In Spring 2014 there were three student graduates from the MIC trumpet studio, all of whom performed in the annual Spring studio recital.

Julian Newman, who started trumpet in 5th grade in group lessons at Baker Demonstration school, is now attending University of Wisconsin- Madison. While at E.T.H.S., Julian performed with the ETHS Marching band, Symphonic, and Jazz bands as well as for the “Yamo” Production in his senior year.

Jerry Sun is attending University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He performed as a member of the MIC trumpet quartet for several years, and as Principal Trumpet with the New Trier Chamber Orchestra in his senior year. Here is a link to his performance of the first movement of the Kent Kennan Sonata for Trumpet from the 2014 Spring MIC studio recital.

Michael Werner, currently a Junior at Evanston Township Highschool, studied at MIC for about 10 years, performing in the advanced ensemble by 7th grade. He is now concentrating on Jazz performance, and has been extremely active, taking part in some of the top jazz programs in the country, including Birch Creek  and the Vail Jazz workshop which wrote the following about Michael:

MICHAEL WERNER, 16, Trumpet | A native of Evanston, IL, Michael picked up a trumpet at six and focused on classical playing, adding jazz to his repertoire six years later. He has played with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and with a variety of other award-winning big bands and combos at various venues and competitions. Michael has also toured France and the Netherlands with Midwest Young Artists playing in a brass ensemble, symphony orchestra, big band and combo configurations. He was awarded Outstanding Soloist at the Purdue Jazz Festival, Evanston Jazz Festival, and New Trier Jazz Festival. He won first prize in the Billy Strayhorn Composition Competition held by the Music Institute of Chicago, where he also won a merit scholarship. Michael is also involved with outreach community service for the Music Institute of Chicago. He enjoys playing many styles of jazz and lately has gravitated to hard bop and modern playing styles. Michael especially likes the playing of Woody Shaw, Clifford Brown and Vail Jazz Workshop alumnus (2000) Ambrose Akinmusire. He looks to the Vail Jazz Workshop for learning a lot of new tunes, going beyond bebop, and absorbing everything he can from the Workshop’s first-string students and instructors.

All three of these students can be found in the photo below – in their formative years! Congrats to all our MIC Grads! Please keep in touch!!

I want to first offer my apology to those who offered information on the musical activities from the past academic year. I am finally able to start working again on the MICTpts blog site and have lots of great news to share from our alumni and current students. Starting with:

Last academic year I received news that both Sawyer Lindland and Katy Rose O’Brien were performing leading roles in ensembles at their colleges. I wonder what they are doing this year?!

Enjoy pictures of Katy Rose (click here to see her MIC graduation post) with the Amherst College Symphony Orchestra performing Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony, and Sawyer Lindland (click here to see Sawyer’s MIC graduation post) performing Principal Trumpet with the Beloit Wind Ensemble:

Congrats Katy Rose and Sawyer!! Please stay in touch…

MIC Trumpet Studio Student News

ETHS Senior Julian Newman, member of the ETHS Wildkits Marching band, was selected to perform for the Annual “Yamo” Production at the ETHS Theater. Click here for schedule.

ETHS Freshmen Abby Gilliland and Noah Roth, also members of the ETHS Marching Band, will play together this year in the ETHS Jazz Lab Band. In addition to playing trumpet, Noah plays guitar, drums, and dabbles in songwriting.

New Trier Senior Jerry Sun will be playing principal trumpet with the New Trier Chamber Orchestra for a program including  Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture and Beethoven Symphony #5. Concert is Nov. 5, 7:30pm at Gaffney Auditorium.

Jack Fay (former BFB student) and Will Donovan, both 5th graders at Walker Elementary School have been selected to play with the Chute Middle School Band.

Highcrest Middle School 5th grader Noah Frankel was selected to play with the Highcrest Chamber Band.

MIC Advanced Trumpet Ensemble member Filip Czarkowski plays first chair in the McCracken Symphonic Band which has been selected to perform at the 2013 Midwest Clinic at McCormick Place West (Dec. 18th). On October 17th, Filip’s band will perform with Axiom Brass. Filip has played in the Polish Parish Band for 3 years, and this year has been selected to perform with for the 2013 IMEA Honors Band.

Northside College Prep Freshman Victoria Seliger (MIC Advanced Trumpet Ensemble member) plays solo cornet with the Advanced Band. This past summer she attended the Blue Lake Arts Camp (MI) performing in the top band. She will be performing for the upcoming school musical.

Michael Werner, Sophomore at Northshore Country Day School,  traveled to Paris and Amsterdam this summer to play both jazz and classical trumpet with Midwest Young Artists. Michael also played with the NU Summer jazz band under the direction of Chris Madsen and attended the BirchCreek Jazz Festival in Door County, WI where he performed in the top big band and the top combo, The Ambassadors, that traveled throughout Door County playing at various venues – restaurants, parks, and private parties. This year he is playing with MYA’s top jazz combo, the Merit Combo, which performs in the greater Chicago Area. Enjoy the photo below of Michael performing in Paris.
Alumni News (The tale of two marching bands)

Loyola grads Robert Murphy and Alex Wenzel are gearing up for an epic contest. Alex Wenzel is attending Northwestern University this year in the engineering school, and Robert Murphy is attending Notre Dame. Both have joined their university marching bands and next year NU and Notre Dame will be playing at Wrigley field. I am rooting for NU (I’m an NU Alumni), but my dad went to Notre Dame, so it is getting personal. Enjoy photos of Alex (Wildcats) and Robert (Fighting Irish) below.

Thanks for all your help with this! Please don’t hesitate to email me for future newsblogs.

It has been a joy working with Katy Rose over the past several years both in private lessons and in the MIC trumpet ensembles. One of my proudest moments was seeing her perform at the Birch Creek Jazz Festival a few years ago in Door County, WI. She is a very accomplished musician and a wonderful person. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with students like Katy Rose, and as you will see by her personal statement, she does much more than play a trumpet! Best of luck to you Katy Rose! We will all miss you!Katy Rose will perform the Halsey Stevens Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, Mvt. 1,  at this evening’s Spring Studio Recital, and will join the MIC Trumpet Ensembles as a special guest performer.

“My name is Katy Rose O’Brien and I recently graduated from Loyola Academy.  I started playing trumpet in 5^th grade after hearing a brass quartet play at my school and being amazed at how beautiful the trumpet sounded.  Coincidentally, it turned out that the trumpet player in the brass quartet that day who inspired me to pick up the trumpet was Chris Hasselbring! My first lesson with Chris was in 6^th grade and I have been studying with him ever since.  I am extremely grateful that he has been my trumpet teacher for the past 7 years.  He is a wonderful and understanding teacher who has helped me appreciate and enjoy music in a way that no other teacher has.  I would not be the trumpet player I am today without him.

In addition to taking lessons I played in a MIC trumpet ensemble for four years along with playing in Loyola’s Symphonic and Marching Bands.  I received Loyola’s Patrick S. Gilmore Band Award in 2012 for my leadership in Loyola’s Band Program and was selected to play in the IMEA District 7 Jazz Band and the All-Catholic Honors Band.  Throughout high school I also played in jazz bands and combos through the Midwest Young Artists program. In the past four years I have worked my way up from the lowest jazz ensemble to the top band, and being the only girl makes no difference there because skill is what matters.  Big Band has given me a community of people who do not take themselves too seriously and truly reflect my passion for music.Apart from playing music I rowed on Loyola’s crew team for four years.  My boat qualified for Scholastic Rowing Nationals 3 of my 4 years rowing, and my sophomore year we placed in the top 6 in the nation.  Crew has given me some of my closest friends and an amazing community.  In addition to crew I was a Dumbach scholar and participated in Loyola’s Arrupe Community Service program, Amnesty International, and Labre Outreach program through Loyola’s Justice Seminar class.  Next year I will be attending Amherst College where I am considering studying art history, biology, history or classical civilizations.  I will also definitely stay involved with both classical and jazz music.”

My name’s Sasha Boutilier and I’ve studied trumpet with Chris for the last 10 years. I remember when I was 8 years old and I first got my trumpet, I sang through it and thought I was playing it! I’ve come a long way since then (I hope!).  Studying trumpet with Chris has been one of my most rewarding  experiences and I’m truly grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had over the years performing in MIC groups including the natural trumpet ensemble, wind ensemble, philharmonic orchestra, and Baroque orchestra.
This fall I’ll be attending the University of Toronto  and received the University of Toronto Scholar award. I plan to major in International Relations and possibly minor in Psychology. Toronto is actually my home town so I’m very excited to get back to Canada. I’m not planning to major or minor in Trumpet but I’m definitely going to get involved with music groups on campus so I can keep playing.
In addition to participating in various ensembles over the years, I also have helped out with the Brass for Beginners program at Dawes and Walker schools in Evanston. It’s been very rewarding to help the students in these classes and to see them learn so much over the course of the program!
Some other activities I enjoy are piano, martial arts, soccer, baseball, and model united nations!Sasha Boutilier will be playing Intrada by Arthur Honegger at the upcoming studio recital on May 31st at Nichols Concert Hall as well as several works as a member of the Advanced Trumpet Ensemble.

We will all miss you Sasha!

Congratulations to MIC graduating Senior Sawyer Lindland who will be attending Beloit College in WI in the Fall of 2013. He received a scholarship to participate in Beloit’s instrumental music programs and plans to study Psychology and Spanish. It has been a pleasure to work with Sawyer for the past 8 years. He has brought a sense of humor and some excellent musicianship to our studio, both as a member of the advanced trumpet ensemble and in his solo performances. I will especially miss our discussions, sometimes quite lengthy, about matters such as: why are there B sharps, and why are there F flats in musical notation? I don’t think we have yet resolved these issues, but Sawyer plans to introduce an entirely new tonality system based on numbers when he gets to Beloit. (good luck with that Sawyer!) You can see numerous videos on this website of Sawyer’s past performances- very impressive indeed! Sawyer has put together a little bio for us that you can read by clicking here.

Sawyer will perform Aria et Scherzo by Alexander Arutunian at the upcoming studio recital on May 31st at Nichols Concert Hall as well as several works as a member of the Advanced Trumpet Ensemble.

We will all miss you Sawyer!