Professional trumpet player visits Fiji
ONE can not easily play the trumpet professionally. It takes talent, time and pure dedication.
For John Robertson, who was one of the world’s leading trumpet soloists in his time, it took stamina, strength, endurance facing health hazards while devoting 10 hours a day to rehearsals.
An article in The Fiji Times on March 12, 1970, shared how this Sydney based trumpet player gave a concert at the Suva Civic Centre auditorium to mark the opening of Bergengren House, the training centre for the Fiji Credit Union League.
During the interview with Robertson, he shared details of his work at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he was the professor of trumpet and also the principal trumpet player in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
“Between now and then, Mr Robertson will be catching up with his practising schedule,” the article read.
As well as rehearsals which might take up to six hours a day and teaching at the conservatorium, he puts in two or three hours day to private practise.
The article stated that Robertson believed that to “miss one day’s of practice was like committing musical suicide.”
Robertson often found himself in odd spots practising his trumpet.
Once he was in the cellar surrounded by odd and antique instruments and another time he was joined by a chorus of dogs in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales.
Robertson lived by a number of rules including keeping away from alcohol, not smoking cigars and no kissing that could have a numbing effect on the lips.
He said blisters on the lips were the ‘no-no’ of a trumpet player’s life.
When on stage he preferred to play the C trumpet which was a tone higher than the normal trumpet which he described as having a ‘brilliant sound.’
Robertson travelled with his wife to Fiji. She mentioned to this newspaper that their Sydney home was surrounded by trumpets ‘even under the bed’.