for epaul -- a feel-good trombone story

[jdd2]

www.nytimes.com/2023/07/30/arts/music/hillary-simms-american-brass-quintet.html

A Trombonist on a Mission to Break Barriers in Classical Music
Hillary Simms is the first woman to become a member of the American Brass Quintet. She says the field needs more role models.

July 30, 2023

Hillary Simms, the first woman to join the American Brass Quintet, will also be the first to join the trombone faculty at Juilliard this fall.

Kimberly Genevieve for The New York Times

As a child growing up in rural Canada, the trombonist Hillary Simms did not realize that women were scarce among players of brass instruments — the tuba, the French horn, the trumpet and the trombone. Her music teachers were largely women, and so were many of her peers.

But as she embarked on a global career, she soon noticed that she was working in a male-dominated field, one in which women faced routine discrimination and harassment. During auditions, for example, she was told to breathe more deeply to produce a more masculine sound.

[Marty]

A feel good trombone story. 

That can be taken so many ways.

[drlj]

It’s rare to see those words—trombone & feel good—in the same sentence.

[epaul]

Interesting. We don't let women in any of our bands. Could be time to re-consider that policy. Or not. I'll take it up with boys during beer break. Maybe.

[epaul]

I can only speak from personal experience. For most of my tromboning, I have been surrounded by females. Oh, not just the usual fans and groupies associated with tromboning, but players.

For much of my high school career, Sylvia was 1st trombone, I was 2nd, and Cindy was on 3d. My first lessons, as a returning adult player, were from Gabby, who was the top trombonist at UND (and the only brass player to ever beat out Gus as "best in room" during his four trips to State ((Gus had a really good run in high school). And currently in City Band, I play 2nd trombone next to Margo, who is 1st (and who played trombone in the University of Minnesota Marching Band).

I don't play at the top professional levels (duh), so I can't speak to that, but for high school, college, and city band stuff, it's fifty-fifty, and if it isn't, it's the women the have the edge. Checking the trendline for the future, it's clear to anyone paying attention to high school art and academic activities in this country that females predominate. And do so clearly.

(during a recent roundtable discussion on Affirmative Action (made up of university admissions people), one of the panelists ironically noted that if, as a result of the Court's action, all preferential treatment policies currently being put to use in shaping the composition of the student body were eliminated, if meritocracy in the form of grades and test scores ruled, the population of our top universities would quickly become 70% female (up from the current 60% female across higher education as a whole). That statement was quickly supported by the remaining panelists (again, admissions directors all). One noted, (in jest but not in jest) that the best way for an "on the cusp" male to get into the university of his choice would be for him to express a strong desire to major in either English or the Humanities, as schools (those that still have these programs, that is) are desperate to get some, any, males into those strongly female dominated classrooms).)

It may not show at the top yet, but the Wheel Has Turned. In the future, women will run everything while men will drink beer and watch Netflix*.

(speaking as someone who is currently lazing at the forefront of this coming "dronedom", it's not a bad deal at all)



* psst, Rick, see a series in this?

[epaul]

Working off of recall and estimation, the most watched trombonist on Youtube last year was a 9-year-old Korean girl who blew the bejesus out of that horn.