The Northwest Passage Trumpet Trio, of which Dr. Jennifer Dearden, associate professor of music and chair of the Allegheny College Music Department, is a founding member, has announced the recent release of its first album, “Expeditions.”
The trio also consists of two other music professors from the northwest Pennsylvania area — Dr. Timothy Winfield of Westminster College and Dr. Andy Erb of Grove City College.
Since its founding in 2015, the trio has been dedicated to exposing a variety of audiences to a vast array of music, both in live performance and now via their album. They are also committed to commissioning and performing new music that will advance the genre of trumpet trio within the musical community.
The trio formed in the fall of 2015. Dearden says: “Myself and two other collegiate trumpet professors in western Pennsylvania were each searching for a creative way to present a recital to our respective college communities. The collaboration was originally meant to be for a single recital, but it was both a professional challenge and a great deal of fun, so we decided to keep it going, and the Northwest Passage Trumpet Trio was born.”
The group has performed at numerous venues around western Pennsylvania, and performed one of the works — “Nuvens de Junho” by Fernando Deddos, which was written for the Northwest Passage Trumpet Trio and appears on their new album — at the 2019 International Trumpet Guild Conference in Miami, Florida.
The COVID-19 outbreak has prevented the Northwest Passage Trumpet Trio from having a more traditional recital to celebrate the release of “Expeditions,” so instead they produced a brief virtual ensemble video, showcasing one of the tracks on the album, which you can access by clicking here.
The trio recorded the tracks for the CD some time ago, and all the post-production for the CD was also complete before the pandemic. “The video, however, was created last month, with each of us in our separate homes, playing our own parts,” says Dearden. “We did not need to rehearse for this particular project because it was a piece we knew very well and have performed several times. We played with a click track, which isn’t heard in the video, to keep us all playing the same tempo, but otherwise the three videos are just put together through the magic of editing into a composite product.”
Physical CDs are available now by going to jenniferdearden.com or winfieldtrumpet.com, and a digital version will be available in the coming weeks.