S02E19 - Alex Bender

Alex Bender, freelance Trumpeter joined us in the studio, we started by talking about custom mouthpieces then moved quickly into equipment and how he started playing the trumpet.  He shared his childhood memories of his exposure to music which forged his love for playing all styles of music.  He always knew he wanted to be in New York City playing on Broadway since 8th grade, this goal allowed him to direct his path to his current career.  Being accepted for a Masters in orchestral trumpet at the Manhattan School of Music, and landing a job on a cruise ship at the same time he deferred school for a year and took that year on the cruise ships to study on his own, learning to play jazz, big band and while continuing to studying orchestral excerpts.  We talked about; his current warm-up practices, auditions, focusing on sound, continuing to study with various teachers and networking for jobs on Broadway.