NSU's Moore to attend Natural Trumpet Workshop

Timothy Moore, a junior from Grove majoring in Music Performance at Northeastern State University, has been accepted to the 2010 International Natural Trumpet Workshop in Bloomington, Ind.

During the workshop, held June 21-25, Moore will work with world-renowned artists Robert Barclay, Richard Seraphinoff and Michael Mnkwitz.

"In addition to studying the history of the natural trumpet, I will build my own trumpet by studying an original by the Nuremberg maker Hanns Hainlein from 1632," Moore said. "I plan to bring this instrument back to Tahlequah for my senior year and present several performances on my 'new' historic instrument."

The summer workshop, organized each year since 1993, is held in locations around Europe as well as Bloomington. The workshop is devoted to the study of the natural trumpet, an instrument that reached its zenith in the works of Baroque composer J.S. Bach.

"While the modern trumpet uses three valves to change the pitch of the instrument, during the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical music eras, the trumpet lacked valves," said Dr. Jason Dovel, an assistant music professor who specializes in trumpet at NSU. "Replicas of these early instruments are today often called 'natural' trumpets, since they are a simple cylinder of tubing that ends in a flared bell."

In the past few decades there has been a resurgence of interest in these period instruments, as fans consider their tones to be more lyrical and desirable than their modern descendants.

"Timothy began playing natural trumpet last year as a student of mine," Dovel said. "I am an advocate of period instrument performance and natural trumpet performer myself. When I lent a natural trumpet to Timothy out of my personal collection last year, he quickly acclimated to this period instrument."

NSU is the only college or university in the state of Oklahoma where students have the opportunity to study the natural trumpet.