Ashley Hall, a person who plays trumpet, travels the world and performs, and she had the opportunity to play in a famous venue in Sydney, Australia.
“I think everyone who is a musician always dreams about getting to actually do a concert in the Sydney Opera House, so the fact that actually happened is pretty cool,” Hall, an interim trumpet professor at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, said.
Hall will journey from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to perform in the Ohio University School of Music Recital Hall on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The event is free.
Recitals that take place at OU can be a beneficial learning experience, Gregory Hofmeister, a senior studying music education, said, and a chance for professionals and students to collaborate. Going to recitals, he said, is also a way to support other musicians.
“The School of Music is so networked together and we all know each other, so it’s nice to support our peers,” Hofmeister said.
Hall can remember having a trumpet, French horn and trombone in her hands since about the age of three. She formally began playing the trumpet at the age of nine, she said.
Music was part of her household, Hall said, because her mom played the French horn, and her mom was also her first teacher. From the fifth grade on, she was on a fast track to the life of a performer, she said.
“It was just a natural thing. I was really attracted to the sound of the trumpet,” Hall said. “I kind of had an ear for brass music anyway because I heard my mom playing the French horn.”
Now, Hall travels all over the world and performs in chamber ensembles, brass quintets and solo recitals. At her solo recital on Thursday, she will perform eight different pieces of music.
Lauren Reed, a freshman studying psychology, is taking a class right now that requires students to go to performances. She attended a saxophone recital and said she is more inclined to go to the performances when they are mandatory or advertised more often.
“Honestly, people’s weekdays and weekends are used for studying and cramming and going out and you don’t realize what else is happening,” Reed said.
One of Hall’s most memorable experiences while traveling was in India. She was there with her husband to do missionary work. On the flight over, a pastor invited Hall to play at his church.
On her last day in India, she had the opportunity to teach Sisters of Charity to play the trumpet, which was a “type of joy (she wishes) everyone could experience,” she said.
The hardest part about traveling and performing is the constant commitment to be “disciplined and focused” and the need to practice everyday. But her favorite part is being able to connect with different people and build relationships with them.
“For me, traveling all around the world is about getting to meet really interesting people. When I go places … I always have my trumpet and it’s always a way to connect with different people,” Hall said. “I’ve made some amazing relationships and have gotten to travel to some unbelievable places and have realized the power and beauty of music as it reaches really truly beyond the boundaries of what we do here on an everyday basis.”
