On the evening of February 4, at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, trumpeter Zhu Deen stood in the much-anticipated National Stadium and blew a song "My Motherland and Me", and the crisp and melodious trumpet sounded all over the world, and 9-year-old Zhu Deen quickly became the focus of the media.
People praised the outstanding performance of this calm teenager, and what is less known is that the growth of Judeen is the common pursuit of three generations. Zhu Deen comes from a musical family, his father is a trumpet player and a trumpet professional professor at the Central Conservatory of Music, his grandfather Zhu Yaozhou is the first generation of trumpet players in New China, and his grandmother Shang Chengsong is the piano art director of the Orchestra Department of the Central Conservatory of Music and a special accompaniment teacher in Lin Yaoji's class. The story of three generations of trumpet dreamers is also a microcosm of the development of Chinese brass music.
Judean
The forged path of the Child Star of the Winter Olympics
In 2020, Judeen started his first trumpet lesson when he was 8 years old, using the world's classic American Baja's 19037 – a brand that Chinese trumpet players dreamed of in the 1950s. Judeen's enlightenment teacher was his father, Zhu Guang.
One day a year later, Zhu Guang received a call from a colleague at the school asking him to recommend a young player for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. Zhu Guang first recommended 13-year-old Liang Tong, who asked, are there any younger students? "No matter how small it is, it is my son, can it be done?" He's just starting to learn. The other party did not refuse, and suggested that it might as well try it. In November 2021, Zhu Guang submitted an application video for his son, and after layers of selection, Zhu Deen was finally selected, in addition to Liang Tong and Liu Haoran, who were selected as candidates for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games. Judean said, "I'm going to cheer up and blow and let the trumpet reach every corner of the world." ”
Just over a year later, Judeen was selected as one of the three young players to be selected for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. Naturally, there are reasons for his talent and ear-catching family learning, but this is inseparable from his solid basic skills. Zhu Guang attaches great importance to the cultivation of basic skills in the teaching of his son, and the early stage of the student number is basically to practice the basic long tone, legato and spitting exercises in the French Alban's "Trumpet-Brace Tutorial", and not to touch the music too early. "In fact, the selection time is very tight, En'en has been learning trumpet for less than two years, and it is only three hours from the time the candidate recording is submitted to the recording and uploading, which is the usual solid and good basic skills training that allows him to cope calmly."
Juddern and Zhu Guang perform Potaski's Hymn
For the performance of the repertoire "My Motherland and Me", Zhu Guang analyzed that although it is a well-known song, in fact, just like the trumpet solo of the introduction of our "National Anthem of the People's Republic of China", there are certain requirements for the skills and psychological quality of the players. One of the difficulties is that a cappella performance is prone to pitch problems. The music begins with trumpet solos, which is a big test of pitch. The singing required for the song to play on the instrumental music is another layer of difficulty for the control of the breath, and if you are not careful, the melody high point after the second ventilation of the melody will "bubble". Judean's performance is of a high standard in these details.
Playing at the Winter Olympics is actually a "ceremonial performance", which is different from ordinary stage performance. Zhu Deen's grandfather, Zhu Yaozhou, was the director of the teaching and research office of the Platon Army Military Band, a model of Chinese ceremonial music performance. For the instrument of ritual performance, Zhu Guang also has some special training: "Ritual performance is different from daily performance, and the posture must be more upright. I asked Juddell to raise his arm from 60 to 70 degrees to 91 to 92 degrees on a daily basis during the exercise, and his eyes left the trumpet of the trumpet and look into the distance. In order to correct Judean's trumpet-blowing posture, I also 'added weight' to his trumpet, put a sheet on the shelf under his arm, and told him that his arm should not touch the sheet. He also hung a water bottle on his instrument and continued to add water to the bottle according to the progress of the training to increase arm strength. In addition, I also asked to strengthen the child's physical exercise, so that he can participate in a series of sports such as jump rope and push-up to train breath and arm strength. In terms of playing feelings, we must think of using this song to tell the story of the motherland to friends from afar, and we will also educate the child in patriotism and inspire the rich feelings he plays. In order to ensure that the performance is foolproof, I also asked my friends to find a special antifreeze oil to apply to En'en's trumpet in advance. Friends sent several kinds of oil, each of which I tried on my own, and put the instrument in the sub-zero outdoors to test and find the best one. ”
On the other hand, the authenticity of the performance is an important point. A friend sent a WeChat message to Zhu Guang: "Is this really En'en blowing, is it a recording recorded by a professional performer?" Listening carefully, Judean's performance was not perfect. He himself admitted that there were several places where the pitch was not well controlled. The most important thing is that the pronunciation can be heard as soon as the student's performance, although the words are careful, but some of the sound areas will not be very full because of muscle function and skill. If you ask a professional performer to record, although you can imitate the timbre and clarity, you can show your skill, but the unique pronunciation caused by muscle function is difficult to learn well. In such a ritual, authenticity is important. As Zhang Yimou said, "Imperfect, but straight to the heart, is the most important." ”
Zhu Deen has a wide range of interests, before learning trumpet, he began to learn piano with his grandmother Shang Chengsong at the age of four, and he was also very interested in brass instruments such as horn and trombone. Speaking of the practice plan after that, Judean took out the wind band trumpet score of "Dance of Youth" and "Rose Carnival", which was the repertoire of his ensemble practice at the beginning of the school. For the road ahead, En'en's mother, Zhang Yanan, said, "He should go down the path of trumpet and pass on the career of grandpa and dad, but if there are other possibilities, we will also go with the flow." ”
Zhu Guang
Pass on the good traditions
Zhu Guang and father Zhu Yaozhou (photo in 1982)
On July 10, 1982, Zhu Guang began his first trumpet lesson in the office of his father of the General Political And Military Band. The instrument was the Tianjin Parrot brand, model 708, when he was 10 years old.
Zhu Guang was born into a musical family, his father Zhu Yaozhou was the first trumpet player and educator in New China, and his mother, Shang Chengsong, was a professor of art direction in the Orchestra Department of the Central Conservatory of Music. Zhu Guang began to study piano with his mother at the age of 5, preparing to take the piano major of the Central Conservatory of Music, and in the year of Zhu Guang's examination, the school reduced the enrollment quota due to limited resources and promised Zhu Guang to enroll in the second year. It was in the gap of this year that Zhu Guang followed his father to work every day, often went to the office of the military orchestra player to visit the door, coupled with the ear from childhood, he came and went to develop an interest in wind music and even trumpet. Near the water tower, Zhu Guang began his trumpet learning path in this way.
"My playing career has revolved around learning and passing on. My father was 48 when I gave my first trumpet lesson, and I was 48 when I gave my son his first lesson. Many of my current teaching concepts are passed down from my father. Zhu Guang recalled, "I was learning trumpet at that time, and I basically didn't touch the trumpet in the first month, I was practicing trumpet blowing, and only occasionally playing an instrument when experimenting with timbre." When you first start playing, you practice long notes, and you need to play each tone for 20 seconds. For the basic skills and the maintenance of long tones, I will now ask students this way, but I will put forward more requirements in timbre and pitch. ”
In 1984, at the age of 12, Zhu Guang was admitted to the Affiliated Middle School of the Central Conservatory of Music, where he successively studied under his father Zhu Yaozhou, Ji Ruijiao, and Professor Berlin, and then successfully entered the Central Conservatory of Music. In 1999, Zhu Guang went to Finland to study for a master's degree in trumpet at the Sibelius Conservatory of Music. And Zhu Guang's seed of European yearning for the birthplace of classical music was buried at a very young age. When Zhu Guang was in the middle school attached to the Conservatory of Music, he accompanied the China Junior Symphony Orchestra on a trip to many european countries, "At that time, it was basically one stop a day. I was very impressed by the culture and music of the European countries. ”
In Europe, Zhu Guang turned to many teachers and learned from the heads of the families. Zhu Guang's main teacher is Professor Simo Rantanen of the Sibelius Conservatory of Music, and he also studies with teachers from major Finnish orchestras. When he was in Finland, he went to Sweden every month to study with the Swedish trumpet educator Bo Nilson, and the master took Zhu Guang to practice basic exercises and orchestra fragments for a long time each time, which also made Zhu Guang develop the habit of playing with his students in the future. The habit of changing to multiple teachers also led Zhu Guang to encourage his students to seek advice from experts of different styles.
In 2001, Zhu Guang was admitted to the work of concertmaster of the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra in Finland. Become one of the very few overseas Chinese trumpet chiefs. Coincidentally, after Zhu Guang returned to his alma mater, the Central Conservatory of Music, to teach, his student Guo Xiang also studied in Finland and obtained the position of life trumpet player at the Finnish National Opera, becoming the leader of Chinese trumpet players. Guo Xiang believes that it was the teacher who laid a solid foundation for him - he did not even touch the large repertoire before he went to the third year of junior high school at the Conservatory of Music, which was mainly based on basic skills practice. This also gave him a stable performance ability in later competitions and sight performances.
Zhu Yaozhou
The "first" of the new Chinese trumpet cause
Zhu Deen and grandpa Zhu Yaozhou took a group photo
Unlike the previous two system professional trumpet learning, Zhu Yaozhou's trumpet playing began with his military career, and his first instrument was a trumpet from Hankou, which was of extremely poor quality and could not be blown without water.
"When it comes to military bands, we always have preconceived notions that the playing style is all Russian, and my father's playing style should be the old East German style to be exact." Zhu Guang introduced that Zhu Yaozhou successively studied under Huang Yijun, conductor and trumpet player of the Shanghai Ministry of Works Bureau Orchestra, and Professor Kolaček of the Dresden Conservatory of Music in East Germany.
In 1957, Zhu Yaozhou participated in the Moscow International Youth Art Festival
In 1955, Zhu Yaozhou graduated with honors from the expert class of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and became a soloist of the People's Liberation Army Military Band. He has performed the trumpet solo "Red Army Liberation of Nangou Fork", "Lyric Poem", "Good News", "A Page in the Commemorative Album", "Wild Bee Flying" and Haydn's "Trumpet Concerto". He was the first musician on the mainland to perform a trumpet solo at a concert. In the 1960s, at the great hall of the people to welcome foreign guests, he often led the performance of the trumpet trio "Guerrilla Song". He was also the first Chinese player to play and record Haydn's Trumpet Concerto, known as the trumpet bible, and the first trumpet player to participate in an international competition (the Sixth World Youth Festival in Moscow in 1957). In 1963, he began to engage in full-time teaching, and trained a large number of trumpet players for both inside and outside the military.
Talking about how Chinese trumpet playing promoted creation, Zhu Yaozhou recalled, "More than sixty years ago, my teacher Professor Koolaček came to China to give a lecture, and as a young player of the People's Liberation Army Military Orchestra, I learned haydn, Buum, AruQiunian and other trumpet concertos under his guidance, which was not easy at that time. I performed in concerts, and the sometimes high-pitched, sometimes feminine trumpet playing surprised many expert professors at the time: the trumpet could also play such beautiful music independently! So the composer Ding Shande specially created China's first trumpet decotheque "Xinjiang Dance Music" for the trumpet. Composer Mei Bin used a variational technique to write China's first trumpet solo song for trumpets with the theme of the northern Shaanxi folk song "One Pole Red Flag", "The Red Army Liberates Nangou Fork", and I have had the honor of being a soloist in important performances inside and outside the army many times. But in the performance, in the service of the soldiers, in the service of the people, the soldiers and the common people often can not fully accept, you play on the stage, he doze off the stage, and later in order to let the ordinary audience understand the trumpet, the composer and our performers together with the common people's favorite tune to arrange a number of trumpet solo pieces, such as the trumpet trio "Guerrilla Song", trumpet solo "Inner Mongolian Folk Song" and so on are created under this premise. ”
Speaking of Chinese's cognition of the trumpet, Zhu Guang believes, "Now our living conditions are better, witnessing the process of En'en starting to learn the number at the age of 10, looking back at me when I was 10 years old, and then thinking about the conditions of my father's school number." The instruments in our hands have changed, the manufacture has become more sophisticated, and our perception of trumpets and brass instruments has gradually changed. Looking back at our impressions of trumpets Chinese, we initially thought it was just a military trumpet, which could play high-pitched and exciting tones. Slowly, we also found that the trumpet can play a very soft melody. I think that's why we now choose to play a song with a trumpet. It is believed that after the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, more students will learn trumpet, and people's understanding of trumpet will gradually become richer and more comprehensive. ”