Gábor Tarkövi is one of the most revered and respected trumpet players of his generation. He began his career as co-principal trumpet with the  Württemberg Philharmonic, then was principal trumpet of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, followed by principal trumpet with the Bayern Radio Symphony Orchestra. Finally, from 2004-2019 he was principal trumpet with the Berliner Philharmoniker. In addition to his solo and chamber music appearances around the world, he is Professor of Trumpet at the Berlin University of the Arts.

In order to find out more about the mindset of such a great orchestral musician, I ask Gábor about how he approaches four of the main excerpts in the orchestral literature for trumpet... the openings for both the Mahler Fifth Symphony and Mussorgsky/Ravel’s Pictures at an Exhibition, the Ballerina’s Dance from Petroushka, and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra. We end part one with a discussion of the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall, and how he deals with nerves for those broadcast concerts.

In addition to his orchestral career, Gene is also an accomplished soloist and chamber player, and I ask him about this aspect of his career. Finally, a huge influence on Gene and his thinking is the author Stephen Covey and his book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." And, as always with Gene, there is a lot of laughter!

Gene Porkorny has had a truly illustrious career as an orchestral musician. In Part 2 we talk about his many experiences with great orchestras of which he has been a member. Beginning with his joining the Israel Philharmonic at the age of 22, Gene talks about his learning curve, what it was like to work with different orchestras and their principal trumpet players, and the reasons why he will play different instruments for different composers and works.

Many people believe Gene Porkorny is the greatest orchestral tubist of his generation. A member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1989, he has also been a member of the Israel Philharmonic, the Utah Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. But in addition to his orchestral playing, Gene is an exceptional solo artist and chamber musician.

As a young man Gene studied with many of the great brass players of our time. In Part 1 of our discussion, he talks about what he learned from each of his teachers (Jeff Reynolds, Roger Bobo, Larry Johanson, Tommy Johnson, and Arnold Jacobs and what made each of those teachers so special. He also talks about a concert in May of 1973 that changed the course of his life.

Over the past 2 1/2 years, Professor Lauridsen has had an epic battle with cancer, and he was willing to share aspects of this battle and his moving insights with the hope that it might inspire others who are struggling with health issues. We end by discussing what it was like to receive the National Medal of Arts in 2007.

In Part 2 we continue our discussion of composition, why he is so inspired by poetry, and how it has led him to write so many works for chorus. We talk about the writing process, and his willingness to struggle to generate his best work. Morten Lauridsen is not only a composer but also a teacher, so we spend a lot of this episode discussing his ideas about teaching.

Morten Lauridsen has written choral music that has deeply moved people around the world. As one of America’s most beloved and also most performed composers, he received the National Medal of Arts in 2007. His works O Magnum Mysterium, Dirat-on, O Nata Lux, and Sure On This Shining Night have become the all-time best selling choral octavos distributed by Theodore Presser Music. Not only a composer but also a teacher, he taught at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for 52 years (!), was head of the composition department from 1990-2002, and founded the school's Advanced Studies in Film Scoring program, now one of the most important film scoring programs in the world.

Early in his life, Morten Lauridsen was a fire fighter in the Pacific Northwest, so I ask him how his 10 weeks alone in a lookout tower pointed him in the direction of music. From there he discusses his studies at the University of Southern California under the tutelage of Halsey Stevens and Ingolf Dahl, two giants in the world of music. And then we begin our discussion of his composing career with a deep dive into perhaps his most famous work, O Magnum Mysterium.

In the Bonus Room, I ask Professor Holtmeier a number of questions about music in general... Is tonality dead? What is the future of music? What was musical training like during the time of Franz Liszt? And finally, comic books!

A Rector of a Musik Hochschule has many challenges, but perhaps the biggest that Ludwig Holtmeier had to face was the Covid crisis. Our interview was recorded in 2021, and a large portion of our conversation deals with the steps taken that allowed the Freiburg Musik Hochschule to be the only Hochschule that consistently remained open during that difficult time. But first we begin our conversation by continuing our discussion of the differences between German and American schools.

Ludwig Holtmeier has been Rector at the Freiburg Musik Hochschule since October 2017. Before taking the job as Rector, he taught theory at the Hochschule and earlier was a musicologist at the Hans Eisler Musik Hochschule in Berlin. He also taught at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. In addition, he is an accomplished pianist and theorist, so he has a broad and deep understanding of music and teaching.

In Part 1 of our conversation, I ask Professor Holtmeier to discuss some of the differences between the Musik Hochschule in Freiburg and music schools and conservatories in the United States. He also talks about some of his duties as Rector and how faculty mindsets can vary depending on the instrument involved.