The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 121 Mary Elizabeth Bowden: A Driving Force

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to the Mind Over Finger Podcast, episode number 121. Welcome to the Mind Over Finger Podcast, discussions on mindful music making, efficient practice, and building a purposeful career. And now, your host, violinist, teacher, and high performance coach for musicians, Dr. Rene Paul Gaultier. Hi, everyone. I hope you're having a splendid day as you listen to today's conversation. In this episode, I speak with trumpet soloist Mary Elizabeth Bowden. Mary is a Gold Medal Global Music Award winner, a Yamaha Performing Artist, and an acclaimed soloist. She's highly regarded for her artistry and virtuosity, as well as the clarity, purity,

Starting point is 00:00:54 and power of her sound, and she's been described by Gramophone magazine as brilliant and radiant in new repertoire for trumpet. Elizabeth was the first prize winner of the 2012 International Women's Brass Conference Trumpet Competition, and she performs as a soloist with orchestras, a chamber musician, and a recitalist around the world. She's a founding member of both Seraph Brass and the Chrysalis Chamber Players, a recipient of a Yale alumni grant, and she's very active in establishing a new repertoire for the trumpet through creative, collaborative commissioning projects and award-winning albums. In addition to her various activities as a soloist and chamber musician, Elizabeth is assistant professor of trumpet at Shenandoah Conservatory,

Starting point is 00:01:41 principal trumpet of the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, and a member of the Iris Orchestra and Richmond Symphony Orchestra. I'm so grateful that at the end of a very busy week, Mary so graciously took the time to sit and talk with me on her one day off. She has a fascinating story, and I think you'll be as inspired as I was hearing about how she's building an amazing solo career with vision and determination. In our discussion, Mary covers many topics, including how she created that solo career despite multiple obstacles, her life as a solo artist, chamber musician, teacher, and music administrator, and how she manages it all, how she takes a piece from beginning to end and uses mental practice to prepare for performances,

Starting point is 00:02:30 her advice to be a great chamber musician, how she handles doubt, and so much more. As you'll see, Mary is an incredibly wise person and an artist with a profound and genuine approach to music making. It's an inspiration and information-packed episode, and I know you'll love what's ahead. Let's go to the show. Mary Elizabeth Bowden, it's such a pleasure to have you on the show today. Thank you so much for having me. Mary you're recognized worldwide as a soloist chamber musician and teacher and you're a very busy artist I have so many questions for you and I can't wait to dive in but first I'd love to hear

Starting point is 00:03:24 your story in your words so please tell us about you and how your artistic path has unfolded sure and the first thing I have to say is I really appreciate your introduction music It's one of my favorite concertos. Jim Stevenson's concerto number one for trumpet. Isn't it great? Thank you. I'm glad you like it. So I grew up in the Chicagoland area, and I started on the cornet.

Starting point is 00:03:51 My parents were not musicians, are not musicians, and my brothers were already in the band program playing trombone and horn. And we're very close in age, two and three years apart. so I naturally copied them and wanted to join the brass family so I could also have the same teacher we had a brass teacher Tim Jones who would come to our house every Saturday and he would give us each one to two hour long lessons and then he would also pick us up and drive us to concerts around the Chicagoland area so I got to hear many symphony concerts during Bud Herseth's last years and the orchestra and all of the great artists that come through Chicago. And so having him as

Starting point is 00:04:34 an early teacher was extremely important because my brothers and I got to hear classical music and great brass performers. And so during this time, I knew that I wanted to be a professional trumpet player around age 13. So I ended up dropping out of eighth grade and enrolling full-time into the community college when I was 14 and getting an associate's degree quite young and with that schedule I was able to practice a lot more and work some side jobs to save money and also I was in the Chicago Youth Symphony and so in between my time at community college and going to Curtis I had a year off where I just worked full-time doing customer service at a furniture company and practicing a lot. And I think that gave me a lot of skills

Starting point is 00:05:26 that I didn't know I would need when I started my own businesses in my late 20s. And so that translates to having like a much fuller education than just practicing your instruments. And so from there, I went to the Curtis Institute of Music in Yale School of Music. And during these years, I wanted to become an orchestral trumpet player. I thought that that was the only way that I could make a full-time living. And so I went full force with auditions and ended up in the Richmond Symphony right after I graduated from Yale. And I still technically hold the third trumpet position, which is a part-time position. and I lived there for a few years and was freelancing around the area and taking a lot

Starting point is 00:06:13 of auditions and in my late 20s I decided that's really not the life that I wanted and I started taking lessons with a lot of soloists from around the world and I knew that I wanted to either quit or just do something completely different and I met one of my mentors Jens Lindemann at the Banff Center in Canada I went there on a whim I saw that there was a brass residency and just went because I was trying to find myself and the first day that he met me he asked what do you want to do with your life and he dug it out of me that I really wanted to be a soloist but I always had these but this and I thought at the time but I'm too old and he gave me permission and I know that I had to give myself permission

Starting point is 00:07:05 to pursue a solo career age 27 and I decided to go full force and really really try and that's when I started seeking out more teachers and revisiting my solo repertoire and preparing recital programs and doing concertos with a lot of community groups to build up confidence and when I was 30 I made finals of a big competition most competitions I had been aged out of since I made the decision much later than most soloists and I was lucky to make finals of a big competition and during that summer of preparing I got hit in the face twice and the second time I was hit was much worse than the first time I was hit by a frisbee when I was walking in my car late at night a rogue frisbee and it hit my upper lip and it created a really

Starting point is 00:07:59 terrible injury and I still tried to compete but inside my lip was black and blue and very swollen and it basically took that competition off the table for me and I had to still figure out a way of you know I'm not going to win a competition I'm too old for them now what how do I make this path happen and now on top of that I have an injury and I have to relearn how to play so I was able to figure out all of those things and I think the injury made me a much stronger player in a lot of ways because I had to problem solve I had to play in a more healthy efficient way and I also had to carve out the way a solo career in a different way than going the competition route or being very young. And that's when I started to record things and put them on YouTube. This is before Instagram

Starting point is 00:08:56 was super popular or even Facebook, I think. And I just started putting up videos of some performances and made a website, put together some recordings and started to get people to follow me. And I started getting some concertos and I got signed with a manager. And at the same time, I was relearning how to play in a healthy way as well. And that was in my early 30s. And now it's a decade later. And I've managed to carve out a full-time career as a soloist and chamber musician. I created Seraph Brass eight years ago now. And we do about 40 to 60 dates per year before COVID, of course. And the group just keeps getting more and more successful each year and I still do a lot of the administrative work for that and team building

Starting point is 00:09:50 and so there's a lot of skills outside of just practicing the difficult music that I have to learn in commissions I also am the director of Seraph Brass and I'm managing a team of people to make sure that the the group is running and looking forward and and in 2019 I took a full-time position at Shenandoah Conservatory and the studio has doubled in size since 2019 and so I managed that all those elements of my life plus I have a husband here in Winston-Salem Dave Dash he's also a professional trumpet player and I also have I still have my life as an orchestral trumpet player here and there through the year with the Richmond Symphony Iris Orchestra and the Artisphere Festival Orchestra.

Starting point is 00:10:38 So I've kept all these different elements. I remember in Jennifer Montone's podcast, she was talking about all of the different ways that you can go in your career and they all don't have to happen at the same time. And I really loved hearing that, that careers can be very flexible. One year might be more solo concerto heavy

Starting point is 00:10:56 and another year might have, maybe it'll be heavier on the serif brass tours. I just roll with the concert bookings and try to piece together a schedule each year that doesn't look too insane. This is so amazing, Mary. And I know I told you it would be done in under an hour, but I think I'm gonna need a couple hours now

Starting point is 00:11:16 to unpack everything that you just said. I took so many notes as you were talking and what I feel is so inspiring to hear for me and I'm sure for many of the listeners as well is you mentioned throughout this journey facing many buts but I'm too old but how can I make this happen and for all of those you found solutions and you got really creative in figuring out how to really create a career that works for you and that is fulfilling in many ways I love how you talked about going to community college

Starting point is 00:11:56 to carve out time to practice how you then also work full-time selling furniture and how that later on helped with your journey as a musician and when you talk about finding yourself I think that we have to remember that this is a hard thing to do it starts with asking a lot of questions but so many of us maybe at times lack the the courage to find the answers and to go after those answers even when we're facing many obstacles all these butts that you were talking about facing injury facing aging out of competitions which is a whole topic that we could talk about Because why should there be an age limit on competition? Like, why can't there be competitions for older musicians, right?

Starting point is 00:12:50 So anyway, there's so many points in your story that I find are so inspiring for people. And to hear that at any point, one can dream about the type of career that they want and go after it is just so inspiring. I agree. I recently did an interview a few days ago with a reporter who's a non-musician. And he asked me a question that was from a non-musician standpoint of, well, how come there's an age limit for competitions? Why is it, it just seems like younger musicians are getting more help. That was his perspective hearing that. And I thought, you have a point there. Wow.

Starting point is 00:13:34 I mean, I understand the need to be age categories, but why limit, you know? Yeah. You know, there's a couple of questions that I usually ask in the rapid fire questions at the end. But with you, I would love to expand on them a little bit and maybe actually start there. And I'm sure the listeners are really curious as well. There are many people who dream of a career that resemble yours. You've already covered how many hats you're wearing right now. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Like, what does it look like, the life of someone who travels the world to play solo and chamber music, who manages organizations, who teaches, who still plays in orchestra? As we're talking, you just landed. Can you please expand on that a little bit for us? sure well at the moment i have everything set up in different categories and i use um i've been used for myself i've been using an app called trello and so each aspect of my career has its own to-do list like i have solo then i have shenandoah conservatory serif brass and uh and so i have them all separated out and also i have another one that i call cassia because i've been touring with the group Casilla Ensemble. And so I have those different categories that have

Starting point is 00:14:58 a million things to do on each one. And that helps me keep my sanity a little bit. So if something pops in my mind, I can just put it on the list. So it's there and then organize it each day. I don't try to do the entire list, otherwise you end up feeling like a failure. And I try to pick a couple of things from each thing and maybe one day one category needs a little bit more help so that's what I try to do for an administrative side it is a lot and I've been utilizing assistants especially with Sarah Frass I've been working to make the core members work as an equal team and learning how to delegate and also oversee a team that is going to be successful and with for my solo career I have an assistant that's working for me acting as a manager and

Starting point is 00:15:47 publicist as well and and so that that's how I survive at the moment with is it with having a few assistants and as far as practicing I think I always have to remind myself that the music comes first it's easy to wake up in the morning and check the phone and just look at the emails and I catch myself in bed writing emails on my phone the minute that I wake up so I do have to catch myself and make sure that I start my day with quiet and no phone and at least drink my coffee in silence and make sure that trumpet and music is the priority that I'm getting my warm-up in before a certain time that I'm warming up and getting my sound ready for the day and making sure that I schedule that in my calendar because I do have a habit of overworking myself

Starting point is 00:16:43 and doing too much of the admin side of things. And so I've had to recalibrate, especially coming back after COVID, to put the trumpet practicing first. And I always feel so much better about my life. And emails can wait. They can be sent the next day. They're not going anywhere. Everyone's in the same boat right now with being overloaded with COVID too. So I think that's a good thing to remember that we're all feeling overwhelmed and just try to scratch out a little bit of the tasks each day. I love that prioritization of music first. Definitely. And sleep. And I know the broad question of what does your day-to-day look like? I kind of look at it with what does a week look like? Because every week in my life is vastly different. This last week, we did a

Starting point is 00:17:32 Sarah Frass rehearsal week with three concerts. So that was a lot of rehearsal and time with the group. And so some things had to wait to be taken care of till this week. And the week before that was a week of rest because I had a dental surgery. I had to take time off. And so I was getting back into shape for the new year and sleeping 10 hours a night, spending time with my husband and the cats and making sure that I was starting off 2022 not incredibly sleep deprived and the older I get that is I have to remember that I need a lot of I need a lot of sleep and it has to be a priority for me to be able to do all the things that I'm trying to do. It's so important for all of us to hear this because so many of us out there have this habit of burning the candles by both ends

Starting point is 00:18:22 and feeling that we're efficient when we're in fact only busy, not maybe accomplishing much. So this combination of the prioritization, music first, and making sure we're getting plenty of rest. That's so important. Thanks so much for bringing this up. Another thing I'm really curious about is, and I'm sure the listeners as well, what that looks like for you. You're really busy maintaining shape as you're traveling all over the world. But also I'm curious, I'm going to mix in a second question into this is how you take a piece from beginning, first sight reading to performance. What does that look like for you? Sure. I'll start with learning the new piece first, because I just did that for the

Starting point is 00:19:06 Seraph Brass Week. We did our first performances of a new piece that we were part of a consortium for by Kevin Day, which was extremely challenging for the first trumpet part. And I was coming back after two weeks off after a dental surgery so I thought to myself do I get in shape first then play the piece and just study it and I decided to gently start the piece at half tempo on my first day back and I played through it at half tempo and taking as much rest as I needed in between sections and each day I gradually bumped up the metronome and I find you can't really go wrong with this tactic and it's so it the week went really smoothly especially with learning the piece coming back in shape I was a little nervous but I decided to trust that process

Starting point is 00:19:53 and there's also another key component to a lot of my practice and I don't really have a name for this practice thing but I know it's very familiar to violinists there was a famous teacher who developed this practice the name is escaping me right now you probably know and I didn't learn about it until I met my husband and his father taught him these patterns as a kid. You know, if you have, let's say it's the pattern that you're trying to learn is in 16th notes and it's like, you know, going D, you're holding the different notes of each pattern and doing that double-tongued and slurred and doing it as articulated on a page and gradually speeding up those patterns and then doing them, playing them left-handed as well. Um, it's just been a

Starting point is 00:20:48 huge game changer in my practice over the years to learn something much faster than just playing it slow to fast. And that's my favorite, ultimate favorite practice tool. I know a lot of violin teachers going back centuries use that. The one that I'm thinking of, uh, right off the bat is is that the one you're referring to? I think so, yeah. And it's such a great process to make things, right, we want to go from simple to more complicated, but by then making it even more challenging, we anchor the material so much more deeply. I love that you mentioned trust the process as well. One thing I tell students and clients all the time is slow is fast and fast is slow. So when people try to learn something fast, it really slows down the learning process.

Starting point is 00:21:37 But at times it's really hard to trust a process because it feels like things are going so slowly when in fact we're anchoring the proper habits, the right information, and this trust in the process is so crucial. Exactly. And I find myself wanting to skip that last 20% in the tempo and just jump up and thinking like, oh, I have to learn this in three days. And if I skip some steps, it's not as solid. Whereas if I'm committed to going through doing the slow process of just inching it up a little per day, it always pays off. Yeah. Do you find yourself speeding up? You said that you start slowly and then you bump up the metronome each day, or do you take a passage and bump you know work one passage from slow to fast over in one day

Starting point is 00:22:29 it depends on the time i have to learn the piece and how the difficulty of it and for this particular quintet that i learned uh let's see i think i had about seven days practicing it uh so i had i had not a lot of time to learn it so i listened to it a lot and would sing through it first and right away you know where those problem measures are going to be and that's where I do the patterns within those practice those measures and then I do the whole thing at a certain tempo and there might be a measure here and there that's not quite bumping up as fast and so the rest of the piece I might bump up and that particular passage just needs more care each day just to match the end goal the end game tempo so to speak and I think the process is pretty

Starting point is 00:23:18 similar when I have a new concerto as well. And with the iPad, I highlight, I put like star or highlight passages that I want to start with the next day to really build the confidence and the muscle memory. And I think it's really important not to learn fear. When you see something, you're like, oh no, this is not easy. I'm scared of this. Then I have to really commit to doing a mental run-throughs and imagining myself on stage playing that passage easily at least a few reps a day and again with students training them to be patient in this process is so important for them to to improve in the way that they need to and I worked with Don Green a lot over the years a lot of you know a lot of musicians I've worked with him and it was during

Starting point is 00:24:08 a point in my touring where I was saying yes to everything and was starting to feel not as not as confident on stage maybe like five percent less confident and I did not like how that was feeling and there was a feature that I played with Sarah Brass the queen of the night aria on piccolo trumpet and I could play that in my sleep and it was starting to feel not as easy and it was not a pleasant feeling in the concert so I was just like this I don't like where this is going it started to make me feel not confident about performing so I worked with Don one-on-one for a few months and what the first thing he was he's like you have to sleep you're not sleeping and turning off the electronics an hour before bed you know just ingraining some new habits

Starting point is 00:24:56 that really make a huge difference in quality of life and uh and then he was like you're not allowed to play queen of the night aria you can do your piccolo warm-up but you have to my assignment was it was to imagine myself performing the piece each day but I wasn't like allowed to play it for a few weeks since I didn't have it coming up I think I had the next serif tour was in China two months after that I wanted to feel really solid on that because we had two weeks of shows with concerts almost every night in a different city in China and I wanted to feel really confident playing that piece over and over again and not fearful because that would just be such an unpleasant tour and so with doing these mental reps and then playing those measures very

Starting point is 00:25:39 slowly after doing mental reps I was able to you know as we got closer to the rehearsal time I started running little sections but it was more heavily doing the full run-throughs in my mind rather than physically playing it and so by the time I got the rehearsals I the piece was so easy and uh I have to remember this practice step I do that now with Haydn I don't really need to practice the Haydn concerto I just need to listen to it over and over again while I'm running and singing through it singing and conducting and making sure that the musical intent is very strong in my mind because trumpet's an instrument that doesn't feel great a lot of the time and if you're reacting to the feeling like you'll hear a lot of young students say oh my chops are puffy

Starting point is 00:26:22 oh it feels bad today and this and that and you get to a certain point where you're like it doesn't matter who cares how it feels you can still do a great job and make music and oftentimes on bad days a day that feels more stiff or more swollen I just trust that I've put the work in before the show and oftentimes I'll start playing keeping the body relaxed feels stiff if you obsess about that then it overtakes the whole performance yeah if you trust I have a mantra that's like I've done the work I'm prepared it always helps me get through a show and then as I play I forget that it's feeling a certain way and I think I'm just over like okay it feels this way it doesn't matter I don't care yeah you're getting all of my neurons firing right now like I hear you on so many points

Starting point is 00:27:11 I love that you mentioned not learning fear and what we often forget is that it's a conditioning and it's not a small job to undo this conditioning and a lot of people do what I would call stress-induced practicing so when they feel a little bit shaky about a piece they feel that they need to play more and practice more and play it over and over and over again and yes play mock audition of course but you can't skip that mental conditioning that you just mentioned it's so important for people to hear so thank you so much for sharing this that it goes beyond playing the notes with our fingers over and over I mean hence goes you know hence mind over finger and this idea that this mental preparation is a training that is as important and necessary as

Starting point is 00:28:09 the physical practicing yeah and i i tell my students that when you're on stage and you're under pressure and you're feeling nervous which is normal and it has never gone away for me your body is going to do what it's done the most yeah so if i've the students repeated a passage 50 times with the same mistake but had success twice and they go into the performance that what they've done 50 times is probably what's going to happen. And then they're surprised, well, I finally learned it. Why didn't it happen? And if they look back at their practicing or videotape it and watch what their habits are, then they start to realize, oh, I've repeated this too many times with letting myself stop. And so there's always, your body wants to stop at that

Starting point is 00:28:59 part because you've let yourself do it in the practice session so many times. Yeah. Oh, this is so good. Yes. Thank you so much. You've mentioned chamber music. Do you have any advice for the listeners in terms of how to be an amazing colleague and put together a great chamber music performance and show up as the best performer of chamber music they can be? I think it depends on the setting. And I know that universally, whether you go into playing with a section in an orchestra or you're playing in a brass quintet or chamber music with winds or strings versus being a soloist, the preparation is the same. studying the score knowing what's happening around you being able to be flexible and and reacting to the music that's happening around you I think it's it's all the same to me with with the level of preparation that needs to go in now the different types of playing can can change obviously when I'm playing in a symphony orchestra in the back in this section playing second trumpet that is a very different role than playing in the brass quintet or playing a

Starting point is 00:30:16 concerto in front of the orchestra the styles are different the amount of sound is different depending on the repertoire so it's important for trumpeters musicians overall to to be very versatile and be able to know that if you're playing trumpet on a Mozart symphony to not play that like a Bruckner symphony and being able to switch styles and know what's appropriate sound wise is is so important and you know a piece like brandenburg concerto number two uh it's not a trumpet concerto it's a concerto for four instruments and so the trumpet should not bury the entire ensemble um it should be the sparkly glistening sound uh and it should match the oboe more and so i think knowing the role in the chamber group two and the style of the

Starting point is 00:31:05 composer is it's just really crucial and I find that in my years of doing more and more chamber music whether it's at Marlboro where I've been a guest since 2006 here and there when they have trumpet projects that's always one of my favorite parts of the year the musicians are so incredible and just being in the rehearsals and watching the process is so much fun and my goal is always to take away the stereotype of the trumpet is just being too loud and annoying. When I play a recital I love to show the different colors of the trumpet that it can do so many different things rather than just playing in the back of the orchestra and it has just so much possibility. I hear you it comes to having a knowledge that goes beyond just what the fingers are doing. Right yeah and

Starting point is 00:31:52 being able to listen across an ensemble and not just be in your own head especially like when I I play with the brass quintet with Sarah Frass, listening to everybody and passing the ball and knowing when you're the lead line versus a supportive role, being able to change colors of sound and knowing how to balance yourself in a chord, not only with intonation of the notes, but the color of the sound and the volume. It just takes a lot of experience in keeping your ears open. And my advice to students is if you don't know, if you don't have a perception of how you sound. And I remember that when I first played the piano, when I was 16, it just felt so foreign and strange. And I think the best way to learn is to get a coach in that situation, record everything. There's no excuse in this day and age to not record rehearsals.

Starting point is 00:32:42 I record everything just in case I want to listen back. I often in the past have felt that everything I performed wasn't good enough, whatever that means and or just was it just if I if it didn't feel great it was a disaster and I had a terrible concert right and so I had this terrible self-view of my performances even though I love performing strangely enough and I started recording myself all of the time because I would get this feedback you sounded great what is what's the issue this is early in my solo career when I was still building confidence and finding my identity as a soloist and uh and I started listening back and I'd wait a few days and I would listen back to the performance or rehearsal

Starting point is 00:33:25 and that's, it was totally, it was fine. It's never going to be perfect, but it's, I'm prepared. It's going to, it's going to be okay. And so letting go of the ego when performing is, is always the goal. It always, it'll try to sneak back in. And I think just remembering to go for it. Like if you, something happens on a phrase and you crack a note, it's very obvious on the trumpets.

Starting point is 00:33:52 it's not the end of the world. Just take a breath and go for the next phrase. And nobody really minds the imperfection, in my opinion. I'd rather that than have a flat, boring performance that's not perfect and careful. What you just said is so important. It makes me think so much about the work that I do as a coach with musicians. When you're talking about, you know, you have this very terrible self-view, it really always comes down to our thoughts and how all of the drama lives in our thoughts. And when we can start to get some leverage on the thoughts that we're thinking and then choosing to keep thinking, so much can change in our life. And I want to bring us back just a second before I jump to the rapid-fire question to what you mentioned earlier

Starting point is 00:34:41 about really facing the fact that what you wanted was a solo career, going to BEMF, working with someone who asked you, what is it that you want? And then you really having this, this courage to ask those questions and answer them and figure out how to go about it. I'm sure throughout this journey, you've had many moments of self-doubt and, you know, you're talking about this ego that just spews these thoughts at us like it's too late you can't do this it's too hard nobody's done that before people feel like once we have an idea determination feels like we never experience doubt and fear but it's quite the opposite i unless i'm wrong unless that's just me but so what did that look like for you when and i'm not saying that they did but when those you know type

Starting point is 00:35:34 of thoughts and or when doubt showed up how what did that look like for you it shows up every day uh I think it's it's natural and I think I let so I let myself feel a little bummed for like five minutes and then I make myself take action on something and you know I'm coming up on my I didn't really want to advertise this but why not I'm coming up on my 40th birthday in two weeks and that's like a huge year and I think to myself oh I want to be a big name trumpet soloist and I am but it's you know see I'm saying the word but again I'm catching that those patterns yeah and I asked myself is it possible for a woman who's turning 40 to keep having big breakthroughs in a trumpet soloist type career and my answer is yes and I just signed with Sadie Records

Starting point is 00:36:27 in Chicago and we're making a new album of all new commissions that I've spearheaded and so I think I'm going to keep doing it and doing it my way bringing new commissions and finding new opportunities and new orchestras to solo with and keep pushing and it's not an it's not an easy path I feel like I have to definitely like I have my assistants working for me and it's a constant administrative load to do but it's worth it when it pays off when you're on stage and the works are coming to life uh my recent project the um concerto written by Vivian Fung was a massive project that we started in 2018 was when the idea was born and we got eight orchestras to join to pay for the work she created an amazing piece and now we're performing

Starting point is 00:37:15 I'm performing them with the orchestras that signed up throughout the next couple of years and then now I have more projects in the work Teresa Saad's going to write a trumpet concerto next that I'll premiere next season and so I have to remind myself to take a step back and be like this doesn't look like a trumpet soloist career who's in their 20s where labels are giving them things and they're getting tons of opportunities that's wonderful I have to remind myself to be really proud that I put this together and all of this is like fueled by the passion that I have for music and my love for travel and having variety in my life and that it looks different than other peoples but that's okay we all have our own path and I hope that the 40s bring more concerts and

Starting point is 00:37:58 travel and new opportunities and who knows what lies in the next decade or so I think that a good reminder for everybody is that you never know what the future holds and so if you put a label on yourself that could be limited you never know what the next 10 years hold I know maybe I'll go back into more orchestral playing I never thought that I would be a trumpet professor when I was 20 years old, I was like, there's no way I'm ever teaching. And now it's a huge part of my life. And I love it. I love my students and I love sharing knowledge. It helps me become a better musician in person. And my husband teaches and it's just, I just realized that there's just so many ways forward that maybe I don't even see yet that I'll discover in a few years.

Starting point is 00:38:41 Yeah. And you're paving the way for so many people. And I hope that people listening to this interview, really hear the message that you gave us today, because next time they're there to dream something and they hear this but in their head, that they can remember that that's just a thought that's popping in their head. And if doubt shows up or insecurity, it doesn't mean that something's wrong. They're probably doing it right because that's part of the journey. Thank you so much for sharing all of this. Thank you. How about a round of rapid fire question? And now I have to left because they're never rapid. I'll try to not linger too much. What's a habit that you have that you think contributed to your success? I think the word I'm looking for is

Starting point is 00:39:25 relentlessness. That I don't ever give up. I don't know what quality that's exactly called in my head at the moment, but no matter how bad I might feel in a day, like this is hopeless. I don't know if I'm going to be a big name soloist. When I've had those thoughts over the years, it just makes me work even harder to to get the things that I want to get in my life and so I think it's just a stubbornness and a perseverance that is I think I get from from my parents for sure vision driven yes I love that what skills do you think young musicians studying today should acquire in addition to learning to play their instruments and you've already mentioned several I think it wouldn't hurt to take some business classes. I wish that I had taken business classes. And expanding some skills outside of music that are maybe naturally already in your life and seeing how they can tie in together. Because with our careers, we don't have to just be a performing musician.

Starting point is 00:40:33 As you can see with being a soloist, there's, you have to do a lot of your own administrative work and organization. And I've talked to a lot of trumpet soloists. There's a lucky few who don't have to really do that much, but that is a very small number of people. I think most soloists are still doing a lot of their own outreach and administrative work, no matter how much, how big their team is. yeah so I think getting those skills any any way they can like a side job or business classes art administration would be just a game changer in someone's career if they want to if you're interested in creating something of your own even if you have an orchestra position you might want to make an album or have a little side project that does a couple tours a year great advice how about a favorite tool in the practice room so my favorite tool no longer exists and I'm trying to find the replica for it it was an app called road wreck which you can listen back at half speed and i really liked the quality of the sound it would drop it an octave and you could hear

Starting point is 00:41:33 everything super clear and also with the metronome too and i used the app all of the time and now i use i've been trying to find uh a version of slowing things down that i like so i'm still searching for a replacement for my my favorite app i have some really good luck with this with modacity that can play it, you know, slower or faster. And what I like about modacity is that once you play it back, you can save it if you'd like, but if you hit the record button, it leads automatically what you just recorded and goes on to the next thing, which I find is a huge time saver versus using some recording app on the phone where you have to, you know, get in and out all the time. So for me, Modacity has been a great help in this department.

Starting point is 00:42:21 Cool. I'll check it out. Finally, how about a quick actionable tip that the listeners could implement today in their musical lives? Remembering that we love music and maybe listening to something that you love each day. I know I have to remind myself to do that. A lot of times when I drive, I listen to silence or podcasts. And recently I've been turning on some music finally and just remembering why we do what we do. And so I think just a daily gratitude journal and writing down the things that you're thankful for in regards to why we do what we do. And especially after these tough times with things

Starting point is 00:42:58 getting canceled with COVID and it's still happening, still feels like a weird time. So I think that like, yeah, just reminding each other that we're all in this together. That's a great tip. Mary, what's coming up for you in the next few months and where can people go to find all of this information sure well i recently have a new website which is exciting maryelizabethbowden.com has my future concerts this month i'll be in uh santa fe this week playing a couple of concertos and then i'm headed to turkey in the beginning of february if all goes okay with the traveling uh i'm also active on instagram marytrpt and where i've started 100 Days of Practice again, my second edition. And you can also find me on my Facebook

Starting point is 00:43:43 fan page and YouTube. And I love your Instagram account because it's where in the world is Mary this week. Thank you. And I'm not regretting starting 100 Days of Practice. It's good for me because I want to show more behind the scenes and not just perfect practice clips, but just how I address certain things when I'm on tour. Mary, you're such a vibrant and genuine artist. And the wisdom that you shared with us today will stay with so many of us. I know it will stay with me. And I thank you so much for this gift of your time and for this well of inspiration you

Starting point is 00:44:24 give us access to today. Thank you so much. Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Mary Elizabeth Bowden. Take the time to visit her website and check out her Instagram account to take in all the great content she shares. I have all of those links for you in the show notes. And in the show notes, you'll also find the link to sign up for the Joyful Practice Challenge 2022 coming up soon. I'm so excited to bring this back to you once again.

Starting point is 00:45:03 From March 7 to 18, we're going to come together and have a blast reclaiming our creative power and find even more joy and meaning in our music making. Every weekday, you're going to get the secrets of the Mind Over Finger podcast guests to help you infuse your practice with more mindfulness, more joy, and more efficiency. You're going to hear from Mary, of course, and also from Rachel Barton Pine, Mimi Zweig, Brian Lewis, Lori Niles, Vijay Gupta, Kim Kashkashian, Tom Hooten, Elizabeth Rowe, Jennifer Montone, and Ralph Schiano. It's going to be an amazing 10 days with joyful practice tips, accountability, support, and

Starting point is 00:45:50 some great prizes. I can't wait to experience this joyful practice challenge with you. As I said, the link is in the show notes, or you can visit mindoverfinger.com to sign up to receive all the information, access links, and the worksheets. So I will see you March 7th. Don't forget to share today's episode with everyone you think might benefit from this insight. Also pop up on Instagram and tag Mary and I so we can say hi.

Starting point is 00:46:19 She's Mary TRPT, and I'm Mind Over Finger. So that's what I have for you today. Be well, my friends. Once again, thank you so much for listening, and à bientôt.

The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 121 Mary Elizabeth Bowden: A Driving Force

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