CAS CONNECT 2016

13 We struggled to find an open room suitable for warm-ups, which didn’t help the tension level among us. The 10 minutes we were to get in our official warm-up room didn’t help that much; room moni- tors interrupted us every couple of minutes to count down how little time we had left to prepare in there. The University of Texas Trumpet Ensemble preceded us on stage. Its wonderful performance motivated us further. I took the stage with the ensemble, feeling confident and knowing we would do well. Ian Mertes began our piece, and from the first note I could tell something was wrong: There was a weird fuzz in his sound. After the longest eight minutes of my life, we finished our run. There were lots of little mistakes (slight timing errors, chipped notes, chords not as well in tune) but no glaring problems, and for that I was grateful. After getting coffee and a little shopping, we returned to the RiverCenter to hear the graduate and undergraduate solo finalists as our Justin Weisenborn was one. His second run of the Tamberg Concerto was even better than the day before. I knew that he would be hard to beat — and he won the Graduate division of NTC. A little while later, another announcement regarding the Maller Trumpet Large Ensemble Division: “In first place, with a cash prize of $5,000, Oklahoma State University.” Dr. Ryan Gardner has bui l t a Nat ional Trumpet Compet i t ion dynasty at OSU. PHOTO: BRUCE WATERFIELD