Wesley Nance

Wesley Nance

Instrument: Trumpet

With the RPO since: 1986

My earliest musical memory is playing a kids’ record player in my bedroom when I was two years old.

I knew I would make music my career when I was in high school. My trumpet teacher would take me out to play gigs with her, and I was working with some of the best players in Southern California. It was so much fun! I've actually never held down a normal 9 to 5 job. I've always been employed playing the trumpet.

Most influential teachers: Donovan Gray (my band director and very fine trumpeter who started me - much credit goes to him), Joan LaRue (one of the finest teachers in the LA area), RobRoy McGregor (2nd trumpet in LA, and the teacher that set a new bar for me and prepared me for college auditions), Barbara Butler (ESM undergrad- a wonderful teacher who pushed very hard, she prepared me for my first RPO audition, which I won at age 17) and Charles Geyer (ESM masters - listening to Charlie play is a lesson in itself - what a beautiful sound)

Favorite composer and/or musical period: J.S. Bach - some of the greatest and most challenging trumpet writing in the entire repertoire. I love the complexity of the music and his devotion to God in everything that he wrote.

What do you most enjoy about performing? I really enjoy the collaboration with the other players in my section and the other sections, many of which are close friends, to try to bring all of the separate and independent parts together into one cohesive sound. The challenge is for us to all work and blend together with a common goal while still maintaining our musical identities and individual ideas (to a certain extent) while simultaneously collaborating with the conductor. This is incredibly difficult, but wonderfully rewarding when everything pulls together.

What is your favorite part of being a member of the RPO? Going to work every day with my lovely wife Shannon, an RPO violinist. I also really appreciate the way the orchestra is run, and the amount of support/cooperation given to families. The fact that my principal trumpet, Doug Prosser is one of my best friends doesn't hurt, either.

When I'm not onstage, you might find me playing trumpet at church (Bethel Christian Fellowship), playing with my three (soon to be four) kids in the new house, or tinkering with my modest home theater in the new basement.

I love to dine at Rooney's. Great service with wonderful food. It’s hard to beat anywhere, even in Vail!

My favorite thing about Rochester is short commutes. Growing up in LA, going anywhere took an hour. I like the fact that my commute to work is less than 15 minutes. I've also become a big fan of the seasons (except for winter). Fall here is just breathtaking, and I don't remember having the same euphoric feeling about spring when I was growing up in California.

What do you think is the Orchestra's most important role in our community? It's very important to continue to educate the students, as well as bring joy to the folks in the regular audience. I think classical music is still very important in our MTV fast-food generation. Kids need to be exposed to things with complexity and maturity, not just quick fixes for their ever-shortening attention spans. It is also important to encourage kids to take up intruments - to develop discipline for something besides sports. Sports are great, but too often it's the only area of a child's life where they understand discipline and hard work.