Could you tell us a bit about the Ronald Romm Trumpet Academy?
It is an online platform for video courses for all things trumpet-related. There is, of course, no substitute for in-person study, but these are odd times, and these are the times we’ve been given, so we must figure out a way to exceed the demands of the environment. Our environment has led us to create the Romm Trumpet Academy. At its core, it is the opportunity to engage with me and to gain whatever I can impart from the ten thousand or so concerts that I’ve made. The first launch point was Ronnie Romm’s Fundamentals Mania, and Aaron can fill in all the gaps, but basically, it’s a fundamentals mania.
So far, it is in English and Portuguese and is being translated into Spanish. It should be in Spanish in late spring, early Summer. Soon, everyone in Spain and South America will be able to access the information, sign up and work on things. In addition, there is a Facebook page group where we can all interact and write to each other, discussing challenges and the way things are going, and introduce ourselves. Playing the trumpet is a big club!
I am an ITG Honorary Award Recipient for 2012, and so people might be interested in what brings us to the point where we could be an award recipient of one kind or another. This may be of interest as well. We have a couple of other courses that we are developing that I don’t want to talk too much about just yet, but the academy is going to expand. We have other ideas in the works that might be trumpet-related or more than trumpet-related! Right now, we are doing one on scales. We have a special little mini free course that we are about to distribute as well, which may be of interest to you.
Do you have any upcoming projects?
Yes, a couple — Jim Thompson connected me with a new project being done by Julio Briseño Chávez — he is doing the Ensembles of Americas, and we are going to record on video. So we will be doing several works related to that.
One of the things I didn’t talk about was that I got a chance to do the Ronnie Romm trumpet solo and conduct with the brass and percussion of the Teatro Regio Torino in Italy a few years ago. It was a wonderful set of rehearsals and shows, and it was really fun. I was talking about launching that as another future project if someone wanted to hire Ronnie Romm to conduct a brass ensemble — I have all the music, and it’s all self-contained. I can conduct, play solos; it all works. It could be in Italy or anywhere in the world. This is just an opportunity that was launched in Italy at the time, but I have all the equipment and the music, so I can definitely do it.