Music! Its Role and Importance in Our Lives

Chapter 1: The Pleasure of Music

From the Top

Name: Halie Silverman
Age: 18
Instrument: Trumpet
Hometown: Farmington, NM

Halie Silverman on performing Goedicke's Concert Etude on the From the Top radio show:

Q: What are your thoughts and feelings about this piece of music?

A: When I began learning this piece, I was at a point in my playing where I needed to enhance my technical skills. "The Goedicke," as I call it, was a perfect fit for this task! The entire piece is full of double-tonguing and passages that are technically difficult for the fingers too. This is a piece in which I can show off my ability to play fast, lyrical, and light. There are two singing-like passages in the middle of the piece, and those are my true shining moments! There is nothing as good as milking the notes on the page and making a musical expression "in the moment." No two performances are alike, and that is what makes this piece so special.

Q: What is unique or special about this piece of music?

A: I have had the opportunity to play this music many times in places such as my hometown of Farmington, New Mexico; in Dallas, Texas, at the Meyerson Symphony Hall with the New Conservatory of Dallas; in Durango, Colorado, and on From The Top in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Each performance of this piece is a thrill, and the excitement of sharing my music with a crowd is what I live for. The opening phrase must flow with the beat of my heart, as if it were the exact heart beat of the piece. This is the fire that brings this music alive! Leaning into every note, and hearing the trumpet fill up the hall with beautiful colors of sound is a moment in time that can never be repeated exactly the same way. The end is almost near, and the envisioning of a bubbling champagne glass is all it takes to make the last phrase sparkle and ring forever! The last note is the glorious conclusion of Mr. Goedicke's piece of fine music.

Q: What was it like preparing for and appearing on From the Top?

A:From The Top was such a remarkable experience to take part in! The fact that it was in my home state was a bonus! Combining my life's interests of music and outdoor activities was so wonderful. I will never forget climbing up onto the theatre outside of Academy High School in Albuquerque and tying ropes off so that we could rappel down! What a rush that was. It had not rained in so long, and all of a sudden while I was hanging off of the rope, the thunder came and then the rain! What a treat! Music is my life, and this was a wonderful send-off to college life. I perform with musicians from all over the world, and have a wonderful story to tell and a piece of musical history on tape to listen any time I want to remember the incredible experience I had on the show. Remember "No worries mate!"