Trumpeter Tony Glausi Earns National Recognition While Blazing His Own Trail.
By UO student Chelsea Fullmer
While practicing anything for 12 hours a week may seem excessive to some people, to musicians it is very conservative. Tony Glausi, however doesn’t believe that practicing the trumpet for endless hours each day will make him a better musician, defying convention on his way to earning national recognition.
“A lot of people practice a lot more than that, for four hours a day on their instrument, which I respect, and I’ve tried that before,” Glausi said. “But I just get bored. So if I can wake up, practice for an hour, have plenty of rehearsals that will tire me out, and then maybe find another hour, that is plenty.”
With one year left before his graduation, Glausi has already placed third in the National Trumpet Competition, earned Undergraduate College Outstanding Performance honors by Downbeat Magazine, finished first in the National Trumpet Competition’s Yamaha Jazz Division, and has been named Outstanding College Performer and Outstanding College Trumpeter at the Reno Jazz Festival. And that is all while as a UO student—he won the state trumpet solo competition twice while still in high school.
Clearly, Glausi’s practice schedule isn’t negatively affecting his talent or ability.
From trumpet to clarinet to flute and violin, music is everywhere in the Glausi family. His mother Carma, an experienced pianist and teacher, got all six of her children, including Tony, to tickle the ivory. Tony’s cousin also played the trumpet, which struck a chord in Glausi when he was just 10, and he has been playing ever since.
While a member of his middle school and high school bands, Glausi decided to look outwards, and joined the Portland Youth Jazz Orchestra and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony jazz band.
After applying to Northwestern, BYU, and USC, all schools with prestigious reputations in music, Glausi decided to come to the UO due to the personal outreach from Brian McWhorter, an associate trumpet professor in the School of Music and Dance.
“None of the other professors reached out to me, and Brian was actually calling me on the phone and saying ‘Hey, you should come to the UO,’” Glausi remembers.
Majoring in jazz studies, Glausi takes courses in such topics as composition and arranging. Besides obvious interests in music, Glausi also enjoys speaking Spanish, and will get to use those skills this summer on a six-week trip to Costa Rica. This recreational trip comes after Glausi joins other School of Music and Dance musicians on a two-week concert tour through France, Switzerland, and Italy.
While he excelled at trumpet throughout his schooling, Glausi also still finds time for the piano, and performs once a week with a jazz trio at Off the Waffle in Eugene.
“I feel like if I didn’t play the piano, I wouldn’t be as knowledgeable in general about music as a whole,” Glausi says about his piano playing.
After earning college credit from high school classes, Glausi came to the UO as a sophomore and will graduate in three years, at the age of 20. With just one year left at the UO, Glausi looks forward to taking some time off before most likely attending graduate school. But overall, he hopes to pursue a career in the profession that he loves.
“Most of the time, I think I’ll end up in a city I like first and foremost, playing music,” said Glausi.