Susan Slaughter Trumpet Interview
Welcome to the show notes for Episode #131 of The Other Side of the Bell – A Trumpet Podcast. This episode features trumpeter Susan Slaughter. Listen to or download the episode below:
About Susan Slaughter
Susan Slaughter episode links
Website:
Holiday Brass
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
- Photos – Susan Slaughter
- 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 and founder of the International Women’s Brass Conference, Susan Slaughter.
We’ll get to Susan’s interview here in a moment after a word from our sponsor, Bob Reeves Brass and some trumpet news.
Trumpet News:
JOHN SNELL: Well, this has been an exciting year. I can’t believe we’re almost to May by the [00:02:00] time this podcast posts, uh, and what a year we’ve had for this podcast. Uh, we’ve gotten back to regularly posting, at least two times a month, sometimes three, basically every other week. And, uh, it’s been great, the feedback we’ve been getting, the guest suggestions.
Uh, it’s really great to see that momentum building, and a huge thank you to the last few guests. Ashley Hall-Tighe, uh, wow. What an amazing interview. If you missed Ashley’s interview, by any chance, uh, go back and listen to it or watch it on YouTube. Lee Loughnane, we had Kenny Rampton, so many folks on here, this year. My good buddy, Emil and Clay Jenkins, uh, I’m sure I’m forgetting folks already. That’s the other problem with doing two times a month. so many trumpet players in and outta here, but each episode has something to give and also thank you. I, I got a great email from Paul, up in Wisconsin and he says, he listens to the podcast in the practice room, and he said it’s like having Howie Sheer and Peter Bond and, Jim Manley in the practice room with me, so it’s great. It really means a lot. Thank you for the feedback of Paul [00:03:00] and from others who listen, and keep it coming. Again, we love doing this. I’m like a kid in a candy store, getting to talk to some of the greatest, trumpet players of our time, and hear their stories.
Speaking of which, and I want to get to, speaking of stories, I wanna get to Susan’s interview here in a moment, but we have a lot going on. First of all, those of you watch on YouTube, you might see some new guard bags behind me, uh, on the shelf. We got our shipment, and thankfully, uh oh, it was a roller coaster for those of you around the world who follow, follow the us, uh, tariff news, not that I’m gonna turn this into a political.
Uh, a podcast by any means. However, the, uh, from when, our guard bags left the port and got to the port, and then finally got to our shop, it was literally a rollercoaster of how much we were gonna need to pay in tariffs. Thankfully, thankfully, because of the pause, uh, in the tariffs, the 90 day pause. We got these at the same price as the last shipment, so we didn’t have to raise prices on [00:04:00] these.
We still have a discount available for podcast listeners, 15% off any of our guard bags in stock. Just use the code podcast. During checkout to get that discount. And hopefully we’ll be able to offer that in the future. Uh, we’ll see how things go, but they have a lot arriving, lots of triples, that’s their most popular bag.
And I think we have 10 different styles of triples, both in the nylon synthetic and in the gorgeous leather. So, check out our website and we’ll have the link in the description, to where you can get those guard bags. Here in a few weeks, I will be going to the Hart School in Hartford, Connecticut for the IWBC, which, good timing.
Uh, Susan Slaughter, our guest is the, uh, founder of that organization. Of course, I’m talking about the International Women’s Brass Conference, that is being held May 21st to the 24th, at least the vendor rooms, I think there’s competitions and things, before and after those dates. but I will be there May 21st to 24th.
at the Hart School in Hartford, [00:05:00] Connecticut, I will have Bob Reeves trumpet mouthpieces, several hundred. I will be doing valve alignments. I will have some of these guard bags and I will have some mutes, uh, some vin mutes, some yon mutes, some fun, fun things, some fun exotic things. and if you have any trombone or french horn friends, let them know, because I will also have.
Our, dh, our Dylan Hart signature French horn mouthpiece with me, and a pretty complete set of the brass arc trombone mouthpiece. So come on out to Hartford, Connecticut. Uh, if you’re anywhere in the area up in New England, come by and say hi to me. And if you’re interested in getting a valve alignment, if you go to bobreeves.com/iwbc, you can pre-book your alignment, save some money off the cost of the alignment, and make sure, I get your horn aligned at the booth.
Right there at the conference. So I look forward to seeing you there. I’m not gonna go into detail on the other events coming up, but just for your calendars, make note, IG is the following week, in Salt Lake City, Utah, bobreeves.com/ig, and the William Adam Trumpet Festival in Clarksville, Tennessee at Austin P University.
That’s later in June. I think the dates for that are 19th to the 21st. Give or take a day as we get closer, I’ll have the exact days. that one you can go to bobreeves.com/williamAdam. If you want more information.
So as Bob Reeves brass is growing, so does our support for the community in ways, we give back. we believe the future of brass music lies not only at the hands of the next generation of performers, but in the minds of the composers who dare to write something new for us. And that’s why we’re proud to sponsor the upcoming Los Angeles Brass Alliance concert.
Next up, and this is, some information that Lab A has, uh, sent on to me. Join the Los Angeles Brass Alliance, also known as Lab A 7:00 PM on May 4th at Glendale First Baptist Church for their second installation of Next Up. [00:07:00] This is a free concert and generously sponsored by us. They said that, uh, this free concert, 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 Los Angeles audiences.
Even beyond because they share their content on social media and YouTube. there are 2025 composer cohort hales from institutions such as the Jacobs School at Indiana University, the Herb Albert School at UCLA, the Thornton School at USC, the Yale School of Music.
At the University of Northern Colorado and Cal State University Northridge, go Matadors. These eight composers have written for every flavor of brass ensemble, from quintet to brass [00:08:00] orchestra, pushing the boundaries of music for brass lab. A hopes to see you on May 4th and Glendale for their season finale and the celebration of these eight new works for brass, More information is available at www.labrassalliance.org or check out at Los Angeles Brass Alliance on Instagram to keep up with their preparation for next up 2025. Huge shout out to the, that organization and we look forward to some exciting things I can’t quite announce yet, for not just this season, but for next season.
I can’t spill the beans yet. I just say we have some even bigger plans, that we’re working on together for next season. But hope to see you there, uh, May 4th for lab a concert, again, like everything, we’ll have all of those links down in the description so you can find out more about them even if you can’t make their concert.
I have one last thing I want to mention. Uh, quick plug to my good friend. Customer and a former podcast guest, episode [00:09:00] 55, and I’m talking about Greg Wing, recently retired professor of trumpet at Morehead State University. he sent out this, cd, graciously signed, and I’ve been listening to it here at the shop.
reflections on a Grateful Journey, it kind of sums up, uh, Greg’s, career. Not that he’s retired. He’s retired from teaching, but he still plays, still teaches and sounds. Absolutely amazing. Greg, kind of put this together kind of as a culmination of his, playing career. And it’s available on iTunes.
You can stream it on Spotify, although I definitely recommend, if you can buy it on iTunes or buy the cd, we’ll have the links to where you can get it. lots of fabulous playing, of course, no doubt with Greg. one of my favorite trumpet sounds out there. he’s got professional big bands on some of the things.
He’s got, strings on, uh, other tracks. Gorgeous melodies. the kind of trumpet stuff. You can listen over and over and over again. So check the links in the description or search for Greg Wing reflections on a grateful journey. You won’t be disappointed. And Greg, if you’re listening, thank you for the [00:10:00] cd.
I’m gonna go put it on as soon as I’m done here. All right, that’s enough news for today. Let’s get right to my interview with Susan Slaughter.
Interview Intro:
Joining me today is Susan Slaughter. Susan Slaughter is a trailblazer in the world of classical trumpet and a living legend of American orchestral music. Born in McCordsville, Indiana. She picked up the trumpet at age 10 and never looked back. After earning a coveted performer certificate from Indiana University, she broke barriers as the first woman to win a principal trumpet position in a major American symphony.
Securing the role with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1972. A position she held with distinction for decades beyond her groundbreaking orchestral career. Susan has been a tireless advocate for music education, community outreach, and the advancement of women in brass performance. She founded the International Women’s Brass Conference, Monarch Brass and the Holiday Brass Concerts, [00:11:00] which have raised over $1 million to support women brass musicians.
Her legacy also includes memorable performances at Major League baseball games, powerful community engagement through sacred music and education and collaborations with icons like Wynton Maral and Doc Severson. I. From Grammy nominated recordings to teaching at top institutions like Northwestern and Aspen, Susan Slaughter’s influence spans generations and genres.
Her accolades, including the ITG Honorary Award and the Grand Center Visionary Award, only begin to tell the story of a career defined by courage, excellence, and unwavering dedication to her craft and community. My honor, to have my special guest today, Susan Slaughter.
Interview:
JOHN SNELL: Oh, I’m so honored to have joining me on the other side of the bell, Susan Slaughter and what looks like a much more beautiful part of the world than where I am here in la.
How you doing
today, Susan?[00:12:00]
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I am doing very well, John. Thank you.
JOHN SNELL: And thank you for being on here. we met,
uh, I think in person for the first time last year at IWBC in Mito, Mito City,
Japan. now hopefully you’re gonna be at
IWBC this coming, uh, this coming year, right? Coming up in a few
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I will, it’s towards the end of May,
may, uh, 21, I think through the 24th.
JOHN SNELL: and we’ll, we’ll talk more about IWBC here in a little bit. I wanna talk about your life some, but you were
the founder of IWBC, so I wanted to bring that up front, how important that organization is and, what you’re doing to, to spread brass pedagogy and especially bring, uh, female players to the forefront after years and years of the opposite,
shall we say,
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: In the shadows. We were In the shadows.
JOHN SNELL: Um, so with that
context, let’s start from the very beginning. how did you find the trumpet or the trumpet find you?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Well, it is kind of interesting. Many years ago. Some churches would have what they call revivals and they [00:13:00] would bring in spatial music, and a lot of those people would play the trumpet. And then, a gentleman by the name of Rayo Mendez was put on tv, and so I could watch him on tv and I thought, wow. I, I really liked the sound of the instrument. I really liked the repertoire. Of course, words I didn’t know at the time repertoire, but anyway, The unique thing is we didn’t even have a band in my school. We had like, like 18 in my class and they hired a female band director. So I was in fifth grade. She brought the general um, music story in and they put out all their instruments on display and my parents after the presentation said, well, what would you like to play?
And I pointed out then was the cornet, which is just Fighting for me, being a small person, I, you know, easy to handle and hold. And so I just, I had taken piano lessons, so I knew how to read music. I could read Bass Cliff, [00:14:00] and so once in a while they’d want me to play trombone so I could just pick up the trombone and play, you know, from the base cliff. So I think, um, one of the important things if, uh, a lot of people don’t like it, but piano gives you a really good foundation for it. Everything, you know, even theory, you can just hear those chords, see the chords on the piano, and it’s, I think it’s a very, useful tool to have. If you, if you don’t like piano, think of it as a tool so that you can use it to your advantage. so going through high school, we consolidated with a larger school and they had an excellent concert band. So one of the gentlemen in the trumpet section at this new school. Was Bobby Milliken and evidently he has played a lot, for Streisand for her concerts. Barbara Streisand, it is just interesting ’cause we graduated, Bobby went right to New York. I went to Indiana University, studied with Herb Mueller. [00:15:00] And years later when we had reunion, we got back together and we’re celebrating both of our successes. But he and one line, and myself and another.
JOHN SNELL: Fascinating.
And it all started, it was Indiana, right? Is that’s where
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: yes, in Indiana, just, uh, a little town in the middle of the state, not far from Indianapolis. And uh, I will say this, not that I hold a grudge, but we had a jazz band,
but women were not allowed to play.
In the band.
JOHN SNELL: Really?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Yeah. But if they had a shortage of trumpets, they always called me. So I got to play as a extra, you know,
JOHN SNELL: And
this was it. This was in the high school.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Yes.
JOHN SNELL: you weren’t even, weren’t, not even considered to be able to play in the jazz band.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: well because of my gender, so, but you know, that’s the way it was back then.
- When I went to iu, of course, I had gone to their summer camp a couple of times. this is an [00:16:00] interesting story. I think my parents really didn’t know much about music, So I’m kind of on my own. But the first time, I guess it was my sophomore year, they sent me to the IU band camp, but it actually ended up being Stan Kitten’s Jazz Group. So. I
played fourth because I had no idea about the style
JOHN SNELL: Uhhuh.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: and it was a, good experience. but I was pretty lost. I remember, uh, the Trump bonus, buddy Baker was, uh, my spiritual guidance there. But anyway.
JOHN SNELL: helping you through and
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: me through, right? Right. He says, no, no, you’ll get this. You’ll get this.
So then the next two years, I went to the regular band camp and got to play in the orchestra, and I thought, this is what I wanna do.
JOHN SNELL: so that, that’s where you fell
in love with, with orchestral plane? Was that the second year? So Stan, Ken, not so much.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I liked it, but I was just lost. I was overwhelmed.
JOHN SNELL: Yeah. So, and you, you had mentioned,
so [00:17:00] no, no one musical in your family. did you get private lessons outside of your schooling, or were you just
learning through band and,
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I was with my band director until my junior
year, Bob Myers was his name, and he played the trombone exceedingly well. And there was a, a summer band in Indianapolis, John, Phillips, I. think. So he would take us more talented people with him and we would go. To the band rehearsal, and the gentleman who played second trumpet in a symphony was the sole cornett. So it was all a very good experience. couldn’t have been, arranged any better, I don’t think, as far as giving me opportunities to play and everything,
JOHN SNELL: Fascinating. So you the decision to go to iu, but also you to be a MA music major, was that a no-brainer for you or is that something you had to consider? I.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I would know I was gonna be a performance major. I got to iu. My, uh, teacher, herb Mueller was on sabbatical when I auditioned. So when I go into my first lesson, he said, uh, I [00:18:00] see that you’ve signed up for performance. I’m gonna recommend you change that to music education. Now I’m basically a shy person, okay? I say that because for me to have made the statement it’s pretty remarkable in my mind. So I said to Mr. Mueller, Mr. Meu, you haven’t heard me play. If you’re say, okay, I’d like to stay in the performance program, and then in January, if you don’t think I’m qualified, I’ll switch to music education. So he agreed to that, but I bargained with the teacher that I barely knew and he, he went along with it.
JOHN SNELL: Uh, so I mean, he was, he was trying to deter you from being a
performance major.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I think he was trying to look out for me in terms if I didn’t make it as a performance major, that’s what I think. I think that he, in his mind it was like, well, symphonies aren’t hiring women. Not on a trumpet, you know? And we’re talking about [00:19:00] 1963,
JOHN SNELL: Yeah.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: so long time ago.
JOHN SNELL: and what was, what was,
that like for you? Like what were your
feelings? I mean, were, did that, did you double down? Uh, you know, or
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I just went with it. I just, you know, I had my say and he said, okay. They never brought it up again. Um, I studied with him and then he had a sabbatical coming. So I studied one year, one semester with Adams, Mr.
Adams, bill Adams, and then back with Mr. Mueller. Louis Davidson was the other teacher there.
And he would, on a Monday night, have a brass lit class. So I would attend that and I would sit as far down in the section as I could go. ’cause you know, there were graduate students and Several other more experienced players than me there. so I learned a tremendous amount between those three teachers. I am very, uh, grateful that, they took me seriously. [00:20:00] They provided me opportunities for, instance of Mr. Adams had a, gentleman by the name of Larry Wiseman, who was very prominent in Indianapolis, lead playing, And so I go to the first rehearsal. I’m playing second to Larry for a orchestra, and I have a lesson with Mr.
Adams and I, next time I look at the board, I’ve been switched with. Larry put ahead of him, and I went to the next rehearsal and I said, Larry, I, I, I don’t. He said, oh, no, no, no. I want you to play first. He didn’t feel comfortable playing that literature, and I guess after Mr. Adams heard me play, he, he decided that that would be a, a better choice there.
So they gave me opportunities to play first. and I just practice about three hours a day. I know that doesn’t sound like much compared to what maybe Doc Severance can do, but
JOHN SNELL: I don’t know.
I mean, three hours. So the,
at Indiana that, I mean that it’s Indiana’s known for its brass departments throughout the years. Um, [00:21:00] but so I find it interesting ’cause I, we’ve had a lot of, so students of Mr. Adam on the podcast, not a lot of, from Herb
Mueller and then, and Larry Davidson, although some of them
have switched or, you know, take some lessons with the other, studios.
So was it, difficult for you to switch teachers or were you
just kind of being like a sponge and absorbing what everyone was giving to you
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I, when I go to a teacher, I always think about they have something to offer me. Why would I challenge what they have to say? I’m just gonna absorb it, listen to it, apply it as best I can, you know, and hopefully have more than one lesson with them. And if I have questions, if it’s not working, I may or may not ask.
This doesn’t feel like it’s working for me to, what do you think I’m doing wrong? Not that they’re doing something wrong. and even as a professional here in St. Louis, every 4, 5, 6 years, I would go to somebody. But that would be my attitude, man. I don’t know anything. You tell me what you see and what I need to know and what I need to do. I’ll [00:22:00] get more out of him
than if I’m arguing with him. I even went and
saw Claude Gordon for several lessons.
JOHN SNELL: how did that come
about?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: well, I wasn’t satisfied with my upper register and I, felt like there was something I didn’t grasp about it. So he talked about, um, the position of the tongue. Well, I’m a fairly good whistler and I could see. You know, sort of inside my mouth as I would whistle that the tongue would be changing positions if I hit a certain note and went back to it.
That position of the tongue was the same each time. So let’s say I would get up to a high C and I would fall off of the high C to the B flat. when that would happen and I became more aware of my tongue position, I could see that as I was trying to do a crescendo, I actually blew the tongue out of position. So if I try to lock it in or hold it, then I could not make the note go lower, even if I was trying to, but if I [00:23:00] still locked the tongue into that position. So to this day, I still think that he was right. Tongue determines pitch.
JOHN SNELL: Wow. So, and then you started as, figuring out the upper register and
ended up learning something that
you’ve used your whole career, obviously pass Sure. Passing down to your students now. correct me if I’m, he was in Los Angeles right? Wasn’t he out here?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: He was. So I would finish a concert on Sunday afternoon, get on a late flight, half lessons on Monday, maybe on Tuesday morning, fly back to St. Louis for rehearsal on Wednesday. one time I finished, the concert. I’m ready to go out the door to go to the airplane, the airport and the personnel manager stops me and says, I have the nurse from a, Los Angeles hospital saying that Mr.
Gordon has to have Emergency Surgery, and he would not allow them to go into surgery until he knew the nurse had reached you so that you wouldn’t [00:24:00] come.
JOHN SNELL: Geez, man.
What? That’s amazing. So you, you didn’t get on the flight that time,
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: No, no, I was able to,
JOHN SNELL: but a testament to how much he cared about his students.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: pretty remarkable really. I mean, he put his own life ahead of trying to reach me. You know?
JOHN SNELL: gotta make sure you don’t get on the plane and Oh, wow.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: he had quad bypass surgery, so.
it was a serious surgery
back in that day, really back in the eighties, low eighties,
JOHN SNELL: you were in the symphony
then.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Yeah, I was in the symphony, but from 1969
to to 2010.
JOHN SNELL: a testament to your lifelong learning is you, you know, you have your position
already and you’re in, you know, established career, and you’re still working on improving
and, and learning.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I think what helped me was that I was willing to do that. I had a little bit of a double buzz start. In the middle seventies, I think basically I was just trying to [00:25:00] play too loud, you know, practicing all the time, too loud thinking. I don’t know, John, you sit in the section and you hear all this sound around you, and then when you’re practicing by yourself, you want to hear all this sound.
But anyway, then in the middle seventies I went to see Arnold Jacobs. work on this double buzz I was having. So somehow I was just
interrupting the Airstream a little bit too much. he came up with a lot of very good advice for me and things I still use. a lot of it had to do with maybe some pressure I was creating, trying to play loud.
he backed me off volume wise. He said, just, just find a nice metro forte. So that was something I could carry through the register without having that buzz. The double buzz, he said, well just play a little louder. Metso Forte. So, Metso Forte is a, for me, is a pretty relaxed. Volume. So I play just a little louder, [00:26:00] meso Forte, and he said, let’s just play a little bit louder, meso Forte.
And so I just carried that relaxation through all the registers and learned how to do that. But he was very helpful. So each person I’ve gone to, I just take the approach, I don’t know anything,
and they share whatever they have to share and help me.
JOHN SNELL: And you added to your bag of tricks.
I love it. and I, I wanna go back a, uh, a little bit ’cause I wanna get into the process of you joining the first orchestra. Right. Was was Toledo correct? Was that the first? Yeah. I mean, were you on the audition circuit at that point,
or how did that job come around?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: it would’ve been 1967, I’d sent out 30 letters of, uh, inquiry. ’cause in those days there was a lot of turnover. People couldn’t live on the salary that the symphony played them, paid them. And so then they’d have to go into another area. So there was a often as high as [00:27:00] 30 openings. So I got invited three.
Auditions. And when I got to the first one, it was in Milwaukee. I heard that there was an opening in Houston. So I thought, oh my goodness. I didn’t hear from them. So as soon as I got back home to the, uh, university, ’cause I was a senior, I, uh, called Houston and I said, oh, I hear that you have the opening there.
Did you not receive my, uh, letter of inquiry and. Yes. Yeah, we have it right here. Susan Slaughter. I said yes. Oh, we didn’t think you wanted to come this far. Oh, let me assure you, I can be there. Just tell me when to come. We’ll send you everything. Hang up. Well, what is the date today? I’m still waiting for them to send me my packet. They never did. So after that I signed my name SJ Slaughter and I got invited to everything. So in [00:28:00] Toledo, that was one of the auditions that places they would let me come. There was no committee. It was just the conductor and the personnel manager. The one piece they had me play over and over and over was the call in z stro.
So after about the fifth time, I stopped and I said. I’m sorry. Do you have something you want me to do differently with this call? He says, no, I just can’t believe that you can hit it every time, so.
JOHN SNELL: They said that in the audition.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Mm-hmm. So then I’m gonna just skip ahead a second because when I became the principal in St. Louis, ADA Devar came for a, a concert and he had zero thruster that we were playing. So the first rehearsal. he goes through it 5, 6, 7 times. Every time he stops this call, this particular place in the piece where the high E call is, he stops and says, uh, flutes, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Oh, books [00:29:00] blah, blah, blah, blah. Plays again, flutes again. Again, again, five times. So every band, like four or five rehearsals. So we get to the dress rehearsal and he’s, he does it another five times, that section. So I leaned over to my second trumpet and I said, how many times is that, Roger?
23.
He had me play the call 23 times.
one of the string readers came up and says, why don’t you miss it? Something go on. I. No, I’m not gonna miss him. I’m not gonna give him that satisfaction.
So anyway, would he have done that to Bud hrsa? Probably,
yeah. He probably would’ve done it to
Bud. I mean, you know,
JOHN SNELL: you,
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: consider the personality.
JOHN SNELL: you think you, it’s, it was conductor versus trumpet basically. It
wasn’t you.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I don’t know.
JOHN SNELL: There’s no way to know. But it’s
still, it’s, it’s so frustrating ’cause in a group that’s supposed to [00:30:00] be artistic and creative and communicate music in, you know, one of the highest art forms to be, see what seems so petty.
Um, it’s just
unbelievable.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: you know, I already passed the test. I won the job. The test is already done. Why are you testing me? you
know
JOHN SNELL: and it’s even started back in the audition, and I, I wanna, I mean it,
I don’t want to dwell on this necessarily, but I did, you, you said you sent out 30 letters originally and heard back from three, and then when you signed your name, so people didn’t know
it was Susan, it was just
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Yeah. Just SJ Slaughter.
JOHN SNELL: everything. You got invited to everything.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Yeah.
JOHN SNELL: I like, I can’t, I can’t imagine like, what, what was the frustration or like what, how, how do you feel knowing that at that time in your career, like that you had such an uphill battle?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Well, I, I think. You just have to think about the times. It, it mean when it happens now with [00:31:00] people, you know, I’m very angry because we’ve already proven ourselves now, you know, I could see maybe back then you looking at me and saying, oh, a woman, I don’t know, she can carry the load and this is a really tough job.
And look at these people only lasted 10 years and that person went 15 or 20. I. Held the position for about 40 years. Now, I say about, because when I was first in the orchestra, I came in as the fourth trumpet in 69, in 70, the principal decided, uh, his name is Chandler Getty. He was from, I think New Mexico and played the Santa Fe Opera, and that’s where he wanted to be in the summertime, not in humid St.
Louis. So our contract back in those days, the orchestra contract. Would only guarantee work until the end of May. So at February 2nd, they couldn’t say, yeah, we can guarantee you work in the summer. You [00:32:00] could go somewhere else. So when he went somewhere else, they came to me. ’cause I played principal in Toledo.
Would you like to? I said, okay, I’ll, I’ll give it a try, you know? But here’s the thing, if I’d really messed up, I didn’t have tenure. So I would’ve been, could have been fired, you know, so it was a risk, but I was not smart enough to know that that was a risk. So anyway, but then they look at the opportunity I had, we did pictures at an exhibition, very requiem, you know, a lot of big works that summer.
And so it gave me an opportunity to play principal and nobody complained. I’m aware of
JOHN SNELL: that. you were aware of, uh, and, and then eventually you were offered
tenure, correct. Is that, I mean, you were there for 40 years, so
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Yeah. So the only time I worry is when we had a European conductor, ’cause they tend to have all male bras,
[00:33:00] section.
JOHN SNELL: I mean, they seemed were quite behind on the times up through the eighties and nineties. And I mean, my history when Vienna and some of those finally
allowed women into the orchestra,
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: we’ll let the heart band, we’ll let the piano stand. Not even strength layers, but now they, they do have a good representation now, but I don’t think still in the brass, maybe
horns in the brass section.
JOHN SNELL: Yeah. did you realize at the time that you were the first principal trumpet of a major orchestra that was
female at,
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: they, being the symphony made a big deal out
of it.
JOHN SNELL: okay.
Were you comfortable with that or did you just want to be, show up and play?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: in a position, a principal position. I think you have a responsibility to the public of people who come to your concerts, uh, you’re in a high profile chair. Then I think extra responsibilities come with that. So, no, it was fine. in a sense [00:34:00] it was a way to document it, you know? So now, years from now, people wanna say, no.
No, there was never a woman in the St. Louis Symphony. People can either go to articles or they could go to the old symphony programs, say, well, there was one here for a long time.
JOHN SNELL: Yeah, and you can be an inspiration for up and coming young female brass players who didn’t have the kind of examples that you
had, which
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: That’s one of the reasons for the IWBC, the International Women’s Brass Conference, so we’ll go to that whenever you want to, but that was one of the
goals to provide.
JOHN SNELL: yeah, and I, I do want to get to that. I, I wanna talk more about your orchestra experience. I always love asking, I mean, do, do you remember your first, uh, rehearsal or first
concert with St. Louis?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Yes, I was supposed to play fourth onzetra. I ended up playing second because that gentleman had just had hernia surgery so I playing next to the principal that was pretty special. But also I had to be on top of my [00:35:00] game. You know right away he would be able to tell if I could do it.
Felt comfortable, supported him when he played the call, he missed it in one of the rehearsals. I can’t remember it, maybe in one of the concerts, and he leaned over and said, I don’t want them to think it’s too easy
to play that high C. I don’t want ’em to think it’s too
JOHN SNELL: but he didn’t have to do it 23 times.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: no,
no, I think I hold that record.
JOHN SNELL: any favorite repertoire?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I think all brass players love Mahler.
JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I enjoy that. And Bruner, you can just really sing on the instrument. We actually get a melody. I’m not real fond of playing Mozart or Broms, but they’re beautiful, pieces and, and, uh, composers that have definitely written some gorgeous stuff. I just would prefer to play Mahler or Bruner Stravinsky’s fun.
I mean, there’s a, there’s a lot of even contemporary, composers that write some beautiful things. [00:36:00] We certainly. I performed a large number of contemporary pieces with Leonard Slackin as our music director and then David Robertson. Later on
when we have, would have a European conductor as our music director, we would pull back from a lot of that and play more of the standard repertoire.
So, you know, it was what it was.
JOHN SNELL: But you like the lyrical stuff. You like,
you, you like to have a
melody.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Yeah, I, I feel like I can contribute more. I mean, I don’t mind playing harmony and all of that, but, just to go B, that’s not music for me.
JOHN SNELL: Yeah. Yeah. Um, I wanna spend a little bit of time, at least on the, the different roles in a, in an orchestral trumpet section. ’cause like you said, you started in fourth. I mean, you’ve done, you got bumped up to second for your first concert principal for, for decades. can you kind of define what the different roles are and, and if there’s young [00:37:00] player getting into the section for the first time, what
they should be aware of?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Well, number one, respect the people around you. They could make or break, especially if you’re a non-tenured player, they could help make or break. Your ability to get tenure. So show them with respect, especially older players, they have played this repertoire. It may be that in my case, the second trumpet said to me one time, he said, well, in St.
Louis we do it this way. Well, I could have said, well, Louis Davidson told me to play it this way. No, Louis Davidson wasn’t in St. Louis. I took his information. Used it and, maybe 20 years later I said, Roger, could we try this? I know this is not traditional St. Louis, but I think this will really work better.
And it worked better. But after 20 years, let me just go to Roger here for a second, when I was, named the principal trumpet and won that job on that [00:38:00] position, Every time I would say something to the second trumpet, his shoulders would go up. I say, okay, so we were playing a heightened symphony and they didn’t need us for a couple of movements.
I said, let’s go off stage. We don’t have to sit out here. I. So he went off stage And I said, Roger, have I done something to ruffle your Le your feathers? Have I upset you about something? He said, no, I’m just not used to taking orders from woman. He says, I just need a little time, but I will overcome this.
But it’s just some kind of a culture thing that every time I would. Say something. and I didn’t say a lot, don’t get me wrong. and never did I say it. in a dominating way. Like I, usually would say, let’s try it this way.
his shoulders
would come up, so after two years, he no longer had that response.
but he was very helpful to me when we’d do a pop
show. Like I told you earlier, I wasn’t allowed to play in the
jazz [00:39:00] band. So we’d do a pop show and he’d say, the style here is, and I would do it the way he said, because that’s where his strength was. So, respect your section. One thing that I like the second player to do when we’re playing octaves is the second player plays louder than you do, and you just sit on top of that sound so forte, your meso forte, and it just carries beautifully.
If you try to compete, then you end up with more distorted sound. So that’s one thing.
Respect your second trumpet player so that they’ll play louder. Or if you have a unison and you need just a little break so you’re not pushing so hard, ask them to play a little stronger in this section. the third player often is the assistant.
And here’s the other thing that I learned from a first horn in a symphony at the time, he would always make sure the assistant was playing first on the youth concerts. They, they did a lot of good repertoire. [00:40:00] You know, one that jumps in my mind here is, uh, Firebird by Stravinsky. So there’s a lot to play for the horn in a number of pieces.
horns. doesn’t just play offbeats. Like if you’re in a band, a lot of times you play a lot offbeats, but in the orchestra you have a much more prominent role. So Roland said to me, um, uh, why did you have so and so? Play the youth concert because They need to be able to step into your position and have some experience having led the section, you know, with, if you become ill.
It’s not just like suddenly they haven’t played first for six months and now they have to fill in for you. you need to give them things responsible. So, that would be the third player, the fourth player would. move up the third and it.
is just, it
is, I think, important. We would actually do once a month because we did so much contemporary music, we would get together and have a sectional and Toga Larson [00:41:00] played second with us for two years.
So when he came in, I said, well, we just standard routine, we have a sectional once a month. And I’m not certain what he thought at the time, but years later, a couple years ago, he was here visiting and he looked at me and he said, I, now realize you were doing those sectionals for me. And I, said, not necessarily.
It was for all of us. we all have different levels of learning, you know things, so we go at different speeds of how we graph something. So as the principal player, I felt like it was my idea, my responsibility. To determine if we were going to double tongue something, single tongue, a certain passage, might have a combination of both and how we were going to do it so that we were all on the same page.
May or may not have been what they would’ve done on their own, but at least they knew what I was thinking of. And then the other idea was, what do we have, because it’s contemporary music.
I don’t wanna be sitting there trying [00:42:00] to figure out. If the second, third or fourth is doubling something with me, or it’s, a weird chord and we need to tune it a certain
way, that’s easier if you’re separated and can hear each other versus being the orchestra
when all the percussion is behind you, you know, all the horns are blowing into your face. so it’s
just something I thought was important and the,
the other players in this section would. Benefit as well as I
benefited.
JOHN SNELL: Fascinating and probably builds comradery as well, I’m sure. And uh, but it seems like the communication is key, right? Just being open and honest with everyone and listening and as you said respect those who came before you It’s, seems simple, but not always
in, uh, in practice, right?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Well, you get the job and you may go in and
say, look at me.
No, that’s, You don’t need to do that. They’re already looking at You
You won the job. They’re already
looking at you now. Just do the job. [00:43:00] You know,
JOHN SNELL: yeah, and I I mean, I’m guessing because you were in St. Louis for 40 years, you’ve, you felt at home there. Did you ever consider moving to other orchestras or auditioning,
or why, why did you stay in St. Louis?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I did take other auditions, in Boston. I think it was the position when Charlie won it. Charlie Schluter. So after the audition, I just asked for a little feedback and the personnel manager said, well, we didn’t feel like your sound would fit in the section, which was true. They had a brighter sound.
- And I had a more warm sound and not quite so penetrating, I was, uh, in the finals with Phil Smith, Louis Ranger for the New York Philharmonic job. And when I walked up, walked on stage, according to Johnny Ware who passed this along years later, Zin Maa said, what’s a woman doing up there? We’re not gonna have a woman in the set grass section.
JOHN SNELL: Oh my gosh.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: So they let me play. And of course I didn’t know he’d [00:44:00] said that. so I played my audition and went home.
JOHN SNELL: Oh my
gosh.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Would I have won the position if they’d had a different attitude? I don’t know. Do you think anybody on the committee’s gonna vote for me after he said that Johnny Ware said he did, but who knows?
JOHN SNELL: who
know? Well, that’s the thing is we’ll never know and Oh, I can’t, yeah, I am speechless. I mean, I just, like, I and I, I internally, I just, I can’t imagine what goes through you, your feelings and your thought process, your mindset when you hear, when these things are happening. I
don’t know
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Well, it’s just, it was that time. Is what you hope to accomplish? kind of helping people change their minds, but the, the culture is there. It’s just like the culture of discriminating against
blacks or, or Hispanics or Asians, Is a culture that, we [00:45:00] have to figure out how to break that down. And we
haven’t been very successful yet.
JOHN SNELL: Yeah, I mean, we’re still, I think, in our infancy stage. it reminds me, uh, justice Ginsburg, someone asked her at some point, totally unrelated, but also related to trumpet. Someone asked her if, uh, I think in the media, if she thought that, uh, you know, we’ve passed, you know, crossed that bridge in terms of equality now that there’s women on the uh, Supreme Court. and I think her answer was something on the lines of, well, we’ve had 200 years of nine men on the court, and no one’s, you know, batted an eye. we will know we’ve reached equality when there’s 200 years of nine women on the court and no one bats. And I, you know, um,
as only she could say that in her way.
And that’s, yeah, I mean, I think kind of a, a, a reflection of. Same thing. Oh, great. There’s a woman in a breast section. We’ve made it. It was like
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: great.
JOHN SNELL: the fact that the fact that you’ve noticed that and [00:46:00] it sticks out means that we
still haven’t, you know. which may be a good segue into the IWBC, what brought you to, to, create that
organization?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: There used to be a orchestra seminar in the Tetons, called the Grand Tetons Orchestra Festival or something similar, and they, would meet a month before the regular festival orchestra would come in for the July and August concerts. So it’s very similar to, um, say, Tanglewood or
Aspen, where people come in, young players come in that are either, uh, outstanding in their.
College years or young professionals,
we would sit in the orchestra with them for the first read through of the piece and then, uh, we would remove ourselves and then just sit out in the audience and be coaches for the, for me, for
the trumpet section. This one particular year, there were several, young ladies
that came, uh, a couple on trombone, maybe three on horn, and [00:47:00] two or three on trumpet.
And we would get together and, and talk and, you know, just exchange ideas, exchanges, what their situations were. And one of them said, it’s too bad we can’t have some kind of a conference where we all come together and, and just share everything that, that we’ve learned. And so that seed was planted and I thought, well, how can we make this happen?
And I wasn’t certain anybody would go along with us. So I decided I would do a survey. I, have a book called the IOM book, which has all the major symphony orchestra names in it. So I went through and tried to figure out what names were female so I could send them a survey.
I got a hold of the, uh, existing, horn Society, the trombone Association. Went through again and tried to figure out
the female members. So I came up with 1500 names. I asked questions like, there’s been some discussion. [00:48:00] Do you think we should try to create a conference where all of our instruments, the trombones, horns, et cetera, can come together and share what we’ve, we’ve learned and, uh, be of support to each other?
The survey came back, so we had about 500 return. If you’ve done a survey, you know 3% is a nice return, 10% is pretty overwhelming. Uh, unusual, But 30% is a mandate.
So then I decided I have to do this probably because I was principal, the St. Louis Symphony. I could, I. Project that, and, help raise money to that inn.
And a lot of people here in St. Louis were very generous and
kind, uh, including our
union to uh, help finance the first conference in 93, so of 19 93, 97. And we’ve now gone to, uh, about every other [00:49:00] year. So every two years we have a conference. Before I did that, after the con, I forgot the survey. I called all the presidents in these various conferences.
the
person who was president of the said, oh, no, no,
no, no, no. Don’t do that. Don’t do that.
please. he says, well, we’ll increase the number of women performers. And I said, that’s not really the
issue. That’s not it. So the, uh, uh, Vern Kegar Rice was president
of?
the, ITA at that, the trombone association.
And Vernon says, I love the idea. Do it. I’ll help you, I’ll do everything I can to help you. So there were these two responses that, uh, was perhaps, uh, repeated. I’ll just leave it at that. So in, in 93, we had our first conference and it was like, you know, I mentioned the word earlier, revival. What happens in revival is.
People realize they haven’t been living the way they want to [00:50:00] and try to, express what they think they was going wrong and have a renewal of some sort, like a spiritual renewal. This was like a spiritual thing. Women could talk about anything they wanted to, and none of us were gonna call their bosses.
And say, Ooh, guess what they said? Or guess what the situations they’ve talked about. Everybody could say what they wanted. Other people have had the same experience, expressed their, way of dealing with it. And the gentleman who was second trumpet in the Baltimore Sym Symphony, uh, Langston Fitzgerald African American gentleman, stood up as we were having a discussion one time and stood up and he says.
I know, I know what you’re feeling. He pointed at his skin, he says, ’cause I have the same thing. I deal with the same thing. So, you know, it brought an awareness that, oh my gosh, of course he says I’m [00:51:00] pulled over at least three times a year. ’cause I drive a nice car and it’s black. And I’m black and they think that I’m a drug dealer.
So I’m pulled over. I’m off speeding. you know, so, just become more aware of things. So what I like at the conference is we still do that. We try to address subjects that other conferences are afraid to touch, they’ll say, so the discussion of transgender is pretty appropriate now with what’s going on or situation with the gay community, or, or, or, we just, we don’t necessarily solve anything.
- But we’re ready to talk about it and, to see what we can do. and we may not make much progress, but we’re not trying to hide it and push it under the carpet. We wanna be more head on. and it’s not easy. it’s not easy.
but it’s necessary.
JOHN SNELL: Yeah. And I’m so glad you’re talking about this, because It’s [00:52:00] yeah. You, you think, oh, it’s 2025. We’ve moved on. We’ve, we’re a better place. And there’s still. Some, you know, we take a few steps forward, and then we take four steps backwards and, people get upset because some of these stories get out.
Uh, like your audition with a New York fill. I’m sure there’s people that have never heard that story before and think, oh, this stuff, that stuff would never happen, you know, but it has, and, and until those stories get out there and people realize how, how bad the prejudice is, um, and the stereotyping, but importantly a place for the people that are experiencing that have a place to talk about it and to try to solve the issue.
How do we move forward? I mean it, what’s even more frustrating is we’re talking about the arts. You know, we’re talking about the arts, we’re talking about, I mean, talking about a thing with
comradery and a common goal and to make the world a better place, and that we’re, we’re shooting our neighbor down because of what they look like or where they came from, or what their choices are.
Just, [00:53:00] I don’t know.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Well, you give, go back far enough. We are all immigrants, so what’s the problem?
JOHN SNELL: Yeah.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: You know? So tell me, I’m going to switch the role here a second. You were at the Japan conference. That was your first
Was it Ed? Okay.
JOHN SNELL: I was,
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Did you have time to attend any of the, uh, recitals or anything?
JOHN SNELL: unfortunately, I was there by myself, so
I was in the vendor room manning the booth the whole time, but my, my wife and my children went to some of the, some of the
concerts.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: what amazes me is that, you know, we’ve become familiar with people here in the states. We know the outstanding players like
JOHN SNELL: Ashley.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Ashley
Hall.
You know,
JOHN SNELL: as she’s, she’s she’s the previous podcast of yours. I just interviewed her, but Amazing
player. Yeah. And wonderful person.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: And yes, I have a lot of, uh, respect and admiration for her. anyway, [00:54:00] getting to Japan. We absolutely knew nothing about the players there, and it was just incredible how talented and, They’ve progressed as far as we have, and, and it’s just, you know, there were players from Taiwan, from South Korea, just all over Australia, and it, we.
Never heard of them, and they’re just fantastic. So that was, that was important I think for the IWBC to go to Japan and to open those doors and hopefully that they will be able to now establish whatever network they needed, establish to help them to grow and, and,
uh, develop as uh, performers.
JOHN SNELL: It, it was a, it was a wonderful event. I’m glad I was able to go and, everyone who went for those who weren’t aware, uh, we all, literally weathered a typhoon to get there.
cause a typhoon blew in that weekend of all things. And, and folks still showed up. They still [00:55:00] played their recitals. And, uh, it was a great event. and what a
gorgeous building that was too.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: perfect. It was
JOHN SNELL: Really, really a fun event. Um, and we have, uh, what, the Hart School coming up, May 19th to 24th is the next one. uh, now are you involved in, the planning of the conference
or,
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I just do a little bit here and there and my little bit is, something I really like is we call it the awards committee and one of the things that bothered me was people who had successful careers. I. In the past, and basically went unnoticed in a sense, unless it was their own little community, but
nationally or unnoticed, we bring them to the conference and we give them award.
We’re bringing Kate Moore from over in London plays, and I think what would be the London Radio Orchestra is a principal trumpet, and she’s been there 30 years. I’ve just now heard of her. So [00:56:00] we’re bringing her over as a pioneer. Nancy Jordan, married, named Fako, is a horn player. She actually played principal horn in the Chicago Symphony back in the sixties for a year or two.
so we’re honoring her. So people, uh, like Kathy Branigan in Denver, Colorado, Who started the Denver Brass and. Has a successful career there in teaching at the university. Uh, we’re bringing her as the Beacon Award and the beacon being that maybe people don’t know? about her worldwide, but certainly around the Denver area and the state of Colorado, she’s had a huge influence on the uh, people there.
So I like that part ’cause I always want to be pointing to other people. I don’t really wanna point to myself. I’ve, I’ve had my time in the spotlight. You know I want to broaden that spotlight and make
sure it hits more people.
JOHN SNELL: Pass the torch. I [00:57:00] love it. my I, wbc.org will have the link, to get you to the, uh, conference website. if you, wanna register and go. It’s in Connecticut at the Hart School in Hartford, Connecticut. another beautiful area of, the country. I’m looking forward to being there
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: well, I think we went there with the orchestra, but you know, it was get on the bus, go out New York City, play the concert, get on the bus and drive back. So I, I look forward to seeing it. And the other thing, John, that we do. Live auditions. We have our competitions. We don’t do a, a preliminary on by tape.
We think that people need the experience. Students need the experience of having a live audition. So the grand prize,
if you, pass round one and you get to the finals, we just choose one grand prize and then we have a
second and third, but that’s $5,000. So. We’ve had several young
men coming and participating and, while
my feeling is, oh, I’m sorry a woman didn’t win [00:58:00] that
prize,
JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: but it’s the way a live audition would
- The best
person won, and that’s what we wanna create. So every round is behind a
curtain, so we’re not going to
be, biased in any way, to
JOHN SNELL: it by example. Doing it by
example.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: so that’s our goal.
JOHN SNELL: So we’ll make sure we have the links to all that. And we’ll hope you see, many of you listeners there at the IWVC this May. And if you’re listening to this in the future, then maybe we’ll see you at, uh, some of the future conferences. And, uh, again, we’re glad to be on board helping sponsor the conference And
be in the vendor room.
my goal.
is to eventually be big enough here at Bob Res Brass. I can go and see the recitals and the, I I, I like to tell folks over the last 25 years, I have missed more great concerts and masterclasses. you know. but that’s my job. That’s my lot in life is to be in the vendor room. And I I also love it there too.
I get to, see a lot of great folks. Like that’s where we got to, connect. So
wouldn’t have happened if [00:59:00] we
weren’t there. Yes,
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: sit at table for you So
you can go hear
JOHN SNELL: Oh, thank you. Okay.
Well, dinner’s on me. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll trade. Um, although I’m, I’m sure you you’re, you’re pulled a million different directions at these conferences, so if it’s after the conference, that’s fine too.
Um, speaking of auditions, I wanna, I wanna switch gears a little bit. we do have a lot of, young listeners out there. Long, a lot of young aspiring orchestral players. can you take us through, your, audition prep and or what you put your students through, leading up to a, an audition?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I think one of the most important things as a student is that you do a lot of listening. the members of the committee, and we have a nine member committee in the orchestra elected by the orchestra They hear the passage that you’re playing. They hear their part and how it fits in.
So they’re used to hearing things a certain way. So if you can listen even to the orchestra, if they have recorded [01:00:00] this piece, that’ll give you a little bit of an edge in terms of tone, temples style, things that, we would be listening for. A lot of people can play the notes now. lot of people can play the tagging passages, but not a lot of people bring any depth of knowledge about how the piece really goes.
So it’s more than just hitting the notes. So that’s one of the things that you as a student or applicant for the job needs to think about as you’re preparing one of the. Tricks that I would use for, let’s say recording sessions. I would take the passage, let’s say Patricia, although we’ve never recorded Patricia.
This is the pictures we’ve recorded that I would play the promenade practicing three times. Perfect. A little contract with myself. Then I stop. Then I take a little break, and I don’t mean 20 minutes, but you know, a minute or [01:01:00] so. Then I go back and play the passage again three times. Perfect. Now, why? One of the things you have to do in an audition is stay focused.
How can you stay focused? If you have practiced doing something three times, perfect, you know that you only have to play it once they ask you to play it again. You programmed yourself. You say, I can play this three times. Perfect. I only have to play it once. Once again. Et cetera. Playing the call in. I can play it three times.
Perfect. I only have to play at
23.
Oh, sorry.
JOHN SNELL: exactly. You beat me to it.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Yeah.
so that’s consistency is probably the most important. Can you miss an audition? Well, every once in a while you have a conductor that says, oh, but they hit a missed a note, And the brass section is saying, but their sound fits in. Everything else was perfect. I missed one note. It [01:02:00] is after all, a brass instrument and they got it.
Nailed it the next time. So we don’t know what
your problem is. Anyway,
JOHN SNELL: At,
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: that’s another story.
JOHN SNELL: as as a, uh, I mean, uh, that’s great
advice and it, but as a being on a panel, like can you tell, is there like different severities and mis note? Like can you tell if the mis note is just because it was a human error or if it was something inherent, you know, an inherent trouble in that player’s, you
know, approach.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Yes, you, you can tell by the way they are approaching the note and the way they play their scales, the way they center the sound when with the attack, you can tell if it’s going to possibly be a little bit of a problem,
JOHN SNELL: Okay.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: and they may or may not play it perfectly, but the way they present the intonation, let’s say.
You can tell it’s not quite locked in. So intonation rhythm, the two most important, if you play musically [01:03:00] or in the proper style for each Xer, that’s a real plus. that’s why the listening’s so important and don’t Go ahead and listen to singers too, because there’s a certain sound that they produce that.
Has a lot of life to it, ambience, and you wanna be able to produce that in
your trumpet or horn or trombone
sound.
JOHN SNELL: Who are your favorite singers? Who do you
listen to?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Well, this is very, very long ago. Joan Sutherland was a cura. And it was such a clear sound. I mean, I’d never heard, think about this. I grew up on the farm. The only classical record I had was Tchaikovsky, sym number four, and I’d never heard a singer like this. When I heard her singing, I went out and bought her recordings.
’cause I, it was crystal clear and, and Ryan, it just really vibrated in such a, a, a. Uh, I’m trying to find the right words, but it, it was exciting to hear, you know, and she would do the, [01:04:00] I think it’s Mozart, but
JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: you know, and every note dead on. Beautiful. Sound clear as it could be. And I’m thinking, that’s the way I wanna sound beautiful. Sound as clear as it can
be.
JOHN SNELL: you brought that into your own plane. couple last questions ‘ you mentioned in college you were practicer, three hours a day was regularly. did You, maintain that throughout your orchestral career or did you tone that down depending on. what your, concert schedule was like?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Now I, I practiced a lot in my professional
career. Yeah. what’s interesting, if something didn’t go as well as I wanted it to in
a concert, I would get home at 11 o’clock at night,
start practicing and
maybe stop at one and have a concert the next
day. you know, so it was important to me
that I fix whatever the problem
was. If a person in the orchestra would come up and say, we had a horn player that was
an [01:05:00] assistant and suddenly kind of thrown into a long term
being the assistant and was really good, phenomenal at jumping in. If the principal got ill And
had to
play two or three concerts for the principal would be phenomenal, but over the course of six months.
it took its toll. It’s a lot of pressure.
And, he came up after a performance one night. He came up and said, how was it last night? People, I read the paper. They really bombed me. And I said,
don’t think about last night you’ve got tonight. Focus on tonight. I didn’t say, Yeah. I wasn’t very good. I just said, don’t think about last night.
That’s go on. You can’t do anything. Think about
tonight. Just go out there and nail it.
JOHN SNELL: Pick up and move on.
Love it. and we, we, it, it.
is, yeah. Easier said than done, but
still great mindset to have. Um, and we wouldn’t, we wouldn’t be a trumpet podcast unless we [01:06:00] got a little geeky, talked about, equipment. Would you mind kind of going through your arsenal, your favorite horns and the, different keys and, and throw some mouthpieces in there as
well?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Okay. Well let’s do the horns first. So I played
Bach a c trumpet, and a Bach B flat trumpet for many, many years. I had a Bach
D trumpet, so the C trumpet is a 2 39 bell with an edelstein pipe. And I like that because the way I produce the sound, it helps me to focus the sound a little bit better. So it’s an aid to me.
Other people may have a real focus sound and gonna need to go to the 2 29 valve, which helps. Maybe broaden it. So, and whether what I just said is true or not, I don’t know, is, it sounds true to me when I play those two bells. So that’s how it works for me. then I had a det trumpet. It was a 2 36 bell.
Loved it. I did a lot of, I. Work with it. in those days, it, was not as good as our contemporary [01:07:00] DE flat trumpets. I bought a Silkie de Flat. I played that for years, back in the middle eighties. we were recording sym number three by Copeland, and I was playing my E-flat and I’d had a.
a Bach 2 29 bell made for the,
so I could slide onto the E-flat, the Sochi E-flat, but it
wasn’t giving me as enough sound as I wanted. So I ‘
had played a I’d heard that uh Blackburn trumpets were producing the E-flat D trumpet, And, so I asked if I
could borrow an instrument for this recording session. They only had one available that
was going to a student. and he said, cliff said, well, I, I don’t wanna tell you I’ll send it to you without talking to the student.
It’s their instrument. I said, okay. I said, maybe I could help. Would you tell the student I’ll give them $500 a week to rent their instrument? Which by the time I finished, was paid for maybe a third or a half of the instrument, you [01:08:00] know? So the student said, yes, played that, and, um. Bought one. my friend I mentioned my and Fitzgerald, he wanted to try it, so I mailed it. to him.
He mailed it back and said he was gonna go down and work with Cliff. And so he ended up gold plating the bell, which added more depth to the sound. so then of course I had to have a gold plated bell, so Blackburn de flat trumpet really helped extend my career. Had a silky piccolo. Yamaha flu horn.
Ah, that’s
JOHN SNELL: Yeah, that’s, that’s probably what 99% of your plane was on
those, those five or six horns, quite the arsenal. and which, what was your Main
mouthpieces?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Main mouthpiece. I started out my senior year going to, uh, Toledo with a five c.
JOHN SNELL: Mm-hmm.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I took some lessons from Bernie Stein who was. Big into the one and a quarter Cs. So I switched to that. so that was a Bach and I tried some of the reuse [01:09:00] mouth pieces. I used those in the seventies. and as we went along, I came across the war Burton mouth pieces.
And I used, some of those, but basically, I stayed with the, the B mouth pieces, went to the
Ward Burton, back boars, and for the piccolo when they came out with that extra weight. we had a sectional and I asked the assistant to stay and I said, tell me what you hear here. So
I played it without the weight and, then I played it with the
weight and the other two gentlemen were going up the stairs and they turned around and came back down.
What did you do? You know, I
just, is this just this weight here? and
you know, I think it takes away some of, the real shrillness and adds some
body, and it was enough that they
turned around and had to ask what that was.
JOHN SNELL: Hey, hey, Go with the results. That’s, that’s the
way to do it.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: So that’s what I, uh, still use. ’cause I don’t really need to buy a new horn unless mine’s stolen. You know? I don’t need to
do anything. I just play with this little church group.
JOHN SNELL: I love it I love it [01:10:00] Well, Thank you, for that ’cause I, I, it’s funny, I work in a mouthpiece shop and it’s, I always forget to ask that question and I get all these angry emails. What, what
equipment do they use? What equipment do they use?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Well, you know, if I was still. In the production line, so to speed, having to produce performances and concerts. I would still be trying everybody’s mouthpiece, but
I have probably 50 or 60 if anybody wants me to ship them to ’em.
JOHN SNELL: Hey, but, but send me a list. I might be interested. Um, well, ab it’s an absolute honor having you on Susan. so folks, uh, I, I said we’ll have the links to the IWBC conference, in any other projects you’re working on, are you enjoying retirement, like you said, and playing, uh, playing a little bit here and
there?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Well, the way with it we fund the concerts is we have a. concert I produce here and there’s a ginger Turner produces one in Baltimore called Holiday Brass Concerts. We started in 1992, So we started with one concert, obviously, and we’ve grown to four [01:11:00] concerts, and this will be my 34th
year to raise money that way for the IWBC bc.
JOHN SNELL: Wonderful. So we’ll, we’ll make sure I’ll get the links and the information on those and we’ll make sure we have all of that information down on the description and the show notes and everything so
folks can find out about it. Okay.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Well, thank you. You’re very kind. Thank you, John.
JOHN SNELL: it’s, I mean, I, it’s an ab
like I said, it’s an absolute honor to have you on.
Sorry. It’s, it’s taken so long. We talked to last year at, uh, IWBC and, better late than never. and before I let you go, the last question, if you could leave our listeners, with your best piece of advice, what would that be?
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I think that it just falls all all the way back to respect, in the bottom line is I know it’s a, uh. A scripture, but love your neighbor as you love yourself. the key here is that you have to truly love yourself. Accept yourself, whatever that. means for you, until you can get to that level of accepting yourself.
It’s a little hard to love your [01:12:00] neighbor as you love yourself, so don’t be afraid to delve in and examine. Who you are. ‘ cause who you are is important. And once you can come to grips of that, that opens the whole door
to be loving to your neighbor.
JOHN SNELL: We all need to hear
that. Thank you so much, Susan. I appreci appreciate your time
today and I’m going and I’m gonna, I’m gonna hold you to that. You’re gonna come watch the table at uh,
next month at
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: I will, I will. I
JOHN SNELL: Sell, sell a lot of mouthpieces for
me.
SUSAN SLAUGHTER: Well, maybe I could try some.
JOHN SNELL: Yeah. We’ll, we’ll do that too. Thank you.
Conclusion:
JOHN SNELL: A huge thank you to Susan for being on the podcast. And, uh, for those of you watching on YouTube, what a beautiful scenery she had behind her. Much better than my, uh, my practice room up front at the shop. but what a, what an amazing story. And, talking to Susan, you know, it’s, it’s hard not to overlook the fact that the adversity that she had [01:13:00] to push through and persevere through, you know, the stories are just.
Both inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time. inspiring the fact that she, nothing could get in her way. No one could say no to her. progressing, she just did what she did the best she could. and, forged a career, that, no one before her did really, which act we will talk to, uh, Maurice Ali, who was also around the same time doing a similar thing for a different orchestra.
but heartbreaking and the, you know, the stories of the, the musical director saying no women could play, from under my baton or the, uh. I mean, what did she say? 30 something applications, when she was in, school to different orchestras and three responses.
And then when she took her name off and just went by initials, then she got accepted. You know, got 30 responses outta 30, things like that. I mean, it’s the, the writing’s on the wall, what was actually happening there. And, uh, while I’d like to think that we’ve come quite a long ways from, uh, the sixties, When Susan was coming up, uh, [01:14:00] in, in some respects, we still have a long way to go in many respects. That’s what I meant to say, with the stories that, uh, you know, are being told. So Susan, thank you for what you do. Uh, uh, really it was an honor, to chat with you. I met Susan for the first time at IWBC last year in Mito Japan, where we first connected.
It was great to finally get her on the, on the podcast, and I look forward to seeing her. And maybe you at, uh, IWBC coming up here in a few weeks. As I mentioned, we have speaking of groundbreaking, trumpet players in our field. as I mentioned, Maurice, Betsy Alley, is coming up.
she was the first woman trumpet player, to play in a major symphony orchestra. and that’s defined, uh, we talk about that in her episode, but, you know, major meaning, uh, a certain budget, uh, is how the, um, American society of. orchestras, determines what’s major and minor, but certainly, the first, in the major symphony orchestra and very similar stories to Susan.
coming up later, this [01:15:00] summer, we have Liesel Whitaker, she was the first, female trumpet player in a major military, band. She played with the Army blues and then also the Army Jazz Ambassadors, lead trumpet. Some amazing stories from her as well. also in the fold here is Eric Baker.
I’ve mentioned, uh, he’s known as the trumpets miked up on social media. EEB Trumpet stands for both E-Flat and Eric Baker Trumpet on the TikTok, Instagram. All of those things, he posts great content, hysterical content, and is also a fabulous. player in the West Texas Symphony in his own right and educator.
Uh, he’s in the fold. And also, uh, coming up, we’re doing another panel discussion, with former students of William, Adam, Dr. Carl Seavers, Charlie Davis, Bob Slack. Bobby Burns, Gino Munoz. Uh, we’ll see who else will shows up. Maybe there’ll be some surprise guests. but that’ll be a panel discussion on the podcast and also on YouTube that we’ll post, probably end of May, early June.
So a [01:16:00] lot to look forward to. A lot of reasons to hit that subscribe button. A lot of reasons to hit that five star review button. And as always, I am eternally grateful for you, the listener. We wouldn’t have a show, we wouldn’t have a podcast if it wasn’t for your support, both by listening and also of course by coming into the shop and, you know, dabbling in mouthpieces or valve alignments, or guard bags, or van law or shires trumpets.
All the fun stuff, uh, we do here at the shop. That’s it for now. Until next time, let’s go out and make some music.
