Virtuoso trumpeter Craig Morris, who will perform with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra this weekend, didn’t think much of the instrument at first.
“I started playing trumpet when I was 10, but it didn’t interest me at all,” Morris said. “My brother played trumpet and I would tag along to his lessons, but I just hung out. Then one day my dad told me that I was going to get my own trumpet lessons, and I protested, ‘But Dad, I don’t know how to play the trumpet!’ Then he said, ‘That’s exactly why you are going to have lessons!’
“It was all part of his master plan, I think, because he was a band director. So, in the fall when I joined the beginner band at my school, I was a lot better than the other kids who were just starting out. I enjoyed that, and because I was competitive and practiced, I got better and better.”
Morris took his talent for making music to the University of Texas where he received his bachelor’s degree. He went on to attain a master’s from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. That led to an associate principal trumpet position at the San Francisco Symphony followed by a stint as principal trumpet with the Chicago Symphony under the direction of Daniel Barenboim.
If you go
What: Trumpeter Craig Morris plays with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
When: 7 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Online or in person at Skyview High School Concert Hall, 1300 N.W. 139th St., Vancouver.
Cost: $36 general admission, $10 for students, $15 for livestreaming online
Contact: 360-735-7278 or vancouversymphony.org
Note: Masks are required for all audience members, regardless of vaccination status.
In the ensuing years, Morris has been the guest principal trumpet of the St. Louis Symphony, the Swedish Radio Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony and the San Diego Symphony. Since 2003, he has taught at The Frost School of Music in Miami, where he is an associate professor.
In 2019, Morris scored a Grammy nomination in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category for his recording of Philip Glass’ “Three Pieces in the Shape of a Square.” Morris is also the featured soloist on two albums on the Naxos label.
With the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra this weekend, Morris will perform two pieces. The first is Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, which is probably the most famous one ever written for that instrument.
“The trumpet that Haydn wrote the concerto for is barely like anything we use today,” Morris said. “He wrote it for a keyed trumpet. That instrument looks like a Baroque-era trumpet, but it was the first chromatic trumpet, which was a new invention back in 1796.”
Of course, Morris will perform the concerto on a valved trumpet with his own cadenza in the first movement.
The other piece that features Morris is the “Trumpet Concertino” by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki.
“The ‘Concertino’ is the only trumpet concerto that Penderecki wrote,” Morris said. “It was in 2015 near the end of his life. It is a very exciting and dramatic piece, and this will be my first time to perform it. It has a lot of angular writing in a pleasing aesthetic. You can think of it as architecture with sharp angles.”
For “Concertino,” Morris will switch between two instruments. He will start with the trumpet, change to the flugelhorn and then return to the trumpet.
“Changing to different instruments is a challenge that I love,” Morris said.
The orchestra, led by music director Salvador Brotons, will also perform two works by Beethoven.
The orchestra will open with Beethoven’s “Egmont Overture,” which is one of his most famous short pieces. It portrays the heroic story of Count Egmont, who defied Spanish authorities by fighting for human freedom. The “Egmont Overture” has a dramatic style that is similar to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, one of the most popular symphonic works ever written, which the orchestra will also play.
Metaphorically, the Fifth musically conveys a struggle between the forces of darkness against the forces of light, and the forces of light win in the end. That should send everyone home with a smile.
