Trumpet the news! Calgary has Suzuki training for the brass instrument

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Calgary is famous for many things, but turning out jazz prodigies isn’t one of them. At least not yet. Ten years from now, however, just remember that you read it here first: there’s a whole platoon of young trumpeting geniuses coming over the horizon, and local trumpeter Natalie DeJong is leading the charge.

DeJong grew up in Calgary listening to Hayden’s trumpet concerto at her grandparents’ house. Precocious and geeky in the best way, she decided at the age of 11 to take up the trumpet. “I thought it was hip and jazzy and regal,” says DeJong. She still does. The instrument took her to Rutgers University, where she did a master’s of music before landing an instructing gig at Mount Royal University. Recently, she was principal trumpet with the Camerata Philadelphia on the orchestra’s month-long tour of China.

Though DeJong isn’t one to toot her own horn (you knew that was coming), she is proud of her newly acquired title as North America’s only certified Suzuki trumpet instructor. DeJong heard the distant blast of her pedagogical calling back in graduate school, when she found herself contemplating how much more relaxed a musician she’d be if only she’d started playing trumpet at an earlier age. “I was thinking about tension,” says DeJong. “That tightness in our bodies that can hold us back when we do any activity. It brought me to the idea of teaching kids to play and develop in a natural way.”

Upon resettling in Calgary, DeJong gave her vision substance, purchasing “a fleet of pocket trumpets,” and opening her Redwood Meadows basement up to kids. Things went swimmingly. “I got calls from a lot of interested parents with kids who wanted to play.” Trumpet? Really? Indeed, brass has cachet with the four-year-old set. “It’s more visible to kids than you might think,” says DeJong. “They see trumpets in cartoons, and they like it because it’s loud and generally fun.” (Say the term “spit valve” to preschoolers and see if they don’t beg for a trumpet.)

Keen to follow the famous Suzuki method of teaching (its central tenet is that all children possess natural ability, and that learning an instrument is a particularly noble means of developing one’s character), DeJong looked around and realized that trumpet wasn’t on the menu—only in Sweden were Suzuki-Method trumpet lessons available for kids. Four trips to Sweden followed, culminating in official certification (not to mention a sweet gig playing with the Swedish Baroque Orchestra).

Operating out of MRU since September, DeJong teaches private and group classes to children between the ages of four and nine. “I have more students than I ever imagined I would,” she says. “And teaching kids this way has made me a better teacher to adults, too. There’s so much to learn about perseverance and determination.” DeJong has also discovered that trumpet enthusiasts come in all shapes and sizes—the audience in her Saturday morning group class often consists of a semi-circle of stuffed animals.”They provide incentive for the kids to play.” And they don’t seem to mind the exuberant blasts of young trumpet-love one bit.