'Tips from the Top' - Interview with Amy Bliss

'Tips from the Top' makes a return with an exclusive interview with Dr Amy Bliss from The United States of America. Amy has built a career with combines her passion for performing and teaching. Amy currently teaches the euphonium at Rowan University and plays Solo Euphonium with The Atlantic Brass Band.

1.     When did you start to play the euphonium?

I started playing cornet when I was in the fifth grade. In my school’s program, students started on cornet and when they had a good enough sound around seventh grade, they were switched to trumpet. I was interested in playing trumpet because my grandfather had played trumpet in The Ohio State Marching Band for two years before being called back to the farm for the war effort. My father and my uncles all played trumpet as well, and so I wanted to carry on the tradition.

I was switched to euphonium in the seventh grade because I was second chair in the studio and showed an affinity for low notes. Second and third chair are usually the most popular people to switch to other instruments because it keeps the overall level of the band pretty consistent. My band director gave me an awful instrument that looked like it’d fall apart if I sneezed near it so that I could practice over the summer. I came in at the beginning of the next year to tell him I wanted to quit. He told me that if I quit, he’d have no one to play the brand-new euphonium he had bought me. Needless to say, I kept playing.

2.     What has been your most interesting/unusual concert performance?

…more like uninteresting! I played a piece in undergrad called The Seven Last Words of Christ where I literally played a C the whole time. There were several rehearsals for it and I just remember wondering why I needed to be there. It was a pretty nice warm up, though!

3.     What skills/personal attributes are most important to being a successful euphonium player?  What advice would you offer to aspiring euphonium/baritone players?

Creativity, ingenuity, and perseverance. There are very few euphonium positions out there, and the chances that a euphonium player will be able to audition for a job, get it, and be set for their career are very, very slim. That doesn’t mean that you can’t be a professional musician on euphonium. It just means that you have to create your own job because you can’t count on someone else doing it for you. This is increasingly the case for most instruments. I don’t know of any musicians who only make their entire living performing. Being a musician on any instrument, euphonium included, will likely mean doing a variety of jobs. In the beginning, all of those jobs may not be in music. That doesn’t mean failure, it just means you’re doing what you need to do so you can get to where you want to be.  I cleaned fish tanks part-time while saving up to go back for my doctorate.

There were times that I was up to my elbows in fish gunk and I just kept repeating to myself that this meant I could go back to school. I bet if you ask other musicians, they’ll have similar experiences. Now that I’m making my career entirely in music, I still don’t make my whole living playing euphonium. I teach euphonium at Rowan University, conduct the university brass band with Dr. Bryan Appleby-Wineberg, work with Rowan Community Music School’s youth brass band, teach euphonium to community members, teach at clinics, workshops, and music camps, teach music appreciation and occasionally music theory, and play solo euphonium in Atlantic Brass Band and Liberty Wind Ensemble. I’m sure there are some projects and responsibilities that I’m missing there, but that’s the bulk of them. This fall, I’ll be finishing up a children’s book and have a CD out. All of these things combine to make a career in music. That’s why I’ve call it being a musician on euphonium and not being a euphonium player. Playing euphonium is only part of the equation toward a career in music.

What advice would you offer to aspiring euphonium/baritone players?

Listen to lots of different musicians. Don’t limit yourself just to your own instrument because you can learn great musicianship from any great musician. I would especially recommend listening to great vocalists.

4.     What are your favourite euphonium solos?

My favorite is a solo called, “My Mountain Top” by Andy Scott and Lemn Sissay. A student in the baritone/euphonium studio at the RNCM was working on the piece while I was studying there, so I heard it several times. While I was at the RNCM, I had undiagnosed Celiac disease that kept getting worse and worse until I was eventually hospitalized. I had no clue what was going on at the time, but I knew that everyday things were getting harder as the year went on. I also knew that I was living my dream of going to the RNCM and that I had to keep pushing through to do my best. The poem that Lemn Sissay wrote for the piece is about encountering challenges and continuing through them to reach his mountain top. I used that idea to push myself forward through that time. Thankfully, I was diagnosed pretty quickly and have my Celiac disease completely under control now. That’s still my favorite piece, though.

5.     You studied at the Royal Northern College of Music under Steven Mead could you tell me a little about the differences and similarities of playing the euphonium in the U.K. and U.S.A.?

Growing up in the US, I thought the only large ensemble for euphonium was wind ensemble. I hadn’t seen any wind ensembles past the university level and knew that orchestras usually hire trombone players to play euphonium parts, so I had no clue what I could play in after college other than a community band. As a high schooler, I just figured euphonium must be a dead end. I knew of three brass bands (Besses o’th’ Barn, Black Dyke, and Grimethorpe), but I had never really heard them besides a few tracks that my friend burned onto a CD for me. I knew nothing of the brass band movement until I went to the UK. I just knew that successful euphonium players were coming out of North Texas and the Royal Northern College of Music, so I needed to go there as well. Oddly enough, the first time I played in a brass band was when I subbed on second euphonium with Black Dyke. What a wake up call!

I think many of the differences between learning euphonium in the US versus in the UK are brought out by the brass band movement. These seem to be:

1.            More lifelong learning in the UK. There aren’t as many opportunities to keep playing after high school or college in the US. Almost all of the euphonium players in high school bands stop playing after they graduate and many band directors don’t play even as they lead their own middle school or high school bands. Hopefully, with the growing brass band movement in the US there will be more opportunities for lifelong playing.

2.            Higher technical ability and sight-reading ability in the UK. Presumably because the euphonium parts in brass band music are so much more technical than wind ensemble parts, I found that the level of technical ability and sight-reading ability was higher among UK students.

3.            Higher acceptance and knowledge of the instrument in the UK. When I was in the US, I was required to learn to play trombone as a condition for me adding my euphonium performance major to my music ed major in undergrad. When I moved to the UK, I was told that I should stop taking lessons on trombone and focus on euphonium. It was such a shock to go from seeing euphonium as primarily a doubler’s instrument to one of the stars of the brass band. Even band directors in the US get baritone and euphonium mixed up and students frequently audition for college thinking that they’ve been playing baritone this whole time!

At Rowan University, Dr. Bryan Appleby-Wineberg and I have been working to incorporate some of the benefits to learning that we saw coming from the brass band movement in the UK. The brass band is now starting its third year and I’ve seen an improvement in my students’ sight-reading and technical playing ability. As they graduate, some want to continue playing in a brass band, so I wouldn’t be surprised if in another few years, we saw another brass band start up in the area, which would bring more lifelong learning to the community as well.

6.     Tell me about your personal practice schedule/routine?

I have a two year-old. I practice when I can!

My practice routine has fluctuated with time and my own needs. Just briefly: When I was in undergrad, I practiced about two hours a day and frequently doubled up on Saturday or Sunday so that I could take a weekend day off.

When I was in grad school at the RNCM, I warmed up for an hour in the morning, ate breakfast, practiced two more hours, then got in a final two hours after brass band rehearsal at night.

When I was a doctoral student at Rutgers, I was teaching a full course load between two schools, was a ¾ student, and had over an hour commute to Rutgers, so time was tight. I practiced between lessons at Rowan, after brass band rehearsal at night, and between my classes at Rutgers. There was a bunch of short sessions and just getting what I could done in the time I had.

Now that I have a son, over the summer, I hire an 8th grader to come over as a mother’s helper twice a week for two hours each. I stay after brass band to practice, and try to get some time in after my husband gets home and before my son goes to sleep. During the school year, I can practice between student lessons, schedule in some extra time to practice during the day, and stay after brass band rehearsals.

My recommendation is to try to establish a good practice routine when you’re in school because practicing only gets more difficult as life goes on. If you learn to become efficient when you’re still in school, it’ll carry you through the times when you cant afford as much practice time as you’d like, like when you have a two year-old!

7.     Who would you say is the one euphonium player who has influenced you the most? Why?

I’ve had so many wonderful euphonium teachers and mentors that have influenced me. John Olson was my first euphonium teacher and he gave me extra opportunities to play in the community college while still in high school. Dr. Tom Zugger gave me a great foundation and forced me to sight-read a bunch because I was completely awful at it! Dave Thornton taught me to dissect the piece, really learn each component, and strive for perfection. Dr. Steve Allen taught me to think about music in the context in which it was created and to believe in my own abilities.

I grew up listening to Dr. Bowman and in high school, got as many of his CDs as I could. I think my high school band director was sick of me talking about him because I remember him saying, “you know, there are other euphonium players out there. Why don’t you listen to Steven Mead?” So I did!

Steve Mead has had the biggest influence on me. I believe my life would have been entirely different (still wonderful, just different) if I hadn’t been accepted to study with him. I’m trying to come up with a succinct way of describing how much he influenced me and my playing, but I’m failing at summarizing it. He molded me into the player I am today and continually inspires me to keep working hard. I remember when he accepted me, he asked me what I wanted to do. I told him I was going to teach euphonium at the college level. He told me that none of his past female students had done that yet, and that it bothered him, so hopefully I would do it. I’m proud that I get to be the one to tick that box.

8.     What are your future plans and ambitions?

In the immediate future, record a CD at the end of this month and finish my children’s introduction to the brass band project (book and educational website). The book and CD should be available by late fall or early winter, and I’ll start work on the website then. This fall, I’ll be heading to the UK with Atlantic to compete in Brass in Concert and the Scottish Open as well as play in several concerts. I’m working on getting some other projects scheduled while I spend some extra time there after the tour. In the more distant future? Who knows. Each year, I’m asked to do more work and more projects, so I’m riding that and see where it leads me!

Thank you Amy for taking the time to chat with me and The Young Brass Musician Blog today, It has been absolutely fascinating to discuss your experiences playing the Euphonium in the U.S.A. and U.K. over the course of the past few years. I look forward to catching up with you soon.