Monthly Archives: November 2021

Trumpet Artist Profile : Anthony Prisk

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Anthony Prisk has been the 2nd trumpet in the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2013, after previously spending eleven seasons with the Houston Symphony. Tony is an Ultimate Brass and Yamaha artist, and kindly shares his thoughts with us here:

What first drew you to the trumpet in the early days?

I distinctly remember listening to my Dad’s Star Wars soundtrack over and over again. When I went to my elementary school’s band program I was drawn to the cornet and was successful at making a sound. Then as I went along, I really began to enjoy practicing and hearing improvement and performing for my friends and family. It was the ultimate trill to eventually work with and study with Maurice Murphy and John Williams. It came full circle for me!

Who or what were your early musical influences?

My biggest influence in the early days was my high school band directors, Ross Kellan, Greg Cunnigham and Steve Hoffman. Ross was such a positive and encouraging teacher, he instilled pride and artistry in everything we did. I went to the University of Illinois with the goal to follow in his footsteps and influence students in a positive and inspiring way. Eventually, Ray Sasaki took over with this great influence and encouraged me to pursue a life in musical performance and supported my goals and progress. To this day, he is still supportive and helpful in my development as a player and teacher. 

Do you have any particular practice regimes? Does this change a lot depending on what repertoire you are covering in the orchestra?

I am an avid practicer. I have a daily fundamental routine including many concepts from the Sach Daily Fundamentals to Stamp, Schlossberg, Cichowicz, Plog, Vizzutti, Bai Lin, Zauder, Gekker, and more. I do try to stay in shape away from the orchestral repertoire playing etudes and solos from Bousquet, Arban, Concone, Snedecor, Brandt, Charlier, Bitsch, etc…to Bohme, Tomasi, Jolivet, Arutiuinian, etc…If we are playing big rep I will prepare for the week by blowing down Bordogni/Rochut, Brandt, or Smith Top Tones to get ready and then the week of, focus on fundamentals and lighter repertoire to balance my playing. When I am doing a lot of low playing in the orchestra I will turn to playing more piccolo at home and softer solo repertoire. I keep a daily practice log most weeks to keep track of my routines and progress. This also allows me to take notes on what is working and what isn’t. I bring this into my teaching to help students achieve their daily, weekly and life goals. 

What do you think are the most important elements of music and trumpet playing that young players should focus on? 

First of all, SOUND! Finding a Resonant, Brilliant, Rich, Warm, Complex, Flexible, Dominant, Sweet, Singing sound or tone that moves a listener is most important. Finding an efficient way to do this should be a daily goal. Then, for the music, it’s great TIME! Not just playing the correct rhythm but feeling the music and creating the style out of time feel and pulse. If you have these two things, the others will come. Everyone wants great range and speed and loudness but Sound and Time come first. 

How have different teachers through your life shaped the way that you teach?

I have studied with more teachers I can count but every single lesson had something in it that was helpful. I can remember little tips from each lesson from Bud Herseth showing me how he practiced Arban’s and Bobby Shew showing me his wedge breath. There are endless amounts of tools to help students solve issues and achieve their goals. I try to get them to hear the issue, figure out what might be causing it and then create a routine or practice regiment that will nip it in the bud. I also encourage my students to work on their fundamentals to serve the music. For instance, if they are working on Mahler, then play your Concone with a Mahler like sound or work on the Gekker Articulation drills in the tempo and style of Ravel.  This all comes from the many teachers that help me along the way. Thanks to Ray Sasaki, Dr. Mike Ewald, John Hagstrom, Paul Merkelo, Charlie Geyer and Barbara Butler, Mike Sachs, Ray Mase, Chris Gekker and so many more. 

Can you talk a little about your Ultimate Brass mouthpieces, why you play them, and the process of selecting them?

Sun He and I worked on finding a replacement for my longtime Parke mouthpiece. The mouthpiece was wearing out and I always thought it was leaving something on the table for me and my playing. I needed a mouthpiece that was flexible in sound production in my role as second trumpet but also allowed me to step out of the ensemble and lead at times or play solos with brilliance. The mouthpiece line we came up with takes the mouthpieces I played and improved the playability and resonance by finding a better balance of throat and back bore along with adjusting dimensions of the mouthpiece. They are derived from Bach, Parke and Reeves elements but really are unique to Ultimate Brass. We spent a couple years of testing in the orchestra and sending videos back and forth to land on our final product. We are also continuing to develop better versions and more horn specific sizing.

Can you also tell me a little about your relationship with Yamaha?

Ever since Yamaha introduced the Gen 1 Chicago C trumpet I have been playing Yamaha trumpets. I actually had a Yamaha Piccolo way before but I really switched around 2005 or 2006 cold turkey to mostly Yamaha trumpets. Now I am a Yamaha Artist and I play exclusively Yamaha trumpets. The support you get from Bob Malone, Wayne Tanabe and all the folks at Yamaha are unmatched. They are in constant development of new instruments to serve the needs of their customers and artists. It’s a pleasure to work with and represent Yamaha. And the Ultimate Brass mouthpiece works very well with my Gen 3 instruments. 

What are some career highlights to date?

Playing for John Williams was an absolute highlight. I had goose bumps when he walked out on stage the first time. But I really have to say, almost every concert I play with the Philadelphia Orchestra, something special and moving happens on stage. I am absolutely lucky to be playing with so many great and inspiring colleagues, highlights happen every week. I’m looking forward to making more career highlights as we start this new season! 

I guess that there were some periods of long lay-off through the pandemic? Is working life starting to get back to normal now? Are there any lessons that you can take out these past 18 months?

The lessons I learned from the past 18 months are many. Mainly, to appreciate your friends and colleagues. Learn from everyone around you. Take the good and leave the bad. Positive influence and encouragement goes a long way to help others rather than negative talk and thoughts. I learned a lot about how to be a better colleague, teacher and friend. On the trumpet side of things, I experimented with different ways of playing, warming up, equipment, etc. It was time to reflect on weakness in my playing and coming up with new ways of tackling those issues. I also created lots of online content that you can see on my Facebook/Instagram and YouTube Channel. I actually didn’t take any time off the trumpet…I looked at the pandemic as an opportunity in the middle of my career to practice like I was in college again and try to develop better habits for second half of my career. It was a productive time for me that helped me to stay in a positive and productive mindset. 

Any projects that you have coming up that you would like to talk about?

I continue to work on projects for social media and my YouTube tutorials. I am looking forward to a more regular performance schedule and teaching in person. I get so much energy from teaching, sharing my knowledge and inspiring younger students. My hope is to transition from performing to full time teaching in the next 10 years. So my goals currently are to get the most from my playing experiences and build a great trumpet studio at Peabody and Temple University. 

Thank you for asking me to contribute. I enjoy sharing my experiences and stories with the music world. I want people to know I am accessible for questions on social media and look forward to hearing from everyone. Let me know what you think of the Ultimate Brass mouthpieces…I’d love the feedback. 

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Music Stand Lighting and Your Eyes

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Headaches, eye fatigue, or stiff neck or shoulder? It might be your music stand lighting.

Music Stand Lighting and Your Eyes

by Alan Medak

Why is stand lighting so important? People play music because they love it. When you have good stand lighting, you don’t give it a thought, and if you are under 40 years of age, you can probably read music by candlelight. But by the time you reach 40, your eyes begin to change, and if you don’t have good stand lighting, there are all kinds of problems that can ensue. The over-arching problem of bad lighting is that it gets in the way of your ability to read the notes and can lessen the enjoyment of making music. But bad lighting can also lead to other physical problems. Below are the basics of what good music-stand lighting should have, followed by the seemingly unrelated problems that you might be experiencing in its absence. 

The three “Cs” of good music stand lighting are:

  1. Coverage—Good stand lighting provides even illumination, top to bottom and side to side. Many lights provide a hot spot of light either along the top or top/center of the music. If editors only put the important notes at the top center of the page this might not matter, but important notes are located all over the music. Therefore, good stand lighting should provide even illumination over the entire page(s).
  2. Contrasts—Contrasts make it easier to see the notes. Contrasts are the perceived difference between the light-colored background (white or yellow paper) and the black notes. If there is too little (or low) brightness, the lighting doesn’t create enough reflection off the white or yellow background. This is a form of low contrast where the black notes become hard to distinguish. Too much brightness also results in low contrast, this time because the background reflects so much light that it can overwhelm the black notes. This problem of too much reflected light on the music is referred to as glare. Too much surrounding light can also disrupt contrasts.
  3. Color—During the 1980s, US Government scientists at their Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory discovered that certain color temperatures (measured as Kelvin temperature) could activate more nerve receptors in the eye, thereby increasing visual recognition (e.g., notes on sheet music). Imagine using a light meter to measure light levels on the music. At color temperatures similar to what you might have at home (2700 Kelvin) or in your office (4100 Kelvin), the notes look ok. Now imagine the identical light levels, but now you are seeing the notes with almost twice as many nerve endings in the eye. Does that sound crazy? That’s what happens when a good stand light raises the Kelvin temperature at or above 5000 Kelvin. You are now looking at the exact same music, at the exact same light level but with almost twice the number of optical nerve endings. Your eye perceives the notes as being significantly brighter and with better contrasts. The notes almost appear to jump off the page. 

Furthermore, the absence of good music-stand lighting, (good coverage, contrasts, and color), can cause optical conflict. Optical conflicts from poor music stand lighting are common. The most dramatic example of optical conflicts which we have all experienced are, for example, when leaving a darkened movie theater after a matinee and stepping outside on a bright sunny day. To say that this causes extreme discomfort is an under-statement. The bright light often causes us to squint or shield our eyes. Fortunately, this discomfort will pass in a few minutes as the eye adjusts to the brighter outdoor lighting conditions. While not as dramatic as leaving a matinee, optical conflicts and discomfort caused by poor music-stand lighting don’t go away in a few minutes but persist, usually as long as the concert performance or rehearsal lasts which is typically 2-3 hours, or even longer if you have a rehearsal prior to the concert performance or are playing a Wagner opera. 

A music-stand-related optical conflict usually occurs when the brain forces the eye to focus on and read the notes in spite of brightness that is too high or more often, too low. Another type of optical conflict is caused by light sources which are not on the music page, such as stage spotlights or reflections from a shiny metal folding stand. Remember that example from the dark theater, where the iris and pupil adjust for your best night vision but are not prepared for the bright sun? Well in the situation of spotlights or reflections, a similar condition is occurring. When trying to read notes, the iris opens wide and your pupil adjusts for the best visual acuity of the brightness on the music. However, if at the same time you are trying to read notes on a page and a bright light shines into the eye, it causes those same dynamic eye components to want to close and protect themselves from bright and damaging light. Which inclination wins, open or closed optical adjustment? Usually neither force completely wins and instead there is persistent optical conflict.

One final cause of optical strain is visual acrobatics. If the view above the stand is blocked, either by a stand extension or large lamp, the eye must travel further from the music to see the conductor or other musicians. The span of distance between the notes you are reading and the view above the stand becomes greater as you get closer to the bottom of the page. This shift is further complicated because we are not only shifting our focus up and down but going from near to far vision. Even at a slow pace, refocusing causes discomfort after only a few of these shifts. (Also, our peripheral vision is much better side to side than up and down). 

Many musicians experience physical discomfort when playing. In fact, many musicians who I’ve spoken to are so used to these aches and pains they simply accept them as part of playing.  What they didn’t realize was that some of these physical problems were symptoms associated with optical conflict. Headaches and eyestrain are the most obvious problems, often growing in intensity during the second half of a rehearsal or performance. But persistent optical conflict can lead to other migrating pains which are seemingly unrelated to stand lighting. Migrating pain originating from optical conflict can cause pain in the neck, shoulders, lower back, and even extremities, arms, and legs.  Over the years, I’ve heard numerous comments about one or another physical discomfort “miraculously” going away after changing their lighting. After changing her stand light, one pit musician touring with “Phantom of the Opera” had pain-free performances for the first time in years. A busy Los Angeles bassoonist felt relief from shoulder and neck pain after changing her lighting. And while ergonomics and performance stress are important issues in their own right, don’t under-estimate the quiet contribution of poor music-stand lighting. 

In conclusion, whether by improving your note recognition, eliminating optical conflicts and stress, or reducing physical discomfort, good stand lighting will enhance your enjoyment of playing music. Find the right light and get back to enjoying the music.

Alan Medak – besides playing horn and conducting opera, Alan Medak has spent over 35 years as a lighting executive, has written numerous articles on, and taught about emerging lighting technologies. Alan founded Lampcraft in 1998, a company that is dedicated to designing and manufacturing effective portable music stand lighting.

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