sound and the growth part of that, that I knew that I still really did and do that I wasn’t ready to just say that’s not it.

 

But I think for me, adding this other [01:05:00] dimension to my life. Actually made me much better at the trumpet in a weird way, because my identity wasn’t just only this thing, but it had a lot more depth. I love doing this work with, students and with pros and with whether we’re talking about respiratory mechanics, but it’s tied with trust.

 

It’s tried with, it is tied with mental resilience, The trumpet part brings validity to the work that I’m doing here too. And they serve each other now. And that’s why my life and my career, yes, are incredibly multifaceted, but they feel also deeply integrated. Like they’re not separate anymore.

 

They’re all really tied. And I don’t wanna let the trumpet go because it absolutely serves the validity of the other work that I do on myself, most importantly, and with clients in our field too.

 

JOHN SNELL: Yeah, and it, I mean, it reminds me of what you’re saying that Steve Emery did with you as well. Integrating all of these different,

 

I don’t wanna say [01:06:00] disciplines, but aspects of your life into just. Your art form and

 

what you do. so well, thank you for filling us in on the career. I’m glad I asked ’cause I, I mean, that was fascinating. and then so, you so do, coaching now, I mean, you teach at the CI Cincinnati Conservatory, but you also do coaching. let me throw this at you. what outside of trumpet playing, what are two or three things you would recommend players do to improve themselves?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: the first thing I always say is. Don’t be afraid of getting therapy. Like I think cognitive behavioral therapy and internal family systems and emotion-focused therapy are three of my favorite things that can really help us to detach ourselves and our identities from this piece of metal that we pick up every day so that when we pick up the piece of metal, we remember the humans that we are.

 

and. That’s first. [01:07:00] there’s a couple of books that have been absolutely essential for me in this kind of mental resilience work, but also in just my like. my, acceptance of the bravery and authenticity that the arts are and what we do. And the book that actually changed my life during this six month break was a book by Brene Brown called The Gifts of Imperfection, letting Go of Who You’re Not and Embracing Who you Are.

 

it’s basically like textbook, all the things that we, end up. Equating as a part of our worth, whether it’s the perfectionism or the perfect house or the, you know, whatever it is. And it helps you unwind and be kind and be human with each other. And then I think outside of the trumpet, I say this to a lot of my students, what do you like to do outside of the trumpet?

 

what else brings you joy? You, the human outside of you attached to this piece of metal? what do you like? [01:08:00] and if there isn’t like an immediate answer, What sounds fun or what are you curious about? Take a dance class, go do improv, take an acting like so many different things that you would be absolutely blown away at.

 

How much it would intersect in some way with your trumpet life, or just add. Depth and beauty to your life generally, that would make you happier and healthier when you sit down and have the piece of metal in your hand. so those are three things. And then journaling, like I’m a big self-care journaling, know your own inner dialogue, be honest about how you show up and talk to yourself and get really clear about, what matters and what you want and need each day.

 

And those things can really help inform a healthier way of being. Trumpet or not?

 

JOHN SNELL: great advice. And it’s, I mean, it’s something just in my own journey, I, we, gloss over that stuff,

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: We [01:09:00] do.

 

JOHN SNELL: you know? you really have to be intentional about it. And I mean, I’m, I tell myself I should journal every day and I don’t, but I do other things. and,

 

then, and it’s usually in the most difficult times that.

 

You know, if you have that habit, you can rely on it and it gets you

 

through. and then if you’re like me and you don’t do it regularly, that’s the thing that drops first and then the downward spiral.

 

but seriously, it’s, I mean, we obviously, we come through, a lot of folks come through here and it’s amazing how many successful musicians don’t seem happy.

 

Or they don’t seem

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: it’s the truth. That’s the truth. Yep.

 

JOHN SNELL: they’re tied to the piece of metal. And the e

 

even if they’re financially successful, they don’t have fulfillment in what they do. And so I think, like the kinds of things you’re talking about allows us to find that journey so we can have both,

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: That’s the goal. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it’s true that like even our education systems don’t set people up to even start to look at that. Right. [01:10:00] And I remember I was just teaching at Royal College in London a couple of weeks ago, and some of my first questions to these kids are like, what do you like about music?

 

And it’s like a little bit of a Oh yeah, we, like this thing. Okay, what do I Right? And it’s this. Huh. Okay, now that completely informs the way that I’m gonna play this peskin for you or this JoVE for you. what? I’m bringing this because that’s how I’m uniquely designed to show up. I like this about music.

 

I like this about right? And so we’ve gotta to help all of us come back to the why of what do we do this for? Why do we keep putting our lips to this funny hollow tube every day? You know? And, what keeps us wanting to get better? so.

 

JOHN SNELL: Yeah, and correct me if I’m wrong, I mean you were, you started a program at Longie, right?

 

About that, involved this, can you tell us a little bit about

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah. so launching was in a process of, changing their curriculum fully to something called the Catalyst curriculum. where students had a lot of [01:11:00] agency and autonomy over the two year graduate degree, so they can choose their own classes and kind of design a graduate education based on what they wanted to do.

 

but with that, they needed a coaching program to help. Facilitate their knowledge of their values, their knowledge of the field, you know, the knowledge of themselves so that they can make really clear, informed decisions about the classes they take, and then the trajectory of their life. So they asked me to build a coaching program and to become a coach, and then to train other faculty and staff in the language of coaching, which is not that.

 

it’s gonna take away from the way that they naturally teach, but it will help them to ask even more powerful and effective questions of their students and to help them dig deep into maybe that performance didn’t go well, or that rehearsal felt really off. what about that didn’t maybe jive with your values or your way of being in the world, help them.

 

To know themselves a little bit better. We all know as trumpet teachers, we tend to be more like half counselor, half trumpet teacher anyway. And so getting these coaching skills into the hands of [01:12:00] music educators is actually quite a passion of mine because I think we can do better job of. Of helping our students teach themselves and understand themselves rather than just immediately assuming that we have the answer and our experience is gonna be the way that their experience goes.

 

So that whole program, I got to kind of design from the ground up and it was really useful in seeing how this could work at a conservatory level. and yeah, it still exists at Longie today in a slightly different iteration than when I was there, but really thankful that I got to play with that environment there.

 

JOHN SNELL: another thing I wanna bring up is, and this remind me, I think this was last year you joined the, Canadian Brass,

 

or was it two years ago now? I can’t keep track of time.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Time does fly. I, yeah. I finished my final concert with them at the end of April last year, and then I got to play one more time with them in August, but yeah, a year ago now.

 

JOHN SNELL: was that a, I mean, that had to have been a shift. ’cause I mean, they tour all the time. First of all, tell us how that came about and then what that experience is I mean, I was, [01:13:00] well we’ve had, probably more US presidents than trumpet players in the Canadian brass.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah. I mean, when you get a call like that, it’s, you know, somebody who plays basketball getting their shot at the NBA, right? This is a really big deal in our field. We all know the prominence that Canadian Brass has played, and so when the invitation came as a, would this be something that you could fit into your life right now, it was.

 

Very much something that I took with my family in mind and with the thought that we’re gonna try this out for this year to see how this goes and feels to all of us. I mean, my, my children are 10 and 12, so they’re at a wonderful age, both in their sense of independence, but they’re, they have different needs of us too.

 

It would’ve been a lot harder if they were really young than at this age. so yeah, I mean, the invitation came, played a couple of shows with them. we. The hard part about it was that I’d already had a lot of my solo and residencies and coaching work already really booked for the year, and then they called and then I had to make [01:14:00] sure that all of the Canadian brass stuff fit in the midst of what was already a pretty busy touring life.

 

So the year was insane because I did both of the tours, I did all of my solo stuff and all the Canadian brass tours, and I just wasn’t home. and even the times when I wasn’t on tour with Canadian Brass, I was playing solo recitals and doing all the other stuff, so. On the one hand, it was insane on my family.

 

On the other hand, it gave me a chance to look at both, like where do I fit? Where do I feel like my light can be most useful in the world? Like how does this fit in terms of the grand scheme of what I wanna be doing and how I wanna show up? And you know, I’m so thankful for the time that I had with Canadian Brass and I learned a ton, and I got to play in some of the coolest concert halls of my life.

 

Truly like I’ll never. I’ll always say that the Berlin Phil Harmonic Chamber Hall is the top hall of my life. I’ll never play in a place better. It was so wonderful and many peak experiences came, from that year of travel. and what’s really clear is that I love this very integrated, you know, [01:15:00] solo and coaching and workshops and variety filled life of teaching where I get to really keep my hand in all of them.

 

And I knew that. The travel with our family and all of that just wasn’t gonna be in the long run sustainable for all of the parts. so it was, cool and I’m really thankful that I got the opportunity.

 

JOHN SNELL: did you get to keep the sneakers?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Oh yeah.

 

JOHN SNELL: Yes. and then, so speaking of solo career, this is something that, I mean, there’s not a book written this, or if there is, I’m not familiar with it. I mean, how do you develop a career as a soloist? I mean, that’s gotta even be more difficult, obviously, than winning a, symphony position or freelancing or things like that.

 

So what, advice could you give for someone who wants to be a soloist and perform recitals and do residencies, things like that?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: I mean, it’s always what makes you unique. what sets you apart from all the other players and how can you, Live more deeply into the thing that makes you unique. I’m different than Mary. I’m different than Rex. I’m different than [01:16:00] all of these other people, and we each have our lane and our place to be in the world, and there’s room for all of us to develop this.

 

It really comes down for me to cultivating relationships and maintaining relationships and being kind and genuine and following up and being willing to put yourself out there and accept lots of nos and accept. Quite a few yeses, and that’s a nature of our field. I think some soloists have a lot of success with management, being able to get them into the, You know, better recital series and on the bigger stages with orchestras and that can get you to the presenters that are doing all of that stuff. for me, that hasn’t necessarily been my path because I really like to have a little bit of the ownership and flexibility of my schedule. Because it’s a massively difficult puzzle to maintain.

 

So that just looks like reaching out to conductors that I know and sharing that I have this super cool recorder concerto that I have now string orchestra versions to. And [01:17:00] here’s the recording you can listen to and I would love to play it with your orchestra. And if they come back and say, not this season, but let’s look at next, then that’s how this stuff builds.

 

And so, at least for me, Most of the time that I send an ask, it’s based on a relationship that I’ve had over all of these years, right? We talked about NTC, we talked about conductors that you’ve met over the years in your gigs, and if you maintain that and you show up and you have something that helps them remember who you are, then.

 

There’s a chance that you might be on their radar for these, you know, solo opportunities. the competitions, of course, are a way to get your name out there into those spaces. And then of course, for management things, like the concert artist guild, competitions and all of that are a way to start in that direction.

 

yeah. But that’s how it’s looked for me at least. Just emails and connections and putting yourself out there.

 

JOHN SNELL: And staying finding your own lane. I think

 

that’s, important. ’cause you’re

 

not, Yeah,

 

You, you don’t want to [01:18:00] be exact copies of the folks that came before you or someone who’s Yeah.

 

In the same market as you.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Absolutely. Yeah.

 

JOHN SNELL: let’s get down to the nitty gritty now. If you wouldn’t mind telling me what, what’s your, do you have a daily routine, warmup, maintenance, that sort of thing?

 

What does

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yes, we’re on the Trump podcast after all. Okay. Yeah, I’m really, I’ve been doing the same warmup routine. For probably the last 15 years. And, it starts with the six notes of Flexis Lori Frank’s book, the Caruso six notes. But I don’t tend to make it very isometric in like the Calisthenic way, but just in a sound exploration way, soft lip bends, letting any tension be out of the sound.

 

exploring where my sound and the interface between my breath and sound is that day. On those six notes, I’ll do an exercise by a trumpet player by the name of Jay Roseto called Interval Studies. He has a, book out that this is from, and it’s essentially. It’s what I call my A DHD long tones. I, don’t [01:19:00] like long tones, but I like to listen carefully to my sound.

 

And I like to think of moving notes just like long tones. How connected are we moving from one note to the next? And that really helps set up that listening for me. From there, I do Jim Thompson’s buzzing book one through four and six and nine, nine is the pedal tones. and I’d say with this. Isn’t for everybody, but I have found that if you treat the mouthpiece, not like it is the resonator that the trumpet is, but it, that it is a tool for, helping you let go of some tension and lightly interfacing with a vibration.

 

It can be useful. So I buzz really softly and I do not try to create heavy resonance on the mouthpiece in any way, shape, or form. But I find that buzzing can be really useful. It’s not for everybody. But it has really helped me. so buzzing one through four, six and nine. And then I do attack practice.

 

And attack practice is, again, we’ve talked about this hour and a half [01:20:00] that. I really make sure that I’m getting the right height and, inspiratory capacity breath to set up a passive expiration in the most relaxed, resonant sound on every node of the range on every instrument that I play. So attack practice is where I integrate my small horns into my fundamentals.

 

It’s where I’ll do some attacks on B Flat, and then I’ll go to Feluga Horn, and then I’ll jump to E-Flat and then I’ll do piccolo and I’m making sure that I can easily. Shift between at least five horns, which is what I typically play in a solo recital, in my warmup routine, so that everything feels as easy when I’m shifting and that I know exactly the right kind of breath I need for any note that I’m coming in on in any dynamic, any range.

 

from there, usually I’ll add just a little bit more piccolo flexibility. Clark slurs, That’s about it really. And then I’ll start to look at whatever repertoire I have that week and, you know, anything that is needed there. But that’s pretty much the routine every day,

 

JOHN SNELL: every day, even [01:21:00] when you’re on the road, things like that. It’s,

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: absolutely.

 

Yeah, I’m a fan of taking some time off too, but but that is really the routine that is absolutely steadfast for me.

 

JOHN SNELL: Wow. And you brought up, the five horns you use, in your recitals. normally this is a short section, but take as long as you need. what equipment are you using? I know you, you endorse gr mouthpieces.

 

you wanna talk about those a little bit? And then of course, let’s go through the horns.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Oh my goodness. Okay. so I’ve been playing Yamaha for a while and I did just sign on the dotted line to become a Yamaha artist, so thank you. So I’ll tell you the names I’m really bad at models We’ve got.

 

JOHN SNELL: And I, have a hard time keeping track of the Yamaha model models.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: I don’t even know. Is this gonna be helpful? The YCR 6 3, 3 5 2. Do you know what that is?

 

JOHN SNELL: it’s a Yamaha.

 

Yeah. it’ll be useful to the folks listening who

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Okay, here we go. Okay. YFH, 6 3 1 Z[01:22:00]

 

JOHN SNELL: The

 

Flugel, it’s a shoe flugel. Yeah, that’s a good one.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: And then I play YTR 9 4 4 5 ch.

 

JOHN SNELL: Okay. Yep.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yt. R nine six. Come on John.

 

JOHN SNELL: I’ve,

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Just kidding

 

JOHN SNELL: I’m terrible at these.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: me.

 

JOHN SNELL: I can align them, but don’t, tell me which model they are.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: 3, 3, 5.

 

JOHN SNELL: Okay. That’s,

 

Yeah,

 

there’s the Bergeron. I know that one. Yeah.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: and that one actually is interesting. I just picked out this one, added some heavy valve caps to the bottom. and I was looking for a lightness, actually, like a really whispery sound, but I also wanted it to have a depth for this so Sebelius transcription that I play and with gr mouthpieces in the, The combo of this, horn doesn’t light up like you would think a bergeron model would. It’s got a lot of colors, sensitive colors to it, so I love it. They say Bergeron and they think different things, so

 

JOHN SNELL: and, well, it’s interesting not [01:23:00] to get into it, but I mean, that horn is bigger than people

 

think it is. ’cause, I mean, Wayne’s a strong player and even though he’s known for the high notes, it’s, yeah.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah. I, really love it. It’s got a lot, friend for me, I’m a light finesse player. It, really does that well. And the thing that I would say, the reason that I’m a Yamaha artist too, is that they do really give you this kind of blank canvas with their instruments in order for you to be the artist that you are.

 

Right. And that’s what I’ve really found to be true. I’ve been playing my Yamaha. E-flat and flugel have been mainstays for my whole entire career. And then these other horns are newer additions to my, ensemble of instruments. but my favorite new edition of all of these, I don’t know if this is it, YTR 9 8 3 5.

 

Is the last one that they, put in my Yamaha list is their cornet. I’ve been looking, I’ve been playing Smith Watkins Cornets for a while, but I haven’t found that the low register has been super, super solid and in tune and, [01:24:00] I just got this Yamaha Cornet. I don’t remember exactly which one of those that it is, but I tell you like my Carnival Venice and some stuff I did in England recently, just it, has a beautiful bright.

 

A bit of a bright cornet sound. Of course, if I played your light little Dennis Wick cornet V shape, it’d probably be fine. It would sound like the British guys. But, it’s a gorgeous cornet that I just love playing and it’s very even across the registers. so yeah, so that, those are the instruments that I play now.

 

JOHN SNELL: Do you know which GR model you have your own model, or

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Oh yeah. I’ve been with GR since I was like 20, and he’s been fitting me. And what’s interesting about my gr fitting journey is that as I’ve gotten more and more efficient, mouthpiece size has gotten a bit smaller, and so I’ve re. Refitted a couple of times with Gary over the years. Steve Emory himself is a gr mouthpiece fitter, so he can do that sort of testing now.

 

and I don’t know how much longer Gary will be in the business. but I’ve been so thankful for Gary’s support over these years [01:25:00] and he’s really been really, he’s Uncle Gary to our family. He’s Uncle Gary to my kids, and he’s a very dear friend of our family’s and we love, him. I play the G 66 series and so all of my.

 

horns. I said this recently in an Instagram reel that like, the reason it’s easy to switch between horns is that the rim is the same, it’s the G 66, whether I have, frugal in my hand or e-flat in my hand. It’s just different in terms of the shank and the interface between the trumpets except for my piccolo and I play a g 62 PI think it’s just 62 p.

 

It’s, you know, a lot smaller, but it feels exactly, right for what I need for the piccolo stuff.

 

JOHN SNELL: All right. Yeah, we got, geeky. I love it. We brought, and we brought up heavy valve caps. That’s great. Only took us an hour and 13 minutes, but we did it.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: it. My husband even got me like green valve tops and he’s your favorite color is green and you do all this soloing, so now you have flashy green. I’m like, oh my gosh. I’m like, [01:26:00] I’m so not a gearhead. Although I do have a reeves valve alignment on my boxy that I play for most of my chamber orchestra stuff.

 

And it’s the best, still the best tour, and in fact. It’s the horn I stole from my husband, and it’s the horn that Terry Everson said to my husband, if he ever gets rid of it, Terry’s buying it. So that’s y’all right there?

 

JOHN SNELL: Oh, appreciate it. Appreciate it.

 

and I know we’re running outta time here. I did wanted to bring up, you, you did a, released an album last year, upcycle.

 

Correct. tell us about that.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Yeah, it’s my first, like official album. I had a, hymn album that I released in 2007 that was never like a real release. This is my first one with a label and actually on Spotify and iTunes. It’s all new, transcriptions for trumpet and piano, mostly a piano. Music. So we’ve got everything from the Clara Schumann piano Sonata, which was only discovered in 1991, but written back in the mid 18 hundreds.

 

And it is a gorgeous sonata now for trumpet and piano. I’ll be playing it at the International Trumpet [01:27:00] Guild coming up in May. and it’s four movements and it has E-Flat and Cornet and, See, and it’s just an incredible romantic piece of music. another piece that I love that I’ve mentioned a little bit earlier, the Sam Martini Recorder Concerto is on there and it’s like the best of Hummel and Hayden times 50.

 

so really hard flashy and virtuous and really requires as. As we’ve been talking about efficiency in terms of minimal amount of air, used to be able to make long phrases as a recorder would. So that’s been a great skill set to develop. There’s Bach and Albany and Rachmaninoff and Sebelius on the album too.

 

And all of these transcriptions were done for me by my husband, Nathan Tai. and if people like it, they can go and actually work on the transcriptions themselves. All of the arrangements are available for purchase and you can go to Maple Rise Music, M-A-P-L-E, rise, RISE Music. Com and you can order buy any of those PDFs.

 

JOHN SNELL: Cool. And we’ll have the links to all of these. So, [01:28:00] down in the description and show notes so folks can,

 

who can’t spell or wanna just click instead of search, make it as easy as possible. and then, anything up coming up in the pipeline? You gonna do a volume two or

 

Anything

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: about a volume two. Yeah, we have, I think he has about 50 min more minutes of transcriptions ready to go. That, I need to, I’ll probably perform a couple of new things that are not on the album at ITG. so yeah, there are quite a few things coming up that for that, a volume two potentially in the works.

 

and yeah, that, that’ll be it. So if you’re at ITG, hopefully you guys can come hear some of the stuff live, so it’ll be fun.

 

JOHN SNELL: Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, Ashley, absolute pleasure to have you on here. we have your website, ashley halite.com, and that’s T-I-T-I-G-H-E.

 

For those of you who do like to spell it out and we’ll have the links to your website, anywhere else, social media,

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: yep. I’m pretty active on Instagram. That’s at Ashley Hal Tie, so you can find me there. I have some Facebook, but I’m much more active on Instagram, [01:29:00] so go over there and follow me.

 

JOHN SNELL: Yeah, we’ll have all of the links to that stuff and a wonderful website. You have your presentations on there and links to your YouTube and a

 

lot of great resources and information for folks. So I highly recommend checking it out. and then we’ll have to do volume two when the, maybe when the next album comes out.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Sounds like a.

 

JOHN SNELL: We’ll have you on here, Ashley, it’s been an absolute honor. thank you so much. before I let you go, I have one last question for you that I ask all my guests. If you can leave our listeners with your best piece of advice, what would that be?

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: To quote Brene Brown, talk to yourself like you would talk to someone you love.

 

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. I love Brene, and that’s a wonderful place to put that advice. Thank you so much, Ashley, it’s been an honor.

 

ASHLEY HALL-TIGHE: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

 

​Outro:

JOHN SNELL: Well, I’m reminded time and time again that I’m the luckiest person in the world. this is my job to get to interview these wonderful players. And Ashley is no exception. we have never met, well, that’s not true. She did a valve alignment and I looked up her record and I did the [01:30:00] alignment. So chances are we did meet at an ITG at some point.

 

10 years ago or so, and, I, you know, honestly, I don’t remember. I’ll blame it on the parent brain or maybe all of the high Gs that one hears in the vendor room of ITG. nonetheless, this was the first time we had a significant conversation and what a pleasure it was. so thank you Ashley, for sharing experiences, your life story up to this point so far.

 

I’m really excited to see, what you have up next. and especially man, the, your just story of, being a, prodigy, Reaching success at such a young age, winning NTC in, what did she say, seventh or eighth grade? And, how she defined herself by the competitions and the auditions.

 

And then in her mid twenties to just start over again, realizing that there was, you know, she was coming up to a cliff and the inevitable would’ve happened if she didn’t start over again and dedicate herself to playing. Low [01:31:00] Cs and low Gs, lower register and just starting from scratch again, and to build herself back up from that, just story of dedication and perseverance.

 

it’s why we do this podcast. You know, life is not a straight line. our musical journey is not a straight line. And these stories just reinforce that time and time again. so I appreciate, Ashley, your honesty, your authenticity, all the things you talk about. and where your career has taken you, and I just absolutely love it.

 

This is one of those episodes. I’m gonna go back and listen again and again for myself. www.ashleyhalltighe.com We’ll make sure to have the links to. Not only her website, but her social media all, so you can follow her. Make sure she’s played posts, wonderful content on social media, on Instagram.

 

I’m a regular follower of her content. so we’ll make sure we have all the links to those down below, in the description of the podcast and of course on [01:32:00] the show notes. We have some great podcasts coming up. speaking of IWBC, I interviewed the founder of the International Women’s Brass Conference, Susan Slaughter, not only the founder of IWBC, but the principal trumpet of the St.

 

Louis Symphony for 40 years. And oh, by the way, the first female principal, brass player in a major orchestra ever. just an incredible interview. you’re not gonna believe some of the stories, well, you might believe some of the stories, that are so unfortunate in this world. but, speaking of perseverance and dedication to her craft, Susan is just an amazing individual, so you’re not gonna wanna miss that interview. That should be up next.

We also have Eric Baker, you’ll know him “Trumpets Mic’d Up”, the viral sensation on TikTok and Instagram, but also a fine trumpet player and educator in his own [01:33:00] right. Although we have a fun conversation about how he practiced all those years, so that he could be known on, social media.

 

but it’s actually a beautiful conversation about bringing people together and, so you’re not gonna wanna miss that one that’s coming up. I have Liesl Whitaker. Again, man. Talk about groundbreaking, breaking the glass ceiling. Liesel’s an amazing lead player and was the first female lead player in, in a military band.

 

the Ambassadors and the Army Blues among many other things. I think she’s playing on Broadway now, And Marie Bey talk about groundbreaking and, Ashley talked about her in this interview. I’m excited to say, she’ll be on a future episode as well. So hit that. Subscribe button, hit that, hit that notifications button if you’re on YouTube now that we’re prominently there as well, so you don’t miss an episode.

 

And if you’re interested in brass playing outside of the trumpet world, [01:34:00] we have the Trombone Corner podcast that Noah Gladstone and I co-host together. And, we just had a great episode with Michael Ds, fabulous jazz. trombonist again among many other things that he does. and then the horn signal, the Horn podcast that I co-host with Preston Shepherd.

 

We are at episode five now. Still a young podcast, but we’ve already had some great players from the LA area, and, Jacksonville, Kate Caliendo, Kate Warren, a lot of fabulous players on the horn signal so far, even though we’re less than a year in. So that’s it for now. Thank you for listening.

 

See you next episode. Until next time, let’s go out and make some music.