Trumpet player Aaron Smith arranges and composes music, tours across the country, and plays in Broadway musicals.
He honed some of those skills as a high school student in northern Michigan, at Interlochen Arts Academy.
The school’s brass faculty recently commissioned a piece of music from Smith. When he came back to campus during Black History Month to talk about his career, he also made time to chat with IPR's Izzy Ross.
Listen to the interview via the audio player at the top of this story. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Check out some of Smith's work here.
Interview highlights:
On starting the trumpet: "The first time I picked up a trumpet was really young, probably seven or eight. And my parents both played — well, my mom was a singer, and my dad played upright bass and a bunch of different brass instruments. So I was always exposed to some sort of music in the house and recording, people coming over and jam sessions and all that. And then one day, I was watching TV and saw Wynton Marsalis on TV, famous trumpet player, doing a side by side — this was in the early ‘90s — doing a side by side with Lincoln Center and I think it was Boston Pops or something like that. And just the fact that he went, did a classical jazz thing in the same set — I just looked at the TV and was like, ‘I want to do that.’ And so within a week, we had a really — I don't know if you could quite call it a trumpet, it's like a $30 contraption, trumpet-like product that we got from a pawn shop. But it got me started."
On playing in the orchestra for Wicked: "The musical is both acts in a three-hour chunk or so, and that's what I play every night, and it's that music, right, and Defying Gravity, and they have to make an announcement not to sing [for the audience]... So just to play for audiences like that, and just in general, with great material that's written, it’s really a dream, but also a challenge, because there's a lot of expectation to do your job well, and it is a job... We're kind of like athletes, and eight shows a week is not easy either. So it's a commitment."
On returning to Interlochen: "It was pretty trippy upfront, just the drive in. And as soon as I started recognizing things, just kind of blasted back to the past, exported into my old psyche, I guess. And it's just kind of this electric feeling. And then I walked around the first night, and just got reacquainted of every place that I'd ever been. So it’s really great. And then just rediscovered that kind of silent power, beauty by the lake, too, something really happening over there and on campus in general."
On composing 'Passages': "It's really about a passage of time through a place. And for me, when I wrote it, it was about my passage through Interlochen, or a student's passage through Interlochen, right... Bringing those experiences onto paper now, played by some faculty that were here when I was here. The trombone professor, Tom Riccobono, he taught me and our brass ensemble and things like that. It's pretty incredible and a meta, full circle kind of experience to have them play a piece written by a student for the school. And then to come back here and to workshop and later present the piece, it's really special. I'm really grateful for the experience, and hope to just pay what I can forward, to whoever I'm around, while I'm around."
