Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Audio clip
Trumpet ensemble
Peixiang Li, a senior from Beijing, China, is a trumpet player that has played as a special guest in the Sydney Symphany Orchestra. During the summer Li placed 2nd in the International Trumpet Guild Conference, the International Trumpet Guild is the largest organization for trumpet proffesionals.
Peixiang Li sat alone on stage, the spotlight gleaming off his trumpet. Waiting behind the judges was an audience made up of trumpet players from all over the world. Li pursed his lips against his instrument and took a deep breath.
Required to play eight songs, back to back, all chosen by judges because of their difficulty, Li began to produce a clear, ringing sound in their ears. Li, a senior from Beijing, was chosen as one of three finalists in the 2010 International Trumpet Guild Conference’s Orchestral Excerpts competition in Sydney, Australia, over the summer.
He became the first Chinese national citizen to be chosen as a finalist in this 30-year-old competition that is open to all trumpet players in the world under the age of 25.
Also in the audience sat some of the members of the Kansas University Trumpet Ensemble, including Li’s professor and conductor Steve Leisring. Leisring placed third in the same competition in 1988.
“It’s kind of like Olympic diving,” Leisring said, “you just set and go.”
Despite the quiet in the air, and a stage only occupied by himself and his trumpet, Li said he didn’t have time to be nervous. He was randomly chosen to perform before the other two finalists.
“I just had to grab the horn and play,” Li said.
Li didn’t remember much from his performance. He said it blew by him, and all he really remembered was all the work he did to enter the competition. The work paid off — Li left Australia this summer with a second place finish.
Li’s mother had traveled from China to Australia to watch her son, the first University of Kansas student to make it to the finals of the Orchestral Excerpt competition, perform. Li said she was happy to see his success. But for himself, he was happier to get a chance to go home. He had come to the University four years ago to study music and he said he was happy that the whole process was over and he could finally relax.
For more than a year, Li worked on perfecting the songs he needed to send to the Trumpet Guild judges to make it into the finals.
“It was painful,” Li said. “I never got satisfied.”
Li would record songs that he thought he played well, then listen to them and would rarely feel pleased with the result. He always felt he could do better. Steven Sharp, a fellow member of the Kansas University Trumpet Ensemble, and a senior from St. Louis, said it takes hours of listening to the material and practicing the fundamentals to hone a person’s trumpet skills.
“You can tell he puts in the work,” Sharp said.
Taught by members of the Chinese army band in middle school and high school, Li hasn’t put down a trumpet since he was 11 years old. He began playing the Chinese national anthem and other songs before following a mentor to a music conservatory in China to study. When he found out that his mentor was changing his focus from what Li wanted to do, he sent a e-mail to Leisring to see if he could come study under him.
Now, over halfway through the fall semester, Li says everything is back to normal. The experience he gained has given him some added confidence, as you can tell as he looks you in the eye as he speaks. He now plays the principle position for the KU Wind Ensemble, one of the University’s top performing groups.
Leisring said he was actually happy for Li’s winning second instead of first. He said the competition is meant to be practice for Orchestral Auditions, which can be just as full of pressure as what Li experienced in Australia. If he would’ve placed first, Li wouldn’t be able to enter the competition again in 2011, but now Li definitely plans on entering it again. The competition will be held in Minneapolis.
Li plans to play in an orchestra when he graduates. He said it doesn’t matter if it is here in the United States or in China. He just wants to continue to create the music that has already taken him all over the world.
— Edited by David Cawthon
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