Kayla Solomon (Trumpet) - What is a performing arts wellness advocate?

0:00 I think it's so important that you know the people we look up to not only are great trumpet players but also great people because um you know we are also humans and we interact with each other and it's important that we treat each other well with respect. As a musician, like like we talked about like your identity is like intertwined with like your musicianship, but it's important to know that when it comes to an audition, there are so many factors that are out of your control, and you can only focus on the things within your control.

0:37 Wow, you can actually learn so much and prepare so much without even having the instrument on your face. And then I've had I've had friends who have had omburger injuries, so I was always really interested in like what we can do to prevent that.

0:56 We are on air in 3, 2, 1. Welcome to On Air the Wind Music Podcast. My name is Andy Schreck and I sit down with conductors, composers, musicians and visionaries from the world of wind music. We talk about perspectives, new ideas, life and of course music. Welcome to a new episode of On Air the Wind Music Podcast.

1:35 I'm grateful that you found your way here, and if you'd like to do me a favor, please subscribe to this podcast. My guest today is Kayla Solomon. I first saw Kayla on Instagram and I have been following her there as I first saw Kayla on Instagram and have been following her there as both a trumpeter and a teacher.

1:58 We talked about practicing mental and physical health, dealing with mistakes and much, much more. Enjoy this episode with Kayla Zelloman here on the Wind Music Podcast. My guest today is a Canadian trumpeter, educator, and performing arts wellness advocate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As a versatile performer and teacher, her work explores the intersection of musical expression, physical awareness and sustainable performance practices.

2:33 She recently served as assistant professor of trumpet at the University of Saskatchewan, where she taught applied trumpet musicianship and jazz ensembles. Alongside her performing career, she researches musician wellness and overuse injury prevention, particularly in brass players. She holds a certification in the essential of performing arts medicine through the Performing Arts Medicine Association and integrates wellness-based approaches into her teaching, performance, and creative projects.

3:07 It's a great pleasure that she is here, and I would like to say a warm welcome to Kyle Salomon.

3:13 Thanks so much for having me.

3:15 Great that you are here. My first question I always ask is what was the last piece of music you consciously listened to?

3:25 Consciously listened to? Oh man. Honestly, I think it was Taylor Swift's reputation album.

3:31 Oh, okay. Nothing with trumpet.

3:34 No, I uh I listened to it. I just had an audition, so I usually try to listen to like upbeat music um to sort of pump me up before an audition. Okay. And last time it that was it was that album.

3:46 Okay. Audition for what?

3:47 I was auditioning. It was a military band position.

3:50 Ah, okay. Okay. We talk later about uh auditioning. And sounds good. Yeah. And how did music come into your life?

3:59 Well, I started playing piano when I was like really young. Both my both sides of my family had musicians. So my my uncle is a a vocalist and a choir professor. Um and my grandfather was a conductor for a choir as well. So lots of choir music in my family. And then I started playing started playing piano, and then once I got into middle school, we got to choose instruments for band, and so I chose trumpet and then I ended up playing trumpet for the f until now.

4:32 Okay. It's similar to my life. I I played trumpet uh with four, and uh then middle school is uh what age?

4:41 It's like grade six through eight. I started in grade seven. Okay.

4:46 Playing trumpet. Okay, it's the same as me. And uh why the trumpet, not the trombone uh tuba?

4:52 I feel like trombone and tuba was really big, and I didn't want to have to carry it around.

4:57 Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough.

4:59 But no, I ended up choosing trumpet because I feel like all of the girls in my class wanted to play flute, and I didn't want to do what all the girls did, and so I was like, trumpet seems like a good alternative.

5:11 Okay. Was in your childhood a big thing that a girl plays trumpet? No.

5:16 No, it's not. I feel like I had never really seen any girls playing trumpet or any like female professional trumpet players. Again, like I didn't know that there was really a career out there that you could be a musician and specifically for trumpet. I kind of just chose trumpet to be rebellious.

5:35 Okay. When did you decide to study music?

5:37 It was my last year of high school, so I was in twelfth grade. I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I wanted to keep up with music. I had I actually got a wrist injury from playing volleyball the previous year, and so that kind of took playing piano off of the table from for me. It was my left wrist, so I can still use my right hand to play the trumpet.

6:00 And so I I just decided that I was gonna throw together some auditions. It was very last minute, okay. Wasn't really planned. I just was like, well, I I really like doing this and I want to keep playing music and see how far I can go in it. And so I yeah, it was very random, honestly. I n I've never had really like a a straight path for what I what I wanted or planned to do.

6:27 Okay. Wasn't there someone who told you to do that? Or was it only you that uh decides this this path?

6:37 My piano teacher was really supportive of me, but no one really suggested that I go into music. I think my family was really supportive because there are a lot of musicians in my family, and so they weren't, you know, they they weren't appalled at the idea of me pursuing a degree in music. But I think throughout my childhood, like I always wanted to keep music a part of my life.

6:59 So whether I was I switched back and forth between like I wanted to be a vet or I wanted to be a teacher or you know, various different things, but I always wanted to keep music as as a part of that. So we ended up getting getting the best of all of the worlds.

7:15 Okay.

7:16 So I get to do music and I get to do teaching and I get to travel now. So doing all of the things that I love.

7:21 What did you think a career would be like in this time when you started?

7:26 I didn't really know. I thought that the options were either band teacher, so teaching, teaching high school band, or some aspect of performing, which I thought was like orchestra playing for for classical players, or if I really, you know, worked hard, maybe being a soloist with an orchestra, but that's a that's a lot of work.

7:48 And it's a lot, it's uh, you know, you're just one person going around. So it's it's a lot of work mentally to stay, you know, stay connected to all of that and stay on top of it. Uh so I really I I didn't realize that there were so many other options, but I found that I can do private teaching. I don't have to teach in a classroom.

8:08 Um, I've got a lot of lot of private students that I teach. Um I do lots of like little gigs on the side, do recording for some projects. So it really opened my eyes to all of the different things that I could do as a trumpet player in music and not just the band teacher or orchestra player, like I thought.

8:30 Okay. How would you describe your college years?

8:32 Crazy.

8:33 Why?

8:34 I went through a whole I don't know, rediscovery of myself as a musician. So in my undergrad, so my first four years of of college, I felt like every waking minute I needed to be working to get myself better. Otherwise, I wasn't going to be successful. And so I really experienced a lot of like stress in my life and some burnout afterwards.

9:01 And I just put a I put a lot of pressure on myself for everything to be perfect, which, funny enough, when you do that, things end up not being perfect. So that was my undergrad. It was very I put a lot of pressure and there was a lot of stress um involved in that.

9:18 Where did uh that idea of perfection come from? From you or from teachers?

9:24 I feel like it was a mix. I had always been really good at school and I always performed really well at school, so I had this idea that everything I needed to do was would had to be up at that standard. But in music in general, I feel like there's this unspoken rule that we need to strive for perfectionism.

9:47 So even if your teachers didn't explicitly say it, they were still expecting us to, you know, they're like, oh, well, if your class schedule doesn't line up for studio classes, we're gonna have studio class at 9 p.m. We're gonna have it at night, um, or we're gonna have it during your lunch break. So like you're you're putting all of these things before your health, before your sleep, before um like fueling your body for eating and stuff, which I understand because like the music schedule is very, very crazy.

10:16 But because of that, I would I got into the habit of not sleeping as much or skipping meals in order to practice, um, which in the end it doesn't really help you get better because if you're not taking care of your body, um, you're not able to learn and process and improve.

10:40 I read a post of you and you wrote music should challenge you, not prig you. When were you broken?

10:47 I feel like it's been sort of like a roller coaster. I feel like towards the end, actually, it was the end of my master's when COVID started and everything shut down, and I was like, Why am I why am I working so hard? Nothing's gonna happen. Because everything was, you know, on pause, the world was on pause.

11:07 Um, and I don't I think I I stopped playing trumpet for about three months, which is the longest that I had ever stopped playing. And it sort of just got me thinking about like, if I'm not playing trumpet, who am I? Uh what do I want from my life? Because I had spent so long tying my own identity to who I was as a trumpet player.

11:33 So it was like it was tough because everyone was isolated and then I was like stuck alone with my thoughts, which is crazy. And then I wasn't I wasn't practicing because I I didn't have anything to practice for. I'm a very like extrinsically motivated person, so I need to have something to work towards, like a recital coming up or a recording project or a tour or something, like otherwise I'll be like, eh, I don't feel like practicing, and I'll just, you know, do something else.

12:04 I also learned that about myself, but I think that COVID was a really big turning point for a lot of musicians because we kind of lost our outlet for performance and creativity, and that really got me thinking about like mental health and performance and like how much pressure we put on ourselves, but also how much we associate our musicianship with our value as a human.

12:31 And we actually perform better as musicians if we don't do that. If you sort of perform because you love it and perform because you're making music, not because you think that performing well is going to improve people's opinions of you or you know, it's gonna fulfill like some sort of need to for you to be successful, and your success is only dependent on how you play your instrument.

12:57 You talked about uh identity. What would be left if you could no longer play?

13:03 That's tough because I still I still am very, very attached to my to my instrument and playing trumpet, but I love teaching and I love learning new things and I love traveling. And if I couldn't play trumpet anymore, I would probably still be involved in the music community in some capacity. I don't know I don't know what that would look like because I thankfully can still play trumpet right now.

13:29 But I feel like, you know, if I if some crazy freak accident happened and I wasn't able to play anymore, like yes, it would be very it would be very hard to let that go, but I think that I would I would survive. I think you know, I think that I would find other ways to fill that spot of creativity that I need.

13:51 Um it's very similar to I recently had uh ACL reconstruction surgery, so I I tore my ACL playing volleyball last year. Okay, and the recovery from that was actually like very mentally draining, like emotionally and mentally draining, because I had to relearn how to walk, and I was, you know, I expected so many things of my leg and it just couldn't do it, and it was so weird to have to retrain all of those muscles, and I'm still working on it, like the the strength isn't back yet, and there's still pain sometimes, but like the first month or so after surgery was really, really hard.

14:32 And that was just like because I'm so used to you know, walking is a normal part of life, and I'm a very independent person, and so having somebody need to like drive me around or prepare food for me because like I couldn't get up was was really really difficult. So I feel like it could be if you know if I had to stop playing trumpet, it could be something similar to that, but at least I'd be able to at least I'd be able to walk and do things do things for myself still.

15:01 Okay. It's for me an interesting question because my wife asked me this l last week. What thing is so important for me I couldn't take away from from my life, and it's trumpet playing. But I wanted to go back to your college years. Uh was what was your biggest aha moment for trumpet playing?

15:21 Honestly, I think it was after I had graduated from my my doctorate. I was sort of like on my own doing like my own practicing and stuff and coming up with projects for for me to work towards. And I realized that I finally understood some of the things that my teachers from college had been trying to get me to understand while I was in college, and it didn't like click until I was out and I had like time to process it.

15:51 So that was probably the biggest thing, and one of the things that I tell my students is like the things that we're working on now, especially like with your teacher, you might not understand it or be able to understand it fully or like you know, complete the the task or the process fully, but your brain is still absorbing the information and it's still trying to put together the pieces.

16:15 And we are pumped full of information through college. Like we are we are learning so much. Um, it's really hard for the brain to like organize it all at once. So it still has that information, but sometimes it just takes a little longer for it to process and click into that um like aha moment of understanding something.

16:39 So it was it was after after college that I sort of realized that and I was like, oh man, like I didn't understand this back then when they were telling me about it, and now I'm like, oh, it makes sense, it all makes sense. You know, they weren't just saying things to say things, right? They were being helpful.

16:57 Yeah. Uh did your teachers have uh that patience to know that you will do the things in the future?

17:05 I don't know. I really, I really don't know. I feel like for some of my teachers, you know, they would maybe they would get annoyed with like I couldn't I couldn't figure something out right away, or they would just be like, you just need to practice more. And I'm like, I'm practicing like six hours a day, like I I am practicing, but you know, the the information just wasn't wasn't being fully absorbed.

17:28 So I feel like some teachers, yeah, maybe they would get frustrated if I like couldn't couldn't do something right away. And that's sort of why for my students I always try to take different approaches to teaching and learning because everyone learns differently, and so like I have various methods, like if we're trying to work on one thing, we'll approach it from different angles and see what works best for that student, and then we will sort of use that as sort of like a starting point for their lessons and their learning, and we'll try to sort of keep it along that path.

18:05 But I I definitely think that for some of my teachers, I I was uh definitely a slow learner, and that was maybe why they you know kept telling me the same things over and over and over again. But I did get it eventually, just not while I was studying with them.

18:23 Were you the only female trumpet player in uh when you studied?

18:27 Um it was a mix there. We definitely were in the minority. In my undergrad, it was pretty even. My masters again like about even, and then it was my doctorate. There were like two of us in the studio. Well, there were two two like two grad students, and it was a pretty big grad studio. Um, and then yeah, it was I think the the biggest difference was was in my doctorate.

18:58 Okay.

18:59 It was mostly mostly guys, and then some girls.

19:02 Were you treated differently because you were a woman?

19:05 I think in general, yes. I I don't think like from like in our studio, we were all sort of like treated equally, but I mean at gigs I would get I would get comments like, oh you play pretty pretty good for a girl, and it's like Thanks. Okay I think. So like I I would get I got comments like that probably start starting in in undergrad, which was like annoying.

19:31 It's like just another mental hurdle to get over. Because my my undergrad teacher also was like, Because you're a girl, you're gonna have to work ten times harder than all of the guys just to just to get a job, just to be, you know, to be considered equal. So I had that mindset, you know, s from a very early part in point in my training.

19:53 Okay. Are you handling those comments differently now?

19:57 I think that now that I've connected with a lot of other female trumpet players, I feel like I have more of a community to support me, like other people who have experienced um situations like that or comments like that. It's really helpful to have other people so that are sort of in the same boat as you, and you don't feel so alone.

20:20 I think, because when I when I was in when I was in school, I didn't really know there were a lot of other girls playing trumpet, and it wasn't until I sort of like started my master's, like went to the US and you know, met a bunch of different people that I was like, oh my gosh, there's actually a lot more of us than I thought.

20:39 And it was kind of empowering to see to see that. And it always is it's great. Like I have friends all over the world now that I feel like I can connect with. So it's really great.

20:51 Okay. Have you ever doubted that you wouldn't be able to do a musical career as a female trumpet player?

20:59 I'm very stubborn. So if someone thinks I can't do something, I really try to prove them wrong. So I'm kind of I'm kind of like in that zone. I truly believe that anything is possible if you like put your mind to it, and that is that has helped me a lot, but also it's been like, you know, it's kind of uh my downfall as well.

21:26 I'll like, you know, keep working towards something even after like I stop wanting it, and then I'm like, well, why am I working so hard? It's because somebody else told me that I couldn't do it, and I'm like, okay, maybe I can let this go at this point. But I doubt myself regularly, but in the grand scheme of things, um, I think that anything is possible.

21:48 So there's like this like back and forth, you know. Within little moments, I'm like, oh, can I really do this? And then the overarching theme is just like, well, well, if I want to do this, then that's what I'm gonna do.

22:00 When was uh the last time someone told you you can't do anything?

22:04 I remember in my during my doctorate I got a comment I got a comment from an instructor about something that like made me feel made me feel like I was doing the wrong thing. And it was like it like hurt to hear that but also like it sort of like kind of gave me the energy and the almost rage to just keep pushing forward and keep going and to prove them wrong.

22:28 So yeah it's probably probably been like like three, three or four years. I'm sure I'm sure I've had other comments but I've sort of learned to ignore them if they if they don't serve me. You know like if if it's something that doesn't align with what I believe or if it's like a comment from a random person that I don't know.

22:50 Like they don't know me, they don't know my path um or my experiences so they can't really have an opinion on what I'm capable of. If that makes sense.

23:03 When do you know that it's still the right path?

23:06 These are big questions. Yes honestly I think as long as I'm as long as I'm having fun as long as I'm enjoying what I'm doing then it's the right path and it changes constantly I went to school all of my degrees are in classical trumpet but right now all of m most of the gigs that I'm doing most of the playing I'm doing is commercial and jazz which is crazy because I never thought that I would be doing that but it's also you know it pays the bills um but also it's like it's fun and it brings me joy so I know that I'm doing something right or that I'm on the right path for me because I am still enjoying it.

23:49 If I don't if I don't love what I'm doing I'm not gonna do it. So that's sort of how I figure out my path.

24:00 When you focus on musicians' health you often have a problem of your own that you want to address how was that for you?

24:09 Um I've never had a specific like injury like an embouchure injury I definitely overplayed in my undergrad like a lot because I was practicing a ton and just like beating up my face my face was like always swollen. But I noticed a trend in the musicians that I was at school with that we all sort of overdid it.

24:34 And again like I had this idea that if I wasn't constantly practicing trumpet then it didn't count as practicing. So like in my brain score study or just practicing like fingerings or practicing rhythms or anything like that where the trumpet wasn't on your face that didn't count as practicing in my mind.

24:57 And I discovered that always having the trumpet on my face I was really tired. I was very very tired and like my endurance was shot and you know I wasn't able to like get through things. So then I ended up starting my masters and I was ended up traveling a lot more and I'm like well I can't be practicing my trumpet while I'm sitting on a plane you know that that probably would not be that wouldn't be a good idea.

25:30 So I sort of discovered discovered everyone else knew this like you know score studying and like listening to like actively listening to music and like following along with the score I'm like wow you can actually learn so much and prepare so much without even having the instrument on your face and then I've had I've had friends who have had omburger injuries so I was always really interested in like what can we do to prevent that and taking breaks is probably the biggest thing that you can do to prevent injuries and if you feel bad about taking breaks then these are other methods that you can use to you know continue to improve and practice even with uh you know the horn not on your face.

26:21 So I still consider myself an athlete but I did get injured a lot playing sports. So that sort of helped with my interest in injuries and music. The injuries in music are a little bit more they're like smaller, more focused areas like you'll get tendonitis or um in your hands for for pianists and string players and stuff.

26:41 Or for for mu uh brass players you'll get it like omburger injuries. So it's not like pulling a quad or a hamstring or like rolling your ankle they're a little bit more focused to a specific area.

26:53 Okay. What does your daily practice look like now?

26:56 It changes. It changes depending on what I have to do. I'm currently very busy so sometimes I'll only get like 20 minutes to to do my like warm-up routine in fundamentals. I usually try at least every day to get that in I have like a little warm-up routine that one of my one of my teachers uh at Illinois sort of sh showed us in a studio class and I really liked it so I sort of just kept it and then if I'm working on like if I have something big coming up but I can't practice a lot uh but I need to work on my endurance I do some exercises they're very similar to like Caruso style like where you keep the trumpet on your face.

27:38 So I'll do exercises like that and that really like you know you feel the burn after a while. And like if it's been a couple days that I haven't played trumpet like I haven't played since Friday. My audition was on Friday and then I was traveling Saturday and you know just catching up on things so I I haven't played since then so if I'm jumping back into it I'll probably do a couple days of those Caruso style fundamentals and then I'll feel like back fresh you know that's probably the fastest way that I can get back to like regular playing.

28:11 Do you get restless after not playing for a while?

28:14 Yeah I've noticed that if I don't play trumpet for a while I kind of get cranky I'll like you know I'll go through my day and then I'll play trumpet and then I'll just instantly feel better afterwards and I'm like oh it's you know like when people get grumpy when they haven't eaten food or something.

28:29 That's very similar very similar to that but I I get less cranky less grumpy than than before but I definitely notice it especially if I I feel like I should be playing then I tend to get a little bit more agitated because I haven't played but I'm working working on like not being so hard on myself about needing to get a certain amount of playing in every day or needing to play every day.

28:54 So working on that work-life balance.

28:57 What piece would you play if you only had five minutes before the gig?

29:03 Before the gig am I play is the piece that I'm playing only five minutes long or it's up to you. It's up to me. My two go-to pieces right now are Song for the Lost by Gina Gilly. She's an American composer and that's one that I've played I've played a couple recitals over the last year and I've played that one on almost every recital and it's just really beautiful and that I feel like I can just sort of pull it out and play it at this point.

29:27 And then the other piece that I go to regularly is Danza Alegre by James Burke and it's more of like a cornet style like little show piece with uh some triple tonguing double tonguing all of that stuff so those are my those are my two go-to pieces and it's nice that they're contrasting because Song for the Lost is a little bit slower more lyrical and the James Burke piece is a little bit a little bit faster more technical but those are my those are my two go-to pieces and they're easy to listen to I really like to make music accessible for the audience so having having pieces that are fun to listen to that the melody gets stuck in your ear and that you know they they leave feeling excited about

30:09 music. That's sort of the goal for me.

30:12 Okay can you uh give us a little walk through your warm-up routine?

30:16 Yeah so I'll usually start off with mouthpiece buzzing and I do um it's a boyhood um exercise and I'll go through it's like just descends chromatically um like did and then you basically just like work your way all the way down to the pedal range. So I'll do that on the mouthpiece and then I'll go into some trumpet playing um some stamp classic stamp exercises um but I'll do them with uh lip bends okay like and I'll bend down the third rather than doing the the fingering so lots of lots of lip bends and stuff then I get into some lip slurs which is the the exercise that one of my teachers at Illinois showed showed us and then we get into like we slur the lip slur and then we tongue the lip slur

31:15 and then we do it double time and we sort of you know just work our way through the range of the horn. And that's typically what I'll do I've been trying to get a little bit better at my articulation especially in the low register so I'll do some just scale patterns articulated with a lot of low notes so I'll just do descending scales and repeated low notes.

31:35 And that's usually usually what I'll do for for a warm-up if it's if I don't have a lot of time to do a warm-up I might condense it a little bit maybe not go through all of like the all of the fingerings or I'll just throw in some like chromatic stuff. I like to make sure that I have unlocked all of my range for the day so I'll do some chromatics in the low register and then I'll work my way up to the C above the staff.

32:00 Usually that's all that I really need to play in a day unless I'm doing some lead gig where I have to go above that in which case I'll do a little bit more time in the upper register but usually once I go through those exercises I feel pretty confident for the day and then if I feel like I need to do anything ex anything extra I'll do some of the Caruso stuff or just anything to like make my embassure feel like it's like set and ready and strong.

32:27 Okay. You describe yourself as a performing arts wellness advocate what do you mean by that?

32:33 Um it means that we need to take care of our bodies in order to perform well. So whenever I'm working with students I always encourage them like I said to take breaks do the little things that your body needs like making sure that you're drinking enough water. When I was at the University of Saskatchewan I hosted like yoga sessions once a week for the students just for them to like chill out because life as a student is stressful and we often don't take time to just sort of relax.

33:02 Not that yoga is like relaxing sometimes it's actually stressful when you have to hold some of those poses but it's just like a different way of getting in touch with your body and I think it's really important as performers and musicians that we sort of understand what our body is telling us. Like if we feel tension somewhere like where is that coming from how can we address it?

33:23 Because it shouldn't hurt to play your instrument and I think that's like the biggest thing that I try to tell everyone like you should not be in pain while playing your instrument and if you are in pain then we need to figure out what's causing that pain and how to make it better.

33:40 Do you think that music education is often too one-sided?

33:44 What do you mean by one-sided?

33:46 I studied music for nearly twenty years and music health w wasn't their big thing. It's only you you must play right you you must work hard.

34:03 That's what I mean with one-sided yeah I think that music is sl the music side of things is slowly coming around. There's definitely a lot more research in like peak performance in sports um and that's what I try to apply to music as well because they're really on top of it like they've got nutritionists they've got like mental health practitioners all of that stuff they have so much support for their athletes and what musicians do is very similar like to what athletes do right like you're training at a very high level and you're performing at a very high level and like everything you do is like you know it's always up here and we need to have that support in order to succeed and to to do our

34:52 best so I think that music is definitely slow to the to the game to realizing that. But there's a lot of people out there like the Performing Arts uh medicine association they do a great job of sort of bringing to light the issues that performers deal with and they deal with musicians and also dancers because I think it's so silly sometimes dance isn't really considered a sport but like it is so active like it sort of is like it's a sport but also a performing art right like it fits into both categories.

35:25 But we do have that mentality of like get the right notes work hard you know just do it right but there's so much that so much in here in your in your head that you can train in order to perform better like just your um outlook on performance or like if you are constantly saying to yourself oh I suck I can't do this you're not gonna play well you're not gonna perform well and it's not like you know being over the top like I'm incredible at trumpet like I can do anything I can play a double C.

35:57 It's like it's just supporting yourself and being like I'm prepared for this I can do this like you know making sure that you're talking to yourself in a way that's going to promote success from your performance. Stuff like that like that is what I try to work on for like wellness like obviously we want our body to be well but we also want our mindset to be in a good place for us to perform.

36:25 Do you speak well with yourself?

36:28 Not always but I've gotten better at it. I used to get really really frustrated when I practiced if I couldn't get something and now if I can't get something I remind myself that it's just part of the process. And I tell I tell the same thing to my students it is a lot easier for me to help my students through a rough patch than it is for me to help myself through a rough patch.

36:52 And that's why I take lessons and that's why I continue studying with other people because I need that extra support sometimes. So yeah if if a student's struggling like I'll be like it's hard right now you're putting in the work and the work is paying off. You're just gonna see it you know down the road.

37:10 But the work that you're putting in now is still helping. It's not pointless even if you don't see the results right now.

37:17 Do you have a a mentor who can help you?

37:21 Yeah I've got a couple a couple of people who who I keep it keep in touch with to help with like trumpet playing or like performance aspects of things and like also friends like it's so helpful to to chat with friends and just sort of be like man this is how I'm feeling kind of sucks and then they're like oh my gosh I feel that way too or they're like oh like you shouldn't feel that way because like you know you're doing all of these other things really well.

37:44 And so it's good to have that supportive community. One mentor that I've kept in touch with I'm Carol Don Reinhardt she's in Vienna right now but she grew up in New Jersey went to school at Juilliard and like she's an incredible trumpet player. I met her at the International Women's Brass Conference in 2019 I think it was and we've kept in touch and she's been so helpful in sort of like teaching me how to like engage the muscles in my body to play trumpet well before I was doing a lot of like I was using my embassure a lot and it was getting tired.

38:26 And so she really helped me realize or like unlock the idea that like oh I need to use my core like actually use my core to play trumpet and like there are some days where it's like I think I'm using my core but then I you know I make an adjustment I'm like oh I wasn't and then it's so much easier so she really helped me with that that side of playing she's she works with like a lot of a lot of students on like how to do that.

38:54 So that also sort of played a role in like injury prevention like if you're engaging the correct muscles and like the bigger muscles in your body to help support yourself then these muscles don't your emboucher muscles don't have to work as hard and they are less likely to get injured.

39:09 Yeah you mentioned in a post that you've started acting yes how does that help you?

39:15 I think it's good because like you have to become a character and as a performer it's like I said like a lot about mindset. Like your brain will believe whatever you tell it. So if you hold yourself in a posture that's confident if you you know repeat phrases in your mind like I'm ready for this I can do this I'm prepared your brain will believe you just like what I said like if you say negative things your brain will believe you for that as well and so when it comes to performing I really think about stepping into a character who is confident who is prepared who is you know capable.

40:00 And of course like I put all of the preparation in beforehand but it sort of helps me to sort of put that forward because as a performer like you are putting on a show right like people don't want to see somebody who's scared even if you are scared so doing stuff like that has helped me to sort of like present better when I'm when I'm performing because you know it's all it's all part of all part of the show all part of the act like you're not just performing music people are also seeing what you're doing and like your actions and your movements sort of reflect your confidence and your persona.

40:39 How do you train this character in your practice?

40:42 A lot of it has to do with posture. Okay. So right now I'm not sitting with great posture but when I'm when I'm practicing I really work on making sure that I'm engaging my muscles correctly and holding myself in the most optimal position to make a good sound because I found that like if you're not playing with good posture it's gonna be a lot harder to play the instrument your sound is not going to be as good.

41:12 So getting into the habit of sort of like making sure that you're holding yourself in that position while you're practicing and then it'll also reflect in the performances. But I've also like sometimes before I practice I'll like read a few phrases like you know I'm prepared for this I'm putting in the work you know things are things are going to work out even if it doesn't seem like it's going to right now so working on like developing that mindset and then then it helps across all areas of your life not just not just music right you have a a more optimistic or confident outlook on on the things that could happen and what the future holds.

41:54 In which area of your life do you notice this?

41:57 Like from from day to day stuff like my my life consists of mostly music things which is wonderful but it is a lot easier to get through like letdowns like if you don't win an audition something like that like you can immediately go into this downward spiral right so it has help helped a lot with my mindset um for auditions because you know one person's gonna win the audition you know everybody who's there is a good player.

42:23 Yep everybody who's there would do a fantastic job and it all comes down to how you perform yes you need to perform to the best of your ability but even if the you are performing to the best of your ability the committee might not want you right they might be listening for specific things they might be listening for a specific sound and you don't know what that is and you can't take it personally which is really hard because as a musician like like we talked about like your identity is like intertwined with like your musicianship but it's important to know that when it comes to an audition there are so many factors that are out of your control and you can only focus on the things within your control.

43:06 So like making sure that you are ready to play and that's like getting a good night's sleep before making sure that you're hydrated making sure that your body's fueled right like making sure that you're you're putting good food into your body because if your body is healthy and you know all of those boxes are checked then you're going to perform well because your body is also your instrument.

43:29 But then like you know you sort of like lay everything you have on the table and then and then you you walk away and you just have to be okay with whatever the panel decides. And if it's not you then it's not you and there'll be another opportunity but um that's probably like one of the hardest things is like changing that changing that mindset so that you don't just like sort of downward spiral after not winning an audition because we're gonna have a lot of auditions Everyone auditions like a bajillion times before they win.

44:05 And again, like everything has to line up perfectly in order to win that audition, right?

44:11 When you uh talk about preparation, it sounds like you're very disciplined. Are you really?

44:17 Um, I try to be.

44:18 Okay.

44:19 I'm disciplined in in in chunks.

44:22 Okay.

44:22 Uh like I said, I'm very extrinsically motivated, so I need to have something coming up that I'm working towards. And then when I have that idea, then I sort of work backwards and be like, okay, what do I need to work on leading up to that to get to the point where I want to be. Um, so if I don't have something coming up, then I'll like make something up.

44:43 I'll be like, okay, I'm gonna do this project for myself and I'm gonna work on these specific skills leading up to it. But I mean, nobody's perfect. Like, I slip up sometimes, sometimes I'm like tired, and your body's gonna be different every day. Like, if you get sick, you know, you're not gonna practice the same intensity that you usually would, right?

45:03 You have to listen to your body and make adjustments uh as you go because we're not robots, we're not machines, so your level of productivity is gonna be different from day to day, and that is another thing that you can't allow yourself to get upset about, right?

45:21 How did your audition go last Friday?

45:23 I think it went well. I was definitely nervous when I was playing, and I could tell, like, you know, when when you're nervous, you know, little things go wrong that you don't expect to go wrong. But overall, compared to other auditions that I've done, um, where thing uh where things have gone worse when I was nervous, um I I was happy, happy with how it went.

45:47 And again, like if I don't advance to the next the next stage, then I don't advance. But it was a good opportunity, and I met a lot of really awesome people. Um and that's that's the thing. Like when I'm at auditions, like I know some people don't like to to chat or to talk, but like even afterwards, sometimes I'll I'll chat with people and I'll meet them and be like, that's so cool, like what you're doing and like where they're coming from, and like it's all about for me, it's all about like making connections with people, getting to know them.

46:16 You know, they are your competitors, but also they're your colleagues because you know we're all we're all sort of we're all in this together.

46:25 Okay. I have uh beautiful quote from Clark Terry. When you feel your nerves start to creep up, and everything inside of you is telling you not to get up there and play. That's when you should play because that's when you're going to learn something about yourself. Yep. What uh learned you about yourself last Friday?

46:44 I actually learned that I'm better at sight reading than I thought. Because I did I did fairly well on the sight reading. I was really happy with how that went. And I feel I feel like I was a little bit more present. Like I there was a bunch of different stages of the audition. Like there was a solo portion, there was ensemble playing and chamber playing, and then also sight reading.

47:05 So just yeah, yeah. Okay, so that that's different than any audition that I've ever played before. And just like the way that I I handled the pressure, I was proud of that. Um, and the way that I was able to sort of feel the nerves, but like not let them get to me. Usually when I get really nervous, like my my lip my bottom lip will start like trembling, and I'll get this really, really ugly vibrato, and I like can't make it stop.

47:39 So I was able to, you know, sort of like focus, focus my breathing, focus my mindset so that like I was just like, you know, just playing and and doing what I needed to do, and and that didn't happen. But yeah, I I realized that I've come a lot farther in my trumpet playing than like if I had done this audition a couple of years ago, it would have gone very, very differently.

48:03 Um and I feel like I was able to recognize how much I have grown in the last few years. Like I'm able to listen more across the band. Like when you're in a position where you're stressed and nervous, I feel like you can sometimes close that off and you don't listen and you just like really focus on the things that you have to do.

48:20 But playing in an ensemble, you you have to be listening and you have to make sure that you're aware of the other parts. And so I was able to do that, which is something that I probably wouldn't have wouldn't have done a couple years ago.

48:32 I also have non-professional musicians in my audience. And how can we bring relaxation and rarity into our practice and activities when we actually work all day and maybe only have one hour to to practice in the evening?

48:48 That resonates a lot with me because right now I'm working I'm working full-time at a chiropractor's office, which is not music related at all. And so I usually will only have maybe like an hour or so to practice like in the evening. But throughout the day, I think, especially if you're sitting down a lot for work, um, it's important to get up and move.

49:08 It's important to like move your body because if you if you don't move, then that like range of motion, you're going to lose it over time. So even doing simple things like I don't know, like some stretches, like lifting your arms above your head. Like there's nothing in our regular day-to-day life that like makes us, you know, lift our arms all the way up and stretch.

49:30 But if you don't do that, like it's gonna be harder and harder to get your your shoulders mobile enough to move up. So like we always want to try to like incorporate little movements, little stretches between you know, periods of sitting down so that we maintain um that mobility. And of course, we don't do stuff like that when we're playing trumpet, but in order for our body to feel, you know, feel strong and feel capable, like having that that mobility and being able to use your muscles is really important.

50:00 So, and like when you're playing trumpet, you're holding the trumpet, but like the muscles in your back are really what's anchoring it. So, like making sure those muscles are activated and like waking them up before you play trumpet. Um, so like you can do little things with movement throughout the day.

50:16 Um, and then before playing, like sometimes I'll do like shoulder rolls or like twists or anything like that, just to like sort of get get my body like awake and ready to play. Um and then for for practicing, like play things that you have fun playing, right? Like, don't spend your one hour a day just practicing scales, unless you love scales, in which case go for it.

50:41 But like, you know, do your warm-up, find, find things that bring you joy because that's what's gonna keep you motivated and keep you wanting to come back to it. And I know I have a I have a lot of students, like adult students, who play in like community bands, and that's what that's what they love to do.

51:00 And it's like it's part of the community of music, is like making music with other people. So if you're not feeling fulfilled practicing alone, go find a community group to play with because it's it's such a different experience, and you're still playing your instrument, and that's that's what we want to be doing.

51:19 We want to be playing, we want to be making music, and you have to find what brings you joy in that and go after it.

51:27 Do you ever missing having fun because it's a job for you?

51:31 There are some times where it's definitely stressful, but I think I always have fun. Um if I am not having fun, I usually won't do it. Like I'll try I'll you know, I'll try anything once. And if it's not not something that I that I enjoy doing, or if it's something that brings me more stress than joy, then you know, like I might do, you know, choose something else the next time.

51:54 But like I this year I joined a lot of community groups and I met a lot of you know retired band teachers who are playing in groups, and like that kind of community has been really helpful for me because it's like very low pressure performance. We're all there just to have fun. I've done more sight reading than I have in my entire life over this past year from being in these groups because you just sort of show up and read, and because there isn't a whole lot of pressure to be perfect, I feel like I've gotten better at my sight reading because I'm not getting so down on myself whenever I make a mistake.

52:29 I'm like, I make a mistake, I'm like, oh, dang it. And then the next time I don't make the same mistake, you know, like we'll we'll read it a second time or whatever. But even that I have started to find that fun. I would have never said sight reading was fun in my life before, but in the right contexts with the right groups, I am having so much fun with it.

52:48 Okay, I love side reading. It's one thing I I would say I can this very good.

52:55 So that's awesome. It's definitely the most important skill. I think I think it's the most important skill you need as a musician.

53:02 But I never had big problems with this. So I'm very lucky that I don't don't practice to this. You posted uh you constantly feel like you're falling behind is a feeling uh that maybe every musician is is familiar with. On bad days when we feel uh that way, what can we do?

53:27 Get off of social media.

53:28 Okay, that's uh that's right, yeah.

53:31 I think that social media is great, but also it can be very discouraging because you see all of the amazing things that everyone else is doing, and that's where that feeling of falling behind comes from because you're not seeing all of the things that they're struggling with, you're only seeing what they're succeeding at, and you know what you're struggling with, and that sort of is at the forefront of your mind.

53:59 So it's I think it's great to have social media and it's great to have inspiration, but also like just remember that what you're seeing on the internet is not the full story, and like people have struggles and are working, and they all everyone has setbacks, they just don't necessarily post about them or share them with people.

54:20 So when you feel like you're behind, one one thing I love is like well, I I hate recording myself, but I love recording myself and listening back like years later and being like, okay, I actually have improved. So if you have recordings of yourself like playing something from a couple of years ago, like go back and listen to that and like analyze, like, okay, like I have actually improved as a player.

54:44 I'm not moving backwards. Because as long as you're picking up your instrument every day, you're gonna be moving forward.

54:49 Okay. I saw on your homepage that you played with Wayne Bertrand.

54:54 Yes, that was so cool. He is so nice, he is such a wonderful human, and he is so good at trumpet.

55:02 Yeah, yeah. How was it to met him? It's one of my idols. How was it for you?

55:09 It was great. So he he came to play with the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra while I was in town, and I got to play the little duet with him on the encore, which was which was so awesome. Like the fact that you know he just plays like a full-on concert and then he can still, you know, his endurance for days.

55:33 He can just he can just play like it's nothing. He also did a masterclass while he was there, which was really cool. He talked a lot about lead pipe playing. That's how he warms up primarily, which was really cool, and I started incorporating that into my practicing. I probably should get back to to doing that sometimes too.

55:51 But he's just such a kind person, and like his level of musicianship and trumpet playing is like all the way up here, and he still treats everyone else with so much respect.

56:03 Yeah.

56:03 And you know, like he he appreciates other musicians. Like, and I'm not saying like, you know, everyone in the band is like terrible musicians, but you know, like he's Wayne Bergeron. We're not all Wayne Bergeron, but he really is a a good person and um supportive, and he he like never talked down to anybody, like he's he's always super professional and then and super kind, and it was truly a pleasure to play in the band for him, and then also to like play that that duet with him.

56:35 It was like kind of like a dream come true moment.

56:38 Okay, did he give you any advice?

56:40 No, he didn't, which honestly, like I think is kind of is kind of cool. Like I did talk to him afterwards and I was like, I would love to take a lesson with you, but in that setting, you know, like he was there to do his job, I was there to do my job, and like I'm sure he probably could have given me a ton of advice, but um in the moment, like you know, right before the show, because we had like one rehearsal with him, he didn't, you know, didn't say anything.

57:03 He actually asked to try my mouthpiece, which was cool, and then he was like, Oh, the it's too too sharp, the edge is too sharp for me, and I'm like, Oh, okay, well, I like it.

57:12 Okay, okay.

57:13 But yeah, hopefully down the road I would I would love to to get a lesson with him and and learn from him. But in in that situation, um he didn't give me any like specific advice. He he gave it, you know, we had the master class, and so I learned a lot from there, but um he didn't, you know, say anything specifically to me about my trumpet playing.

57:32 He actually said I had a beautiful tone, so I was just like, you know, just kind of riding that high since then.

57:38 Yeah, who are your role models?

57:40 Carol Reinhardt is definitely one of them. I read her biography when I was in my undergrad, and I was just so impressed by everything that she had done. And so to meet her during my master's was incredible. Um, and she's just as as amazing a human as I as I thought she was after reading her book. So she's a a big role model for me.

58:04 Wayne is also like someone that I look up to. Like I would love to take some time to study with him. What he does is uh is really cool, um, and just another great person. I think it's so important that you know the people we look up to not only are great trumpet players but also great people because um, you know, we are also humans and we interact with each other, and it's uh important that we treat each other well with respect and yeah.

58:36 So those two I'm trying to think I have so many people who inspire me in different ways. Karen Donnelly, she's the principal trumpet for the National Art Center Orchestra here in Canada. She is really an incredible trumpet player and person. I had the opportunity to take a few lessons with her when I I visited Ottawa a few times.

59:03 And it's just it's just really cool to see a woman uh sitting in the chair of principal trumpet just kicking butt every day, and like she she sounds she sounds great. She is amazing at what she does. And she's a Canadian trumpet player, and she she's from Saskatchewan, so like she's from the prairie, she came from like a small little town, little little farm town basically.

59:28 And now she's in like one of the you know major biggest orchestras in Canada, which is really cool. Um and I didn't realize that you know she existed until I started actually studying trumpet in my in my undergrad.

59:43 Okay. I don't know any female principal trumpet players.

59:49 Yeah, gotta check her out. She's incredible.

59:52 Okay, I must check her out. What does the future hold for you? What are upcoming projects?

59:58 This week I'm presenting at a conference. The it's called MuseCan. It's like a Canadian conference that's being held here in Winnipeg. And I'm presenting, I'm doing a lecture recital and a paper presentation, and they're both gonna be on like sustainable music pedagogy and sort of like self-talk and like how to mentally prepare for performances and stuff.

1:00:24 So we're sort of going along the lines of like injury prevention, but also like uh mental health and all of that. So those are gonna be my presentations and then I have a break, which I'm excited. I don't have anything scheduled for June, and I'm so excited for that. I've been traveling the last three weeks, I've been in a different place.

1:00:47 So I don't have to be on a plane for a while, which I'm look really looking forward to. Um I'm teaching at the international music camp, which is on the border of Canada and the US. That'll be for the first week of July, like end of June, first week of July. Um so they've got they've got camps that run all summer, and I'll be there for for that session.

1:01:15 And then in August, I'm currently doing an artist diploma with O Academy, and I was accepted to attend a residency, so we'll be going to Poland and Berlin. And we're going to be um performing um various pieces. I don't know them off the top of my head, but we're gonna be having a couple days of rehearsal, then we're gonna have some concerts, and then we're gonna go to Berlin, have some concerts, and then then go home.

1:01:42 So it's gonna be super exciting. That's gonna be my second time uh being overseas. My first time was in 2019, like right before COVID started. So I'm really looking forward to that. And then who knows? I'm applying for jobs, I'm auditioning, and whatever happens will happen.

1:02:02 Okay. I have four last questions for you.

1:02:05 Okay.

1:02:05 What would you like to try that you haven't yet to do yet?

1:02:09 Like for trumpet or just for life?

1:02:10 Up to you.

1:02:11 The first thing that came to mind was skydiving. Um that is an answer that everybody said to me. Everybody says that?

1:02:19 Nearly everybody. Skydiving or bunch jumping.

1:02:23 That's wild because those were the two things that came to mind. Yeah. Seems to be pretty cool. I've been indoor skydiving where they create like this wind tunnel. And that's really cool. I felt like a flying squirrel. I love doing exciting things like adrenaline rush. Um, I'm a big fan of roller coasters.

1:02:42 So also water ski, and you know, my one of my goals for water skiing is to be able to do a flip. Don't know if I'll ever get there, but it's a little dream. So Okay.

1:02:52 Uh we we talked about injury prevention, and you just said you want to do a flip. Okay.

1:03:00 You can do that safely at some point in your Okay.

1:03:05 I'm too old for this.

1:03:06 Hopefully, I can do it before I get too old. We'll see. How old are you? I just turned 30.

1:03:11 Oh. Okay. What book or movie is a must-read or a must-watch?

1:03:16 One of the books that I read for my dissertation was What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body by Barbara Connible. And it's about body mapping. And I think it's so cool because it talks about our everyone has a different idea of how their body works. And we play our instruments based on that idea.

1:03:37 Yes.

1:03:37 Which is so cool. So um it sort of like guides you through this whole idea of mapping and like figuring out like what parts of your body are helping to play your instrument and like figuring out like what's accurate and what's not. So I think that that that's a really, really good book for musicians to to read and to to look at.

1:03:56 And uh movie?

1:03:57 I watch Grey's Anatomy. I don't know. Okay. I haven't watched very many movie like m music-related movies, but it can be a random movie.

1:04:10 Yeah. Or Grey's Anatomy. It's okay. Gray's Anatomy is uh is okay. I never watched this, but it's okay. It's a big thing in Germany too. Really? Yeah, that's so cool.

1:04:21 Yeah, I'm a big fan of those shows like medical shows or like crime shows. I've been watching Bones recently. I'm on like season ten.

1:04:29 Okay. I never watch Bones. And it's another big thing in Germany. Yeah.

1:04:35 That's so cool.

1:04:36 Okay. Watch recording is a must-listen.

1:04:38 I really like it's uh a French trumpet player, uh Lucienne Renaudin Varie. She is so cool. Like she does classical music and jazz music, and she just like sort of like Jazz on French one? No, on trumpet.

1:04:55 Uh trumpet. Okay.

1:04:56 And yeah, so she's she's really cool, and like I don't have a specific album that I've listened to, but like just as a player, like anytime I'm looking to listen to a piece, if I see that she's recorded it, I go and listen because like she brings such a unique perspective and and flair into it.

1:05:13 Okay. What are your hopes for the brass player scene?

1:05:18 I just want everyone to be nice to each other. I want us to all be employed. That would be great. Want everyone to be nice and everyone to be friends and for us all to have jobs.

1:05:26 That's beautiful. Okay. Kaido, thanks.

1:05:30 Yeah, thanks for inviting me.

1:05:33 That was the episode with Kayla Salomon. I'm glad you've listened this far. For me, this episode served as yet another reminder that we should focus more on the things we can actually control. We often focus on things that are completely beyond our control. What did you take away from this episode? I'd like to thank Leanne Machan for the editing and Diego Mattis for the music.

1:06:03 Remember to subscribe to the podcast, and I hope you'll join us again next time. Until then, take care and bye bye.