Wine and Trombone

[joshuamaloney]

In the early 90's I was studying with Roger Davenport (St. Louis Symphony) while in high school. I was accepted to several universities and had not yet decided what I wanted to study in college. One day during my lesson, Roger asked me about college, and I told him I didn't know if I wanted to study music or chemistry. He said to me, "Study chemistry, because the last thing this world needs is another poor trombone player."

So I went to Cornell and studied Chemistry. And then winemaking. And now almost thirty years later I've been working as a winemaker, supporting a family, but also wondering what life would have been like had I made different choices.

After much contemplation, I have come to two incontrovertible truths.
First - The thing this world needs more than anything is more poor trombone players. And more poor musicians of every kind. We need more musicians.

Second - We are all artists, in everything we do. Too many people go through life thinking that what they do doesn't matter. But everything we all do is art, and everyone matters.


Please send me your wine label ideas and I will send you feedback.
Joshua Maloney

[Jimkinkella]

Where’s your winery?
I’m far too familiar with a few in southern / central California!

[Kingfan]

I had the same fork in the road - continue on as a trombone performance major, or change career paths to something that would make me a good living. I took the latter path and don't regret it one bit. I wasn't as fully dedicated and passionate to the instrument as my peers in the conservatory and I realized I would have been a poor and frustrated professional musician. I enjoyed playing trombone as an amateur musician the last 50 years. It was an escape a few hours a week from my job as an insurance company risk manager.

Joshua, where is your winery and what varieties of wine do you make? In vino veritas!

[tbdana]

Completely agree on both points.

I took your path only later in life. I quit playing, but only after about 20 years playing professionally. I got burned out so one day I sold all my instruments and didn't play another note for 30 years. But now I'm back at it, and am so much more enjoying the art and music of it, rather than the business. What I found about the music business was that the higher in the business you went, the more business it was and the less music.

Back to playing for one year, so far, I'm joyfully filled with the art and am completely unconcerned about rising in the business. I wish I had taken that approach when I was young.

[OneTon]

Gallo Hearty Mountain Burgundy helped the Arban’s excercises immensely.

[harrisonreed]

Here is a public domain image from Kimball's trombone history site:



I highly recommend adapting this guy into a wine label, a la Nikka Whiskey's trademark:



It helps that the guy is breaking his trombone in half on his knee, like we have all felt at some point.

[claf]

Fun fact: after the moving of the production of Courtois instruments in Germany, the french factory re-opened to build copper parts for the wine industry.
They recently started making trombones again, my bass is from there. The maker's mark is made from leftovers of a wine making part.
Wine and trombones definitely share a very strong bond

[joshuamaloney]

Thank you all for your posts about your own experiences, I really appreciate your insights!

Part of the reason I've been thinking about this recently is that both my children are in high school music, son plays cello and daughter plays trombone, so we can converse in bass clef as a family. I still have my trombone from when I was their age (Bach 42C) and I've started practicing again. Going to their performances and playing again has made me realize not just how much I have missed it, but how profound music and performing have been in shaping who I am, leading to me to where I am today.

To answer a question that a couple people asked - I make wine in Washington State. I started in the NY Finger Lakes, then spent a half dozen vintages in California (Napa and Monterey) before moving to Washington. I used to have my own label, but I stopped producing that a few years ago. Today I consult for almost 10 different wineries. My clients produce different styles of wines from different parts of the Pacific NW, so it allows me to flex a variety of enological muscles. I would think it's analogous to having steady and repeatable gig work, where you get to play big band one day, symphonic the next, wind ensemble another day, etc.

Lastly, the trombone themed wine I've always wanted to produce would be called "Fifth Position". When anyone asks where the wine is made, I could respond "nobody knows."

[Doug Elliott]

And then of course you could refer to it as having notes of bright sharpness and flat darkness, and having both body and soul.

[Posaunus]

Uh oh. Knowing this crowd, this thread could quickly degenerate!

[Kingfan]

Lastly, the trombone themed wine I've always wanted to produce would be called "Fifth Position". When anyone asks where the wine is made, I could respond "nobody knows."

Good one!