Last weekend, while I was in Chicago for the Quintet’s performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art, I received an email from the Argentine trumpeter and composer Leonel Kaplan about an art installation for which he contributed music. It’s called Wake Up, created by Allora and Calzadilla at The Renaissence Society at the University of Chicago. Mike and Alison and I got a chance to visit and enjoyed it very much. Tomorrow is the last day it will be up, so run over if you can.

The installation includes sound pieces by solo trumpeters Jaimie Branch, Stephen Burns, Dennis Gonzalez, Franz Hautzinger, Ingrid Jensen, Leonel Kaplan, Mazen Kerbaj, Paul Smoker, Natuski Tamura, and Birgit Uhler. Each piece is unique and the timbral range is astounding. I am constantly inspired by the range of new work being created for the trumpet. (BTW, the Festival of New Trumpet Music will run from September 15 – 30 in New York this year, and will include performances by Wadada Leo Smith, Eddie Henderson, Taylor Ho Bynum, Forbes Graham, Jason Palmer, and many others. The U.S. premiere of my piece Blue Latitudes will also be presented.).

There is a great quote in the literature accompanying this exhibition. “…it becomes clear that the trumpet, if not the most sophisticated, is easily the most exquisite piece of plumbing outside the human respiratory and gastrointestinal systems.”

See and hear it if you can.