Marie Speziale Trumpet Interview

Welcome to the show notes for Episode #132 of The Other Side of the Bell – A Trumpet Podcast. This episode features trumpeter Marie Speziale. Listen to or download the episode below:

About Marie Speziale

Marie Speziale episode links

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
• Photos – Courtesy of Marie Speziale
• 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 playing To the next level, I’m John Snell, and I’ll be your host for this episode. Joining me today is Trumpeter Marie Speziale. We’ll get to Marie’s interview here in a moment after a word from our sponsor and some trumpet news.

[00:01:00]

JOHN SNELL: Well, as I have warned in previous episodes, we are getting into silly season or travel season, depending on how you look at it. we have in a couple weeks the International Woman’s Brass Conference in, Hartford, [00:02:00] Connecticut at the Hart School, and the dates for that May 21st, two 24th if you’re interested in getting a valve alignment.

At the booth during that conference, you can go to bob reeves.com/i wbc. We’ll also have some guard bags. We’ll have plenty of mutes. Uh, for your other brass friends, we’ll have our trombone and horn mouthpieces, as well as the full line of trumpet mouthpieces. So if you have any of, uh, your other brass, uh, section mates coming, let them know to come by.

The Bob Reeves Brass. Booth. so look forward to being out there. Uh, virtuosity music, uh, from Boston will be next to us, so we’re gonna have between virtuosity and our booth, we’re gonna have a lot of fun products for you to try out, maybe purchase if you’re interested. And of course, do a valve alignment if you want.

Again, the link for that: bobreeves.com/iwbc. Hope to see you there. Two days later, I fly back from Connecticut to la and then I head on the road up to Salt Lake City for the [00:03:00] International Trumpet Guild Conference held at the University of Utah this year. The dates for that May 28th through the 31st, that one is almost booked up with alignment.

So if you’re interested in getting a valve alignment, go to bobreeves.com/ig and you’ll have, uh. The opportunity to schedule a slot. we go all out for ITG of course. So there’s gonna be tons of reeves mouthpieces, tons of guard bags. we’ll have some great Shires instruments. We’ll have some Charlie Davis instruments.

we’re a little low on Van Lar right now, but, uh, we have a Chuck Findley and a fluger horn in stock. Uh, so we’ll. If that doesn’t sell in the next few weeks, we’ll have those there. And, we’ll have Brett Kendall, myself and Matt Collins at the booth to help you choose the right equipment or share some good stories.

Have a good laugh. Look forward to seeing you at, uh, the ITG conference, May 28th to the 31st. A few weeks after that, we’ll be heading to Tennessee. Just outside of Nashville, actually, [00:04:00] Clarksville, Tennessee at Austin P University for the William Adam Trumpet Festival. www.williamadamtrumpet.com has all the information for the festival.

And if you’re interested in the valve alignment, you can go to http://bobreeves.com/williamAdam, and, uh, pre-book your alignment for that. Another one that’s also booking up pretty quickly. Uh, that’s gonna be a wonderful festival as always. And, uh, we also have a special podcast coming up, a little bonus episode, special panel, that I’m recording actually in a day or two here.

So we’ll see. Uh. A lot of great guests showing up similar to what we did with the William Adam Tribute podcast, way back when, uh, episode 15, more than a hundred episodes ago. we did a nice panel discussion, in tribute to William Adam. So look for that in the next episode or two to find out more about the kinds of things you would expect at the William Adam Trumpet Festival.

that’s all the information I have for this episode. I want to get right to my interview with Marie Speziale. [00:05:00]

​

JOHN SNELL: Marie Speziale made history as the first woman trumpeter in a major American symphony orchestra, serving as associate principal trumpet of the Cincinnati Symphony for over three decades, a trailblazer on stage, and in the classroom.

She’s performed under the baton of legends like Stravinsky and Bernstein, jammed with Duke Ellington and taught at top institutions, including Indiana University and Rice University, A founding member of Monarch Brass and a past president of the International Woman’s Brass Conference, Marie’s influence spans continents, generations, and genres, and her legacy continues to inspire musicians worldwide. And now here’s my interview with Marie Speziale.

​JOHN SNELL: Well, I am so honored to have on the other side of the bell with me today. Marie Speziale. Marie, thanks for joining me. How you doing?

MARIE SPEZIALE: It’s a pleasure to be with you, John.

JOHN SNELL: And, uh, we might uh, get joined by Nico in the background at some point during the [00:06:00] interview. Hopefully

MARIE SPEZIALE: He can be very vocal at times.

JOHN SNELL: Nico’s your dog. Wait, what kind of dog is Nico?

MARIE SPEZIALE: He’s part, have an and part Yorkshire Terrier, or he is my terrorist as I call him.

JOHN SNELL: I think that equates to a lot of personality. If I understand my dog breeds correctly.

MARIE SPEZIALE: very much so.

JOHN SNELL: I love it. so hopefully Nico will join us at some point, but, uh, before we get to dogs, let’s, uh, let’s talk about the trumpet and let’s start right from the beginning. How, uh, how did you find the trumpet or did the trumpet end up, uh, finding you?

MARIE SPEZIALE: I think it was more like the trumpet found me, actually the first time that I heard trumpet live was in my living room. I, uh, grew up here in a Latin community, IBOR city, which you may or may not know, was

JOHN SNELL: Hm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: cigar capital of the world back in the 20th century.

JOHN SNELL: Really?

MARIE SPEZIALE: both my parents made the hand rolled Cuban cigars for a living. So, my dad, loved music. He had taught himself [00:07:00] to play banjo, guitar, mandolin. And when he moved the, the family from New York to Tampa, Florida, he became enamored of the Cuban music, the Latino music.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: That’s when he taught himself to play piano, and he found himself in, one of the local bands. Uh, they were known as,

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: and from time to time, the band would rehearse at our home. I can remember so many times, you know, the family moving all the. All the living room furniture to the side and the musicians coming in and rehearsing in our home. was just, just a little, little

JOHN SNELL: So some of your earliest memories are a band in your living room. I love it. I love it. Wow.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: uh, so have you had the Conjunto band in rehearsing and then did that develop into playing the trumpet or.

MARIE SPEZIALE: The progression was, well, I, and, [00:08:00] and at that point, I, we, I was very young and, and this went on for a few years until, at my elementary school it was decided that we should have music classes. And school system, Tampa school system hired a teacher to provide. Music for the students at the, at the elementary school, which I attended. we were all given a, musical aptitude test. I scored a perfect score. So the music teacher contacted my mom and dad. ’cause at that point they were, their plan was to try to organize a band. They wanted a band for the elementary school.

JOHN SNELL: Hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: And, uh, the teacher, Mr. Reto my parents and said, your child really to have a lot of potential.

She scored perfect on our music test, little aptitude test, and we’d love to have her in the band. so there was a conversation with my parents and Mr. [00:09:00] Reto and, uh, that point there was very minimal disposable income. So, the band director was trying to guide my mom and dad toward clarinet or flute, or possibly saxophone. But when I was asked what I wanted to play, my immediate response was trumpet. That’s what I wanted to play. And,

JOHN SNELL: Interesting.

MARIE SPEZIALE: uh, and, um, this is interesting as well, when I professed that I wanted to play trumpet, Mr. Reto was, I guess, trying to convince my parents that little girls didn’t play trumpet.

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: those were the words, little girls don’t play trumpet, so we should try to move her toward another instrument. And as it turns out, we were fortunate enough to find someone not in the immediate family, but one of the. Just more distant relatives. We found out that they owned a cornet, [00:10:00] and so I wound up being able to borrow that cort, and that’s, that’s how I started.

JOHN SNELL: So you started on, you,

MARIE SPEZIALE: with a cornet.

JOHN SNELL: you started on cornet ’cause you had a, you, you were able to borrow one and I mean, would, did you feel discouraged when your teacher said, oh, you should be playing something else? You know? Nope. You just,

MARIE SPEZIALE: I was just really adamant

JOHN SNELL: okay.

MARIE SPEZIALE: fact for a while there, nothing was happening and they, they kept saying, well. my parents said, well, maybe she should just be playing piano. At least we have a piano in the house. We don’t have to put out any money. That kind of thing, you

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: And then that’s when they, you know, started pursuing the, the, can we borrow an instrument.

And I, and I, I guess they started putting out feelers. Anyway, I was delighted when I found out that they did find someone in the, at least in the neighborhood, and it was part of the family that had this instrument. It was, it was all beat up cornet.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I remember having, having to use my dad’s belt to hold the case [00:11:00] together.

You know, the valves were frozen, the bell was, and I’d give anything to ha I wish I had that instrument now,

JOHN SNELL: Uh,

MARIE SPEZIALE: just as a, this is what I started

JOHN SNELL: yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: you know, as, as luck would have it, I think it was really fortuitous that I started on a cort and not a trumpet. At the time I was. I could see all the little guys around me with the shiny new trumpets and I sat there with cornet.

But I was happy ’cause I was, I got the instrument that I wanted to

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: But I think it was really helpful that I started with a cornet. ’cause I’m only five foot two, if you can imagine me at nine, 10 years old. I’m not very, not very tall, not very Chubby. Yes. as we all know, that whole gravity thing with the trumpet, when you start to get la you know, and anyway, it’s, you know, obviously the response feels a [00:12:00] little easier.

It’s more user friendly, the conical properties and all that. it turns out, it was blessing in disguise to start with, with cornet. I, and honestly, I promote that. When I know that someone, uh, when I’m at a, I’m talking to musicians and talking to teachers doing master classes, I say if you, if you’re starting a young person, especially a young little young girl or even a little boy, boy who’s not in a really muscular, start ’em on a cort,

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: do them a favor,

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Can always switch to the trumpet later and.

MARIE SPEZIALE: they’ll eventually get to the trumpet.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah, yeah. Or maybe not. Maybe they’ll stick with the cornet their whole career. Uh, I love, so did, I mean, did, did the, cornet come naturally to you? Uh, once you started playing? What was your progression like?

MARIE SPEZIALE: The progression, I, yeah, I, again, it was, it was obvious that, that I, that I had, uh, I had, I had talent, I had some

JOHN SNELL: [00:13:00] Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: and I, I, I would, uh, pick up things by ear. I hear, I’d hear the band playing, you know, and I would imitate what they were playing. And, my dad realized right away that I was starting to, to make progress rather quickly. he started, uh, he started inquiring in the area, uh, of his, his, uh, fellow musicians. He wanted to find out who the trumpet teachers were in the area because he was really adamant about learning to read music because he never had the opportunity to learn to read music. He was an apprentice cigar maker at age 11.

JOHN SNELL: Hm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: He loved music, everything from here, but he never learned to read. So he was insistent that I learned to read music and that I have a proper teacher. he found my, trumpet teacher. His name was Robert Price. He was an excellent trumpet player, but he was. More than [00:14:00] anything. He was a gifted teacher, not just in trumpet.

This man really, um, the fundamentals of music to all his students. He was a, a band director when I met him. a band director in a junior high school. And, within a couple of years of our working together, he was promoted to, a brand new high school here in Tampa, which was in those days, very premier high school.

JOHN SNELL: Hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: so I, I started studying with him on a regular basis. And my first solo in the seventh grade was the Caral Venice,

JOHN SNELL: Wow. It’s seventh grade.

MARIE SPEZIALE: the ar ar

JOHN SNELL: Geez.

MARIE SPEZIALE: version.

JOHN SNELL: So you went from zero to 60 and pretty, pretty quickly. I, wow.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I was, I was really committed. I was really committed to that [00:15:00] instrument. I absolutely loved what I was

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: And, uh, again, as luck would have it, and not just luck, it was, it was, uh, my parents, invested a lot in my career.

JOHN SNELL: Hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: they sacrificed a lot and, they made it possible for me to attend the junior high school where my trumpet teacher taught. And it was his idea. I was apparently just progressing. So very quickly, Mr. Price, uh, talked to my folks and suggested that if it would be possible to have me attend the junior high school, it would be great because. I, I would have his, his, his voice in my ear,

JOHN SNELL: Every day.

MARIE SPEZIALE: what happened.

JOHN SNELL: Every day.

MARIE SPEZIALE: wound up, wound up, yes, my dad would have to go to work in the morning, a half hour earlier to, to do whatever he, he had to do.

My mom and dad work side by side, so he would do whatever he had to do with the cigars.

JOHN SNELL: [00:16:00] Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: He would then come pick me up pick my mom up, take her to work, and she filled in the gap while he drove me to North, north Tampa. Back in those days, there were no expressways. Then he would go back to work, play, work the whole day, take my home mom home in the afternoon, and then come and pick me up in the afternoon.

And sometimes, you know, he’d have to wait while we rehearsed or whatever. Anyway, he did this three years of junior high school and two years of high school.

JOHN SNELL: Just so you would have that opportunity.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yes. So I, because then at that point, Mr. Price went to the, the Premier High School, as I said, I had that man’s Mr. Price’s voice in my, my

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: the longest time, and he could supervise me.

And I can’t begin to know John. I really, I can’t begin to know what my career would’ve looked like without this man.

JOHN SNELL: Wow.

MARIE SPEZIALE: seriously rested right [00:17:00] squarely on him. that’s not to say that I, I was blessed and fortunate enough to work with some amazing teachers, and I had wonderful mentors and you know, it’s, it does take a village, but those fundamentals

JOHN SNELL: And.

MARIE SPEZIALE: and I didn’t realize this until I was well into my orchestral career. I was home visiting with my folks and my mom had some, some newspaper clippings and photos and things, and she said, Marie, can we, you know, go through these? I need to know, let’s see what we can organize them. so I, she started pulling out all these pictures and I, she had a picture of that little elementary We’re all, we’re at the neighborhood, the, the only one and only neighborhood theater back in those days, and we looked like we’re all across the front of the stage there, probably 18 or 20 [00:18:00] of us all boys. And I’m on the end, the little girl on the end, and I’m looking at this picture and I’m looking at him and I’m going, oh my God. I sat on the end and there were like one, two, but three guys. And then the, the fourth guy in, fourth little boy in, he and I both wound up with major orchestra jobs. That fourth person was Ade Sanchez,

JOHN SNELL: Really?

MARIE SPEZIALE: principal of the National Symphony Orchestra, and he studied with Bob Price.

JOHN SNELL: Wow.

MARIE SPEZIALE: So I, I don’t know if, I’m sure he would acknowledge Bob Price if

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: talk.

Yeah, so here’s this little, talking about inner city, you know, barrio Latino. We were mostly Italians, Cubans, some Mexicans, some Puerto Ricans. Real mixture, And all blue collar. [00:19:00] All blue collar. But here we were out, out in that little band of 18, 20 kids, Two, two orchestra players.

JOHN SNELL: major orchestra players. That’s incredible. And yeah. What a, yeah, what an honor to bring Mr. Price up. I, I gotta ask you like, uh, you know, because I was fortunate to have a, a really influential band director as well. What, what are some of his sayings or principles that stick with you after all these years?

There’s gotta be something, right?

MARIE SPEZIALE: sure, sure, sure. She said one of the, he, he really focused on tone quality. For him, it was all about the tone. And he would say, and he, this is what he would convey to, to the, the groups that he conducted as well. he was say, I don’t care if you can play the flat of the bumblebee hanging from your toes.

If you don’t have a go, a good tone, nobody’s gonna wanna hear you. Okay. And then he said, see things like corny things like don’t worry about the sharps and the flats, and until you learn the two and things like

JOHN SNELL: I love. I like that. I love that one. [00:20:00] Don’t worry about the sharps and flats until you’ve learned the tune. Oh, man. Well, that’s great. Uh, but, uh, yeah, shout out to all the band directors out there. They’re out there in the trenches and yeah, so many of us wouldn’t be where we are today if they didn’t, you know, start us young and inspire us and give us fundamentals, you know?

MARIE SPEZIALE: and he

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: he did. He did the, uh, he was terrific at the fundamentals and, and, and all the

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: was very passionate about teaching school, teaching, you know, teaching, uh, band. He

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Oh, amazing.

MARIE SPEZIALE: the band director, you know.

JOHN SNELL: So, so as, as you’re getting through high school, uh, was it, uh, an easy choice to go on in music? I mean, was that your life’s goal or.

MARIE SPEZIALE: you know, I never even thought about it. I just did it. It, it never occurred to me to make a choice. It was, for me, it was just a given. I was

JOHN SNELL: Hmm

MARIE SPEZIALE: gonna, you know, I didn’t sit and figure out, well, let’s see, what am I gonna do for the rest of my, it was, it was just there. Like I said, it chose me

JOHN SNELL: [00:21:00] Hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: and I was. You know, raring to go no matter what.

JOHN SNELL: And was, were you geared towards orchestral plane at this time, or did any particular aspirations?

MARIE SPEZIALE: no. In fact, back in those days, if John Phillips Susa was classical music to me, you know, if somebody, seriously, if

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: had said to me when I was a little kid in, in that 18 or 20 piece little band in elementary school that I’m gonna be, you know, sitting in a symphony orchestra as my primary job, I probably would’ve laughed in their faces. No, it was, I grew up playing Afro-Cuban music. ‘ cause I, I, I would imitate what I’d hear. You know, that one, that was it. Afro-Cuban music commercial,

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: uh. The whole, the whole picture started except for obviously the, the band, the rep that we played in the band and, and playing, you know, solos at contests and things like that. [00:22:00] It, the whole orchestral thing started to resonate with me, in junior high school. I, I was fortunate enough to go up to Florida State University in those days. They had a four or five week music camp. fact, uh, John Marcellus the trombone.

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Sadly we just lost him.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Just a few months ago. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: a few. And I just saw him about a year

JOHN SNELL: Uh.

MARIE SPEZIALE: was my area. John and I were at the same camp together. He was in the high school division, and I was in the, uh, I was in the junior high school

JOHN SNELL: At Florida State.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Florida State, and I wound up playing in the orchestra, playing in the jazz band, playing in the band, playing solo with the band.

And, and uh, that, you know, that was probably the very first taste of orchestral, but it was still, you know, like 90% band.

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: band and, and a lot of playing, a [00:23:00] lot of, uh, commercial of music. In fact, when I was in junior high school, I was in a group, I was in a four piece group. We had our own television show for 22 weeks.

JOHN SNELL: Really?

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yes, I know. And this was, this was the advent of television.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: We’re talking now. Oh, I was what, 13? I was 13 years old. So that would’ve been 1955. Yeah, I’m 83. You can do the math. I. Look

JOHN SNELL: Wow.

MARIE SPEZIALE: the gray hair. You know, circle 19, 19 55, 19 56 in through there. uh, we had, uh, as I said, television was new, and, the local NBC affiliate, knew our group we had actually played on in one of their radio programs.

And, um, a gentleman from the, Hillsborough County Cool School System, actually had a weekly radio program. And what he [00:24:00] would do, he would go from school to school to kind of highlight the events of, of the week. Uh, he would, he would focus, the athletes. He would focus on mu musicians and scholastics.

And anyway, in his head, he came up with this idea. Of bringing four four of us together. Four of us from four different schools. Wait till I tell you the instrumentation. if you, if you just think about the instrumentation, it’s, it’s almost laughable Accordion, Oregon, double base and trumpet.

JOHN SNELL: You’re just missing a banjo

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah. Really

JOHN SNELL: or bagpipe, something like that. Oh, I love it. And this was all school aged children?

MARIE SPEZIALE: school age. There were two of us in junior high school, two in high school, and, [00:25:00] uh, he brought us together. He, he went, what he did was he, he contacted all four sets of parents and proposed that we. Meet that all four of these youngsters meet instruments to see if we could play together. ’cause he had heard us all play individually, but it, he had it in his head to promote this young group. And so we did and we had like a little jam session and we actually recorded the jam session he proposed it to, um, WFLA, the TV folks. said, let’s try, let’s, let’s start by way of radio first. Let’s have like a radio program and see what the response is.

JOHN SNELL: Hm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: we put together this little radio program, the four of us.

We, we were, we got [00:26:00] together, I don’t know how many times this is, you know, we’re talking several decades ago.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: We obviously got together and decided on some tunes. We had fake books, you know, and, picked pieces that one of the pieces featured the organ, the other featured the trumpet, you know, and we had specific pieces.

And he knew he was pretty, he was pretty well versed in the music that he thought he’d want to hear.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: And we, they introduced us via radio and the response was really good. And he sold that to the TV folks. And so what happened was they decided to put together, uh, it, we’re talking about it, it predated the you’re, and you’re too young. But he, uh, there was a dance show on tv, um, can’t remember now what it’s called. we predated that. It was basically a teen show on

JOHN SNELL: Kinda like American Bandstand or something, or one of those. Yeah. [00:27:00] Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: That was it. Okay. So we predated that by maybe a couple years,

JOHN SNELL: Geez.

MARIE SPEZIALE: So we had our own little band we would, they put out a call for talent in the

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: we had teenagers coming in to sing and dance and, and we would have auditions before every show. And every week we selected a soloist and, we picked our music. And we did this for about, I think it was either 18 or 20, I think it was 22 week,

JOHN SNELL: That’s

MARIE SPEZIALE: of shows.

JOHN SNELL: she, did you guys get get paid for that too? Or was it just

JII was gonna say you guys are. Yeah. You have a show band, you take it on the road.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah, we did. And we were just, it was all like, I, when I think about it, it was all really, you know, we were just doing what we knew we could do it and somehow it worked.

JOHN SNELL: Amazing.

MARIE SPEZIALE: yeah, and there’s, there’s

JOHN SNELL: an experience.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I know.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: It

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: And [00:28:00] we’re all, you know, still in school and all our activities and everything, but everybody had good grades. Everybody we’re all involved. You know, if you, you know,

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: so

JOHN SNELL: do you have any, is that a transferred over to VHS or anything? Do you have any

MARIE SPEZIALE: No,

JOHN SNELL: recordings of it?

MARIE SPEZIALE: I have, yeah, they’re somewhere. I’ve got some old, uh, real, they’re reel to reel tapes, but I had them transcribed. Yeah, there are some that, that survived.

JOHN SNELL: could be in the archive somewhere. I’d love to see that at some point. Throw that up on YouTube.

MARIE SPEZIALE: yes. There. In fact, uh, they were used. I, I, I was awarded, uh, the ITG, what’s it called? It’s

JOHN SNELL: it’s

MARIE SPEZIALE: here.

JOHN SNELL: up up,

MARIE SPEZIALE: Honorary Award. Award,

JOHN SNELL: yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: in

JOHN SNELL: It’s on the wall.

MARIE SPEZIALE: It’s over there.

JOHN SNELL: There it is.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I haven’t had a chance to, I just moved to Florida just a little over a year ago.

I’m still trying to figure out where everything goes, but yes. So they put together a, like, kind of, this is your life. So there, there is a clip of that group.

JOHN SNELL: Uh, I, I have to look [00:29:00] for that. How cool.

MARIE SPEZIALE: You know, it’s,

JOHN SNELL: with all the, the showbiz, uh, you still, you had more of an interest in orchestra plane, or were you happy to do anything?

MARIE SPEZIALE: Again,

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: the, the, I guess I, I digressed a lot.

JOHN SNELL: Oh, that’s okay. That’s a great story. I, I love that.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Uturn. But I,

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: know, eventually get back to where we, to answer your question, it wasn’t until I got to the conservatory in Cincinnati that I became, uh, really aware of what it felt like to sit in a good orchestra. In fact, when I got to the conservatory, I didn’t even audition for the orchestra there.

I

JOHN SNELL: Hmm

MARIE SPEZIALE: I auditioned for band, wind ensemble and brass choir. Orchestra was not on my, on my radar. so when I auditioned for all those groups, I wound up [00:30:00] principal chair in all

JOHN SNELL: mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: And so the orchestra conductor heard about me through his assistant. I got a call, the day before the audition for orchestra, and I was asked if I might have some interest in orchestra.

They, they noticed that I hadn’t signed up to, they’d heard about

JOHN SNELL: the,

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah. The, the,

JOHN SNELL: all the other groups and, Hey, why aren’t you on the list for this? Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Right. And so, and I told them, I don’t, I don’t know any orchestra pieces. I haven’t done much transposition. I haven’t, I don’t have anything prepared. And they said, just come in and play whatever you played for the band audition. And so I wound up placing principal in that as well. So the, some of the

JOHN SNELL: with,

MARIE SPEZIALE: students were,

JOHN SNELL: who the heck is this? She’s, and she’s playing, playing band music. And [00:31:00] so, and I back up one step, how, how did you end up in, in Cincinnati going to the college conservatory?

MARIE SPEZIALE: You know, there again, it was, for me, it was a, it was like a given. the CCM magnets seemed to be all around me here in Tampa. I, I never even considered Julliard or anything like that. My, my, my dad, I had it ingrained in me about my dad was born in New York and he, he wanted to get out of there. And it was always in my head that that was a place that my dad wanted to leave. And so I, I, I don’t know, I may, and I was, maybe I was intimidated, maybe I didn’t think I was good enough for Julliard or anything like that.

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Uh, I auditioned for a coup, a couple of places came to audition me and offered me, one was, one was Cornell uh. I, there was another one of course there, the, the, the state schools too, you know, offered [00:32:00] scholarships and everything. But I had always heard about the conservatory first through my, uh, Mr Price’s. Very best friend in this town, another band director who was a graduate

JOHN SNELL: Hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: of the Conservatory of Music. And I had the utmost respect for Mr.

Scott. And he and Bob Price were like this. So there’s that influence, number one. Number two, back in those days, the music school, or at least the music schools that I knew would come down to Florida in January to audition. I wonder, I wonder why Florida in January, you know?

JOHN SNELL: Those professors want it out.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yes. And one of the connections was through Bob Scott.

Again, the Admissions director of CCM would come down every January, so I was introduced to him as a freshman, so they kind of [00:33:00] kept their eyes on me every time he would come down. You wanna check to see? What was I

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: You’re still interested in conservatory at that point. I had already been to Florida State University and their trumpet professor there, surprisingly, was a graduate of CCM

JOHN SNELL: Okay. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: in Cincinnati, and one of the biggest names at the time was Al

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: graduate of Cincinnati.

JOHN SNELL: CCM. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: So there it was all, it was like all the lights were flashing. It never occurred to me that that was, that, you know, how, how kids say, oh, I want, I wanna go to Harvard,

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: wanna go to Yale, I wanna go wherever. You know, for me it was wow, CCMI had this, this school built up in my head,

JOHN SNELL: So you, it was on your radar, you got in and then like you said, you got principal in [00:34:00] all of the groups, including the orchestra, and that’s kind of where you started developing your, your orchestra bug.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yes. That

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: and the fact that, well, I then I was invited to actually, uh, play a solo with the orchestra at their, um, concert

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: when I was, not my,

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: year, my sophomore year that the first time I played with the orchestra was when I was 19 years old as a soloist. and then soon after that. The, would’ve been, no, this would’ve been the next year in my, in my junior year. In my junior year. That’s what it was. It was my junior year. the second trumpet player became ill between a rehearsal and a concert. And so my teacher, uh, contacted me as soon as it was learned that they needed a [00:35:00] second trumpet and they needed somebody to sight read the, the concert.

JOHN SNELL: Hmm,

MARIE SPEZIALE: So he contacted me, he said, I know you can do the job. This is what we’re playing. And at that point, you know, I’m still relatively new to the orchestral world. So I went in and sight read. I sight read the concert

JOHN SNELL: this is for the Cincinnati Symphony.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yes.

JOHN SNELL: Geez.

MARIE SPEZIALE: And, Maestro Rudolph was the conductor at the time. Rudolph told, uh, the personal manager that on the strength of my sight reading the concert, that if Mr.

Ekk was going to be out for any length of time that he wanted me to play. So I wound up playing almost an entire season with them, including tour went to Hall recorded. So it was,

JOHN SNELL: Geez.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I was getting on the job training in terms of, or orchestra experience.

JOHN SNELL: [00:36:00] That’s incredible.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I have, I have to credit, I have to credit Maestro Rudolph

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: every bit as much my teacher. ’cause I was just, I was just a young, very young player.

JOHN SNELL: 20, 21 years old, something like that.

MARIE SPEZIALE: 20 20, 20 when I, yeah, 20 when I started to play. And actually I turned 21 on tour, on the first tour that I played with him.

JOHN SNELL: What a birthday present.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I

JOHN SNELL: Where, where, where was the, where was the tour? Do you remember?

MARIE SPEZIALE: it was, it, it was, uh, it was mostly the Midwest,

JOHN SNELL: Okay.

MARIE SPEZIALE: were on and off trains and buses and the whole, you know, very few flights back then. And I, my, I celebrated my 21st birthday tour with the orchestra in Nebraska.

JOHN SNELL: Of all the places, a lot of corn.

MARIE SPEZIALE: yeah, yeah. We were in Iowa, we were in Missouri. I mean, it was a, it was about a three tour, I’d say probably a two, three week

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: know, [00:37:00] so I learned a, a lot about the, the orchestra business, about touring, you know, uh, I, and I was so young, you know,

JOHN SNELL: Geez.

MARIE SPEZIALE: at the same time, I was learning, you know, I just, it was just amazing.

It, every day was a lesson. Every day was a lesson. And, you know, I was hearing, I was playing all this orchestral music that I had never, ever heard in my

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Most kids walk in now they walk into a music school and they’ve got B flat trumpet, C trumpet, you know, E-flat trumpet, piccolo, you know, I walked in with, with a B flat trumpet, you know, that’s it.

JOHN SNELL: Geez. And so what, what, what did your training look like then? Well, first of all, your, your, your teacher was Eugene, right? Eugene Blee in CCM.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yes. Just a lovely man.

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: lovely man.

JOHN SNELL: And he played in this, he was in the symphony. And that’s was your connection there. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: in the symphony and, and then, uh, yeah. And so,

JOHN SNELL: So,

MARIE SPEZIALE: I was, I was there and I had all my around [00:38:00] me. People that, uh, Betty Glover at the time had a brass orchestral repertoire class. I think she was the head of, she was the head of the curve.

JOHN SNELL: mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: she was, she had that class before any of the other music schools had that class. I was just like total, total immersion. I just total immersed, totally immersed in music. It was great. Best four best, absolutely. The best four consecutive years of my life. Where it been at C Yeah,

JOHN SNELL: At,

MARIE SPEZIALE: a kid to Candy story. I mean, it was ridiculous.

JOHN SNELL: What, so what were the kind, what are the kind of things you learned on, on, on the job? I mean, what?

MARIE SPEZIALE: Oh, well, for instance, for instance, first time I’d ever heard the ride of Spring, other than snippets to pass a music history exam, listening exam. time I heard the Ride of Spring Live, I played it, Stravinsky was on

JOHN SNELL: No,

MARIE SPEZIALE: He did, he was frail. It was toward the end of his life.

JOHN SNELL: but [00:39:00] still.

MARIE SPEZIALE: He, he, he was there, he conducted the first half of the program. His associate, Bob Kraft conducted the R of Spring, Stravinsky was there for every one of the r of spring rehearsals. He would, they had a chair position next to the podium, and if he, if every now and then he would either talk to, to his associate for what he wanted or he would, there’s just very deep booming voice that he would, and he, I remember I remember the arm going up.

Yeah. And, okay, so we’re talking about what did I learn?

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: for instance, one of the first things that I had to, read right or learn right away was within weeks we did the bar talk congenital orchestra.

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I had to site read the Defy three cornered hat and Profield [00:40:00] five.

JOHN SNELL: So.

MARIE SPEZIALE: part of the site reading of the, of the, or the concert that I had to fill in for the second T trumpet player,

JOHN SNELL: This is on top of your normal schoolwork coursework classes.

MARIE SPEZIALE: back in those days, because there were so many, at least it felt like so many to me as I, you know, in the rear view mirror. It is just that they were, for me, they were so significant. A lot of the faculty at the conservatory, instrumental faculty at the conservatory were in the orchestra.

That was their primary job, and then would supplement their income teaching at the conservatory. So I don’t think it was an, i I part of it must have been intent. Of course, it had to be intentional because Ernie Glover, who was the second trombone player at the time, conducted the brass choir. He conducted the band he didn’t conduct, and he conducted the wind ensemble.

[00:41:00] So the rehearsals were at night, classes were in the daytime. I am somehow with, I, I think if, if this, if Mr. Genchi had become ill in my sophomore year, I probably, I don’t know whether I could have managed it or

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: was just that by the time I got to my junior year, most of my coursework was done. It was electives, lessons, ensembles. Well, guess what? The ensembles were at night and on Saturday morning and my electives, I could work around because. The word through Mr. Glover went to, to the administration that Maestro Rudolph had asked that I be engaged. So they worked with

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: They, I even have that little note from the, the associate dean where she sent out a note to all, all the, [00:42:00] my fa, all my teachers, and said, can make sure we work with her so that she gets the work done and whatever, you know, so she can do this, you know?

JOHN SNELL: I suppose also one of the benefits of being in a conservatory where

MARIE SPEZIALE: exactly.

JOHN SNELL: is a professional training ground instead of having to deal with certain state requirements that

MARIE SPEZIALE: Exactly.

JOHN SNELL: if you’re going to it, not a conservatory.

MARIE SPEZIALE: It is just amazing, you know?

JOHN SNELL: yeah. And, and so, and, and then in doing so, did you realize at the time you were the first woman, brass player?

MARIE SPEZIALE: no.

JOHN SNELL: It didn’t even cross your mind.

MARIE SPEZIALE: That did not come to mind until Susan, introduced the, in IWBC. it was around that time that, and I, I don’t think it was Susan that said, or that called it, I, and I can’t remember, I honestly can’t remember how, how we came to that. I think someone

JOHN SNELL: Yeah,

MARIE SPEZIALE: asked me like, so are you the first?

And I was like, well, [00:43:00] I don’t know. I never thought about it. I mean, I’m, I was just doing what I wanted to do. I

JOHN SNELL: just show up and play.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah. Show up. Exactly.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: So, the IWBC people were becoming more aware of women RAs players. Uh, that’s when I guess, you know, it was Okay.

So Maurice, like the people were, start starting to say, yeah, think she’s the first woman trumpet player in the major symphony orchestra. challenged

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: and it was, uh, Joan fan, who at the time was working in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and helped Susan with a lot of the development of the IWBC, made contact with the American Symphony Orchestra League. It’s, I think it’s called something else now. And they did verify that I was indeed the first, first woman trumpeter in a major symphony orchestra. had been women [00:44:00] that had played in. some orchestras prior to that. But number one, it was during World War So those

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: were, filling in

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Interim, interim positions. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: positions.

And the other thing, the other thing that, confirmed, by American Symphony Orchestra League standards, there’s a certain level

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: budget. I can’t remember what the, what that amount was, where you consider what a major symphony orchestra is.

JOHN SNELL: yeah. And you,

but you didn’t realize that at the time. That was all kind of in hindsight, when people,

MARIE SPEZIALE: no.

JOHN SNELL: told you years later,

MARIE SPEZIALE: So

JOHN SNELL: yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: challenges. I thought, well, okay. Well, she, she was, she was playing in 1942. Well, that was the year I was born. So,

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: they said, then they, you know, Joan, Joan fan was the one that, no, she said no. She [00:45:00] says, I, I don’t think that qualifies. We, so we did have it confirmed.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Fascinating. And I mean, even with other, you know, world War II or other smaller orchestras of still having a woman trumpet player was unusual at the time.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Oh, for sure. For sure.

JOHN SNELL: I mean, uh, did you have to face any adversity, through your career, either through guest conductors or, you know, because of your gender?

MARIE SPEZIALE: Well, actually, and the iron, there’s an irony in here too. very first orchestra that turned me down to audition was the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

JOHN SNELL: Interesting.

MARIE SPEZIALE: The word back in the, you know, back in those days, the, a lot of, a lot of the, uh, the vacancies, uh, came, well obviously, announced in the trade paper, journal, the, the FFM Journal. But was not unheard of [00:46:00] to have, uh, personnel managers contact people that they knew around the country. And, my teacher, Jean Blee, received a call from the personnel manager from the St.

Louis Symphony Orchestra, asking Mr. Blee had any recommendations because they were going to be going to be holding an audition for second trumpet. And, Mr. Blee said, oh, absolutely. He said, because at the time I was already playing the job. I was already, it was, that happened, I, it toward the end of my junior year, beginning of my senior year.

JOHN SNELL: Hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: And, uh, when Mr. Blee was asked, for a person, he, he, his response was, yes, I, I have someone that I think you, you should really hear. does a, she’s been playing with us. She does an excellent job. And as soon as the personnel manager, sir, her, she, he said, interrupted himself, I’m sorry, but the maestro won’t, le [00:47:00] won’t even hear her much less hire her no matter how well she plays. So, St. Louis was the first one,

JOHN SNELL: Wow,

MARIE SPEZIALE: but then I, you know, I won the job less than two years later. So I, I never really went looking. ’cause I was happy where I was.

JOHN SNELL: you, so you were playing in the section for that year or so, and then, so a position ended up opening up in Cincinnati and

MARIE SPEZIALE: Well, what happened was in my senior year, the third trumpet player. I became

JOHN SNELL: mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. So I wound up playing again, almost in another com complete season with them on third trumpet. And I think back in the, and we’re talking about early sixties in, at that time, most of the orchestras, particularly in that category, you know, we’re talking about Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St.

Louis, most of those, most of those orchestras were only hiring, were only, there were only three trumpets under contract, [00:48:00] but things were moving toward four in the trumpets, five in the horns doubling, you know, they were starting to add to the, to the

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: So I believe management’s thinking was, and I never had it really asked the question or had it verified.

I was just happy that they did it. based on the fact that two consecutive years, two outta their three man section, there were illnesses. It was time to get that fourth person in

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: So they added the position. And unlike now nowadays, where if you’ve been playing for any length of time, you’re, you’re kind of pre advanced. They

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: do that, I’m grateful for. I had to stand in line with, I had to start square one with everyone else.

JOHN SNELL: So you weren’t a shoe in, you had to. You had to. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I was definitely not a shoe. And I’m sure, you know, had it been the if there’d been internet, it’ll probably would’ve [00:49:00] gone out as Yeah. She had the in

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: No, no. I had to stand in line with everybody else.

JOHN SNELL: you remember the audition?

MARIE SPEZIALE: Oh, I sure do.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I sure do. It

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: It was in the Maestros office. It couldn’t have been too much bigger than what this room that I’m in right now. But in that office were three trumpeters personnel manager, principal horn. principal, trombone, tuba. Needless to say, it was crowded.

JOHN SNELL: was gonna say, everyone’s cramped in there listening to,

MARIE SPEZIALE: Exactly, exactly. And you’re, you’re sitting there, you’re, you’re the stand, once they closed the door, they would move the stand up so you could get, and your back is to the wall there. And that was the audition.

JOHN SNELL: hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah. And they, I guess [00:50:00] it was. Convincing enough. ’cause there was only one round, they only had one round. There were

JOHN SNELL: And And they announced you right then and there,

MARIE SPEZIALE: Well,

JOHN SNELL: or,

MARIE SPEZIALE: they, there was deliberating,

JOHN SNELL: yeah, but I mean, you found out that day,

MARIE SPEZIALE: right?

JOHN SNELL: geez. So you stayed in, didn’t have to go far from home. You stayed in, stayed in Cincinnati, and you were there for, I can’t count how many years,

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah. 32.

JOHN SNELL: 32, 64 to 96,

MARIE SPEZIALE: 32. But, uh, but like I said, I had two years, two years in, while I was still in school.

JOHN SNELL: so yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: yeah,

JOHN SNELL: That’s,

MARIE SPEZIALE: uh, it was, that audition was nerveracking, have to say. ’cause you’re, you know, you’ve, you’ve, you’ve done the job. play, but you’re there and you don’t wanna let anybody down,

JOHN SNELL: Yeah, you’re playing for people you know as well. Instead of a panel of folks you maybe have just heard [00:51:00] of or,

MARIE SPEZIALE: yeah,

JOHN SNELL: yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: we started playing, a lot of it was more like, you know, we all, there’s always that an anticipation, like, you know, but once you, know,

JOHN SNELL: And I suppose also being, you know, six inches from the panel instead of them sitting out in the audience somewhere or behind the spotlights in the dark room or something.

MARIE SPEZIALE: oh, the associate conductor was there too. I

JOHN SNELL: Geez,

MARIE SPEZIALE: associate conductor. It was, it was such a crowded room. It was just like, okay.

JOHN SNELL: that’s almost like a deodorant commercial, you know, which I hope everyone used their, uh, deodorant that morning. Everyone cramped in that little space. So, I mean, over, I, I mean, I don’t want to gloss over that, your tenure of the orchestra. I mean, you have to have some memorable performances or conductors that particularly stick out to you through that.

Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Uh, for instance, like, like I said, just. With Stravinsky on stage or getting to play some of the principal pieces on what Copeland conducting. yeah, it’s great. It, it was, [00:52:00] yeah. I’m blessed beyond anything I could have imagined for that little chubby kid that, you know, that was learned to play Trump in their living room.

And I,

JOHN SNELL: Yeah, but it says, I was reading online you, you also recorded some soundtracks for James Brown.

MARIE SPEZIALE: yes. And you know, I didn’t know, I didn’t real come to realize that until I moved back to Florida. I was already here. I was going back and forth, back and forth, and one of the times that I was back in Cincinnati, I had to go to the Spectrum

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: get everything, because I would put everything on hold for six months and stuff like that. And I’m in the Spectrum store and I’m looking at this guy and he’s looking at me, says. Paul, you know, we’re like looking at each other and he said, I haven’t seen you in so many years. He says, my gosh. He says, remember all those nights when we spent, when we laid down those tracks for James Brown? And I looked at him like he had three heads. It was [00:53:00] like, Well, I don’t know, do you know the name Dave Matthews?

Not the, not the Dave Matthew Matthews that everybody knows,

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: was in New York for a long time and now he’s been living in Japan for a while.

JOHN SNELL: not

MARIE SPEZIALE: wrote some, he actually wrote some of the arrangements for James Brown. Dave was my contemporary at the conservator. He, and I don’t know if you’ve recognized the name, Carmen DeLeon.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: yeah. Well, Carmen and Dave and I, we were all in the freshman class together. Carmen was the phenom on Horn. He was a freshman, and he wound up with all the freshmen as a freshman, like me, all the principal spots.

JOHN SNELL: Mm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: It was like these two freshmen came in at the same

JOHN SNELL: Just

MARIE SPEZIALE: and the old folks are going,

JOHN SNELL: cleaned house. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Anyway, so, so Dave, wrote some, it was through Dave, that we, [00:54:00] wound up recording some of the background music for James Brown, but back in the day we, it was at the King recording studios. I don’t know if you know King.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: would have to do them like around, starting around 11, 11 30 at night it was kind of on a main drag. And they didn’t want any of the traffic noise to bleed in. we’d record from 11 till two in the morning, you know, and you know, you go, oh, but you don’t dunno. What’s it, all you’ve got is the background

JOHN SNELL: he was putting down horn parts.

MARIE SPEZIALE: all the horn parts. And seriously, I didn’t know until I, I’m, I’m my seventies

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. And you didn’t realize you were on James Brown albums

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah. And, and it’s even, even on, there’s, there is a James Brown, one of the James Brown albums. Even you [00:55:00] even has a list of people or somewhere. Somebody, one of my neighbors, he got intrigued by this, that I for James, you know, James Brown. Anyway,

JOHN SNELL: Mahler five, whatever, you know, Igor, Igor,

MARIE SPEZIALE: yeah.

JOHN SNELL: whatever, but James Brown.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Oh, and the other, and the other, you said memorable moments.

JOHN SNELL: yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: so many memorable moments in the orchestra. The, one of the very first was, I think within a year or two of my the job in the orchestra. Eric Kunle was hired as the pops conductor, or I’m sorry, he was Hi, take it back. He became the Poco Pops conductor, but he was hired as the associate conductor or assistant conductor. And we had a concert, featuring Duke Ellington, and was one of the very first, the first, I think, but one of the very [00:56:00] earliest crossover concerts where we had a jazz giant with a symphony orchestra. so Duke was with us the entire week. we were playing the concert. We had played the first half.

We had intermission, we’d placed, played most of the second half we’re nearing the end of the program. And, uh, duke started talking to the audience, talking about what a great time, you know, he’d had with us that week. And thank the orchestra, you know, the usual thank everyone. and then he went on and he said, uh, hear that there’s some folks in the orchestra that like to play. And he says, uh, would you like to come up and play a couple of tunes with us?

JOHN SNELL: What?

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: No,

MARIE SPEZIALE: Serious. And at that point, Mike Dcha, the person that I had filled in for, looks at me, he says. [00:57:00] You gonna do it? No, of course I’m gonna Duke no, I’m gonna say

JOHN SNELL: the.

MARIE SPEZIALE: thank you very much. But no, that, so I walked out front, what, what had happened was the conductor, Eric told Duke about trumpet player that likes to play jazz, because at that point, Eric was starting to feature, there are a few of us in the group or in the orchestra that played

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: he would find ways to feature us. So I walked out front and you know, I, man, I I, I floated out

JOHN SNELL: I was gonna say, wow. So what did you play?

MARIE SPEZIALE: Well, we fake the blues.

We just fake a slow temple blues. And then we did a ballad bo, a body and soul, and then an uptempo blues, another sun, another upal tune, and.

JOHN SNELL: Just you and Duke, or was it his band there, or,

MARIE SPEZIALE: he had, uh, Joe, Joe Benjamin was on, on bass. I can’t remember the name of the drummer.

JOHN SNELL: yeah,

MARIE SPEZIALE: And of course [00:58:00] him, it was just a trio.

JOHN SNELL: trio.

MARIE SPEZIALE: And so I walked out front. He was really wonderful.

You know, he made me feel very, very relaxed. Very, yeah. It was just like, you know, wow. You know, I was, like I said, I floated out front and, and my feet didn’t touch the ground for a few weeks after that. Anyway, in fact They were, people were advertising this concert in like downbeat Associated Press, like ahead of the program because it was, you are too young.

You don’t realize what it was like 60, 60 years ago. You know, we know we’re talking about 60 years ago now. um, so, uh, uh, it came, there was a, an article through the Associated Press that went out. To some papers and downbeat anyway, and they talked about this great collaboration between the Symphony Orchestra and how well it was received.

And Duke did, you know, just all about Duke and everything. And then they went on to the kind of personal elements about [00:59:00] Duke invited some orchestra players, duke play, you know, play a couple of tunes with him. And, and the, the trumpet player that he invited was Mario Sp they were, so I guess they

JOHN SNELL: Oh,

MARIE SPEZIALE: wanna acknowledge that it was Marie, it was Mario Sp

JOHN SNELL: oh my God.

MARIE SPEZIALE: well, that’s not the end of the story. About a week or two after, after this whole thing, and I’m still floating around the hall, I run into our photographer.

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: He almost, it was almost like he accosted me. He came up, he said, ma, he says, I was at that pops concert. What a great, you know, I hope we have more pops concerts and everything. He said, what was it like to play with Duke Ellington?

I said, do you, I, it was fantastic. He said, well, I’m sure glad I had my camera. And I went, you had what? He says, oh, I’ve got a great shot of you

JOHN SNELL: Oh my gosh. Oh, [01:00:00] that’s,

that’s like a, that’s like a painting. That’s amazing. Uh,

MARIE SPEZIALE: I had proof that it was not Mario,

JOHN SNELL: was not,

MARIE SPEZIALE: yeah. Joe Benjamin, I can, I can’t remember the, I wanna say.

JOHN SNELL: sure, I’m

sure the internet can help us out as some Duke Ellington fan. Know the drummer

MARIE SPEZIALE: yeah.

JOHN SNELL: time. Yeah. Oh, what a, what a great photo. so I mean, you have the memory, but it’s really cool to have the physical proof.

MARIE SPEZIALE: do you know Mark

JOHN SNELL: Oh yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: mark was my student. Okay. So Mark, what must have been about five or six years ago, he said three. He says, I’ve gotta have that picture of you and Duke please bring it. So he, I brought it to him and he made a, I don’t know, he made a dozen of them and started passing them up.

JOHN SNELL: That’s beautiful. I love it. I love it. I need, I, yeah, I wanna get a copy for the shop wall. Now. That’s, that’s such a great story.[01:01:00]

MARIE SPEZIALE: I can send it to

JOHN SNELL: I love it.

I can print it out here and, uh, get a, get it. Nice framed. I’d love to have that. That’s such a great story. Then I’ll then I’ll get you sign, I’ll get you to sign it at IWBC.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Oh, oh, for sure.

JOHN SNELL: And I, you know, I, so I grew up my, my father played the Cincinnati Pops. Albums all the time. So is it the Cincinnati, was it the same section or how did that work in Cincinnati? Was it the

MARIE SPEZIALE: same section except for when we had things like, um, music from James Bond or when we had some screech stuff,

JOHN SNELL: Uhhuh?

MARIE SPEZIALE: I mean, I know what lane to stay in.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah,

MARIE SPEZIALE: a screech player. So we would bring people in like Vinny,

JOHN SNELL: yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: did a lot, a lot of stuff with

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: especially when Doc came in, you know, doc recorded for, you know, recorded with

JOHN SNELL: Yeah,

MARIE SPEZIALE: And

JOHN SNELL: yeah,

MARIE SPEZIALE: we did the big band album with Cab Callaway and Jerry Mulligan. And I don’t know if you know that

JOHN SNELL: yeah, yeah. My dad had that. I mean, all this stuff from the seventies, eighties, I’m talking [01:02:00] about.

MARIE SPEZIALE: dad was a player,

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Keith. Keith Snell. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, I, I grew up all of our car trips was listening to the Cincinnati, well, he had, I mean, obviously Cincinnati Symphony recordings as well, but, you know, on, on car trips around the southwest, he’d always put the, the pops music on and the film music, the Eric Corngold and all of that.

Yeah,

MARIE SPEZIALE: We had some, uh, some, some pretty decent recordings. Yeah. No, it was, it was predominantly, it is the same section.

JOHN SNELL: yeah,

MARIE SPEZIALE: only, we only had, we had add-ons if there were like, extra trumpets, like when we had to do some of the John William stuff. ’cause that that could be a bloodbath, you

JOHN SNELL: yeah. But what fun though, to be, to play the standard rep, but then also to get, to play all this great epic film music and big band stuff. Must have,

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah. So, yeah, so I’ve had some, uh, I’ve had, it’s a, it’s, I’ve had some real moments in my lifetime. I just, I’ve been blessed. I, I don’t

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I, I’m great. I’m blessed and I’m so [01:03:00] grateful for everything that I’ve had that I’ve experienced in my life.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Do you ever get to play any Latin groups like, uh, from your childhood?

MARIE SPEZIALE: you know, no, not

JOHN SNELL: No.

MARIE SPEZIALE: of them felt, you know, they, they died out with the, the old folks. I think, you

JOHN SNELL: Yeah,

MARIE SPEZIALE: yeah.

JOHN SNELL: but you still listen to it, still listen to the like little Cuban music and the Junto?

MARIE SPEZIALE: then. Yeah. Especially down here, you know? Yeah,

JOHN SNELL: A lot of that in Florida. Um, I, I want to talk a little, I’ll get a geeky a little bit ’cause I thank you about talking about your, for talking about your career and all your experiences. I do wanna talk a little bit about trumpet though.

Um, what do, uh, what, what was, did you have a regular routine, you know, practice routine or warmup routine or something? And did that kind of change throughout your life if you did have one?

MARIE SPEZIALE: actually my, that changed. I think you have to keep it mixed up. I, if you start doing the same thing day after day after day without introducing something that’s going to [01:04:00] challenge you, or at least change a variety, I, I think you can get a little stagnant, you know? but I can tell you one routine that I did. uh, fairly regularly and for a long period of time was basically the routine in, um, Louis Davidson’s

JOHN SNELL: Oh, okay. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Techniques. know the trumpet

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah, I, I met Mr. Davidson, uh, as a young player. He was just up the road from Cincinnati at iu. he sent me a complimentary copy of his book and I started working in that book. And I have used it ever since in my teaching because I think it, there’s so much in that book, I mean if you want to keep your, your, your fundamentals in place and wanna keep your skills honed. It’s in, it’s in that book. He, he’s taken things that you would [01:05:00] normally get in Schlosberg and Clark and Arban, but they’re more, it’s more organized. And the, the thing, at least for, for working with youngsters, especially, developing players. The thing about that book is that it kind of, it’s like a building block. Everything starts down in the low register where you, you really start to build like a solid base and then, you know, he doesn’t or he does add notes, but it’s, you know,

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: very well thought out. So I would use that as basis for my warmups, but I would pick and choose from column one, column two.

I didn’t do the same ones every day. Some I did, some I did every day, depending on how. How the chops felt. What did I, you know, did I have a heavy concert the night before? Yeah,

JOHN SNELL: So you like to mix it up? I know some folks are religious, they do the same thing every day, like brushing their their [01:06:00] teeth.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I know.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I did, and I professed that. I did that for a while, but for not, not very

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: it dawn on me that I needed, I needed to keep, keep things moving, you

JOHN SNELL: Keep it fresh.

MARIE SPEZIALE: challenging my, yeah, yeah. And, and trying to, trying to, you know, I was already a developed player, so I would practice in opposites for instance.

Like if, if, if I had a, a very heavy week, I’m gonna work on some lighter stuff, you know, to balance that. And if I, if I have a, a light week, guess what? When I’m going home, I’m. It’s gonna be pedal to the metal and you know, and if I’m practicing, you know, if I’m practicing upper register, I’m going to balance it with, with middle and low register, not just one, one thing, you

JOHN SNELL: Hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I kind of practiced in, in kind of in contrast.

JOHN SNELL: And I, I wanna talk, speak to you now in, as your role as a professor, which you’ve also [01:07:00] done most of your career, but also having sat on many audition panels yourself, what advice could you give to young players or even older players that are, uh, going on the audition circuit these days? What you’re listening for on the panel that separates finalists or winners out from the rest. and any tips you give your students in terms of audition prep?

MARIE SPEZIALE: Well, again, I think the basics have to be there. time. Tune, you know, all that has just, those have to be solid. And then beyond that, I like to hear colors in the sound.

JOHN SNELL: Hmm

MARIE SPEZIALE: I like to hear honest projection, not forced projection. a lot of people, particularly if they’re playing something loud, I guess the best way to describe it is that there’s a lot of primary colors in their playing,

JOHN SNELL: hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: and [01:08:00] there’s more to music than just primary colors. For me, the palette has to be wide ranging, and particularly when you’re having to convey the difference in your audition between what Mahler sounds like, Beethoven sounds like. Sounds like there, there’s some finessing going on in there. I’m not sure if I’m answering your

JOHN SNELL: No, it is, and I, I’ve never heard it described quite that way, and that’s, that’s fascinating. I love the, yeah. These, I’m gonna use that when folks are trying mouthpieces now

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah,

JOHN SNELL: primary colors versus more nuance and broader palette. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: yeah. Much broader palette. I mean, you

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: still play all the right notes,

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: just like you can play all the right notes for pictures and Patricia or, or anything else. But each one of those [01:09:00] has to have, its its own personality, its own sound. It’s the, just the music needs to be finessed. And the other thing too, John, that, I don’t know whether it happens when people get nervous or, and you, there’s no way to know this without. Knowing more intimately who, who that player is and what they sound like when they’re in their comfort zone. The impression that I get, and it’s, it’s not a matter of volume, although you do get that, where somebody will just kind of like blow down, try to blow down the back wall. I have, I have a sense that in the auditions, rather than playing, no matter how long or short the note, there’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. And I don’t always hear people blow through the music, blow through the notes. It feels like they blow at music in, in some of the [01:10:00] auditions. And I, I, I’m not sure how, if I’m expressing it

JOHN SNELL: No. Yeah, well, it makes sense. I mean, and it’s one of those things where I, I’d ask you how to do that, but then that’s a trumpet lesson. You know, you need to have the player there, obviously. Right. Because it be a mindset, how they’re breathing, you know, that sort of thing. I’m assuming a little bit of everything, or it could be any one of those things.

MARIE SPEZIALE: right. Because you hear, and, and that’s usually when people are having issues with their playing. It’s because, again, it doesn’t feel like they’re blowing through the instrument, releasing, just releasing the notes into the instrument rather than, it’s almost like they’re trying to barrel through it, you know?

Instead of just, just go, just use the tube. As I use, the, the analogy that I use in teaching is like the, the, the, the lead pipe.

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: It’s like the bowling alley. You know, if you wanna get all the bowling pins down. You don’t have to have a four foot wide or three foot wide [01:11:00] bowling ball, you just gotta go. Right.

You just aim with speed and energy at that first bowling pin.

JOHN SNELL: I love it. I love it.

MARIE SPEZIALE: you don’t have to crowd that. People try to crowd that pipe.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. As Bob Reeves used to say, the acoustics is your friend. The acoustics of your instrument is your friend.

MARIE SPEZIALE: exactly.

JOHN SNELL: it. Yeah. It’s a, I mean, that’s the, you know, from, from the manufacturer’s. Yeah. From the manufacturer’s perspective. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: and the room that you’re in is an extension of your, extension of your music, of your playing. So you have to get, again, maybe that’s another way

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: it. When I hear young players audition it, it is, it feels like they’re, they’re so focused on get everything, you know.

Right. Like everything rhythmically. Right. And. And all the notes are right there. All that very beginning of notes. Everything’s everything’s right. But it doesn’t feel like it, it gets out to the audience.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Yeah,

MARIE SPEZIALE: don’t, they’re not [01:12:00] using the hall. They’re not using whatever room they’re in.

JOHN SNELL: yeah, yeah. And I love, uh, your, your description of playing loud by force versus just letting the instrument carry. Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: uh, of course there are different philosophies of playing and it, and one size does not fit all. ’cause we’ve got some amazing, amazing players that, different philosophies. But worked best for me was everything is on a, it’s, it is kind of the chicot concept as well. Everything’s on a horizontal line.

Everything is

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: You know, the concept of the blow is just like, if you look at a string player, you know, the Boeing, you don’t see the bow come under the chin when they have to play high. And conversely, you know.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah, you start doing that and you start manipulating next thing you know, you’re, you’re trying to figure out what, what’s going, you’re up in your head and trying to, no.

JOHN SNELL: Then it snowballs. Well, I’m, I’m glad I asked. I [01:13:00] what a, if we could go on another hour just about those concepts, but we’ll leave that for another podcast or in a private lesson with you, or a masterclass, something like that. Um, I, and I want to turn up the, uh, nerd factor one more, uh, notch here. Talk about equipment.

what’s in your arsenal in terms of horns and mouthpieces You’ve used primarily

MARIE SPEZIALE: Sadly, I don’t play anymore.

JOHN SNELL: what?

MARIE SPEZIALE: when I was playing, I wasn’t much of an equipment for, uh, you know, I found something that worked and I of stuck with it.

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I started playing, on the borrowed cornette, and then I the very first. My very first trumpet was an olds ambassador, and then right away my teacher said, sorry, Sam, that’s my dad.

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: She’s outgrown that she needs the Bach. So I, you know, I started playing Bach when I was, I don’t know, maybe 11 years old,

JOHN SNELL: Wow.

MARIE SPEZIALE: and pretty much stuck with [01:14:00] it the entire time. I had a couple of silkies, a couple of, a few, uh, Yamahas. Now I wish if I were playing now, oh my God, there’s, and your, your mouthpiece there.

The equipment that, the, the options that are available now. You know, we, sweetheart, it was truly different.

JOHN SNELL: Oh yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: you know, that my first, that my first sea trumpet was a con sea and that was a bow. Wow.

JOHN SNELL: Ooh, oy. I don’t even know if I’ve seen one of those. I’ve seen just about everything ever made, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a con see trumpet.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Sea trumpet

JOHN SNELL: Wow.

MARIE SPEZIALE: sea, old con c trumpet, if you, it was a huge con. It was all I could afford at the time, but, you know, I,

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I managed it until I could. Then as soon as I started playing with the orchestra was, you know, making some money. Then I bought, I bought my, my sea trumpet even back in those days,

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: sixties. It took, it took a long time. In fact, the year that [01:15:00] I played principal trumpet, and this is another thing too, very few folks really realized. I, I was actually offered the principal spot with the orchestra. I turned it down. Yeah. well, it was, the circumstances were such that, they had my teacher vacate the principal

JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.

MARIE SPEZIALE: and they asked me to for a year. This was, this was with, uh, maestro shippers and, uh. He had until February 5th of the next year, or to say Yes, no, well, he offered me the contract in December, but at that point there were, had so many other things that I was doing, not the least of, which was I was teaching and I was playing. We had that, I told you that we had some jazz players in the orchestra.

We had our own symphony jazz ensemble, and I that if I, accepted the principal [01:16:00] spot, I would have to give up that. And I, was enough in me to know that I was already doing the associate principal job and all the other things, and thought, no, I think I just wanna stay where I am.

I’m comfortable doing with what I was doing, teaching and playing, the,

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: getting the balance, you know. And doing the associate job, I knew my job

JOHN SNELL: Yeah.

MARIE SPEZIALE: I wanted. So I, that’s how Phil Collins wound up being hired.

JOHN SNELL: Oh, wow.

MARIE SPEZIALE: the opening. Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: Wow, wow. That’s fascinating. So you wanted to play in, in the jazz, uh, jazz ensemble and,

MARIE SPEZIALE: and there

JOHN SNELL: and you were comfortable.

MARIE SPEZIALE: there was a very, kind of an uncomfortable feeling about how the whole thing went down with the replacement.

JOHN SNELL: Wow. Wow. Oh

MARIE SPEZIALE: It was just, uh, I, I just felt, like I said, I, pretty much my job and that’s, that’s what I felt comfortable doing.

JOHN SNELL: [01:17:00] yeah. Fascinating.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yeah.

JOHN SNELL: Wow. Thank you so much for your time today, Marie. Uh,

MARIE SPEZIALE: my

JOHN SNELL: I, I’ve, we could go another three hours the.

MARIE SPEZIALE: asked to do this. I mean, to be remembered at my age I is, is, I really appreciate

JOHN SNELL: Well, and I, I’m embarrassed ’cause now we’ve, we’ve been doing this for so long that I haven’t had you on sooner. And I, even though I do this podcast, I’m, I’m very introverted and don’t talk to people. I’d so, you know, I don’t folks walk into the shop, I’ll throw in a microphone. So I, you know, that’s no excuse.

’cause I mean, you’ve been an institution in yourself through teaching. You’re teaching and playing and so better late than never, uh, to have you on. And I’m looking forward to, uh, seeing you at IWBC here. And, uh,

MARIE SPEZIALE: in about a month.

JOHN SNELL: yeah, so, uh, before I let you go though, if I could leave you with, uh, one last question, and it’s always a doozy.

if you could leave our listeners with your best piece of advice, what would that be?

MARIE SPEZIALE: Oh my [01:18:00] gosh. But my best piece of advice. Oh, okay. I’ve got several, but

JOHN SNELL: know, doc. Doc Severson had four. So

MARIE SPEZIALE: he’s allowed to have

JOHN SNELL: we have So what, so are you. You could have as many as you want.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Especially for young, young players. You only get one shot at a first impression. Make it good.

JOHN SNELL: Wonderful advice. Marie, thank you so much for being on. We didn’t get to see Nico. Yeah, bring him in. We gotta do a, we’ll do an encore here

MARIE SPEZIALE: Nico. Come here. Come here buddy. Come here,

JOHN SNELL: There he is.

Ah, hi Nico.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Nico. Nico. Nico. Look. Look. Yeah. So that’s Nico.

JOHN SNELL: I love it. Well, there we’ve come full circle.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Yes. Yeah.

It’s been a

JOHN SNELL: a.

MARIE SPEZIALE: Thank you

JOHN SNELL: Oh, pleasure’s been all mine. Thank you so much, Marie.

​

JOHN SNELL: A huge thank you to [01:19:00] Marie for spending her morning sharing those stories. Uh, she’s so exuberant, so much energy. I absolutely love Marie. We’ve had a few guests on previously, who studied with Marie and, you know, unanimously say the same thing. And, it is one of those things I wish I could have done the interview in person also with Susan Slaughter as well.

cause they’re both gonna be at the upcoming IWBC conference. but I also wanted to help. Promote the upcoming conference by having them on ahead of time. So, either way it’s gonna be great to, uh, see them in person here in a few weeks. And again, a huge thank you to Marie and to Nico who made an appearance at the very end.

if you ever need a motivation to. View the podcast if you’re listening on your drive or on your workout to tune into our YouTube channel. It’s to see, Nico, her dog, Nico Sp who made an appearance at the end. but so much great, great information. Marie shared, again, her stories of uh, just.

You know, she said [01:20:00] I played the trumpet. And even though there was, adversity and setbacks and things, you know, being called Mario instead of Marie, in the newspaper, in a review because, you know, no one would expect a woman to be playing in an orchestra, things like that. Um. That, you know, those kinds of stories.

but the way she persevered didn’t let it get her down and just plugged through her career to have such a, a legendary career, both in performing and in teaching. and that Duke Ellington story was just, just amazing. And I do have, a copy of that print like we talked about, and it’s gonna be hanging behind me in future episodes.

Um, not here. This isn’t the shop, as you can tell, but it will be hanging behind me in future episodes on the shop. I’m a proud, welcome edition to our shop wall. So huge thank you to Marie. Thank you for listening. And we had to shuffle episodes a little bit, just ’cause of timing, but we have some wonderful guests coming up as well.

As I’ve mentioned before, we have Liesel Whitaker, we have [01:21:00] Eric Baker, we have that panel, discussion for the William Adam Trumpet Festival. And, uh, some more guests lined up over the summer. So make sure you hit that subscribe button. If you’re on YouTube, hit that notifications button as well, that little bell.

So, you know, as soon as a new up episode posts and if you’re, listening to this in Apple Podcast or Spotify hit that subscribe button. So the episode automatically downloads every time we post. Of course, the five star review means a lot to us, and if you have any, guest suggestions, constructive criticism, anything like that, feel free to send it my way, john@bobreeves.com.

That’s it for now. Let’s go out and make some music.