We interviewed future’s trumpet player: 3 questions to Lucienne Renaudin Vary

Newcomer in the circle of “Menuhin’s Heritage Artists”, the young and sparkling French musician will offer, on August 11 in Rougemont, in the company of accordionist Félicien Brut, a recital programme that is filled with sunny lightness.

You probably get asked this a lot … With artists like Alison Balsom and Tine Thing Helseth, more and more young women are emerging in the brass scene, which so far has been dominated by men: How do you explain that?

LR: When I started playing the trumpet, I had no preconceived ideas about the instrument. It was simply love at first sight; I was eight years old and excited to be able to produce a sound. It was only with time that I realised it was a very male domain – in lessons, for example, and then later at the competitions. During the first year at the CNSM Classique, there were two of us in my year, and at CNSM Jazz I was even the only woman. People think that men play the trumpet better because they believe you need physical strength to blow the instrument, that you have to be powerfully built, but that’s not true. It probably has something to do with the fact that many unconsciously associate the trumpet with something military: Fanfare blasts, marching bands, military parades … Fortunately, this has changed in the meantime, there are more and more women at the conservatoires and in orchestras.

Do you think you had a harder time asserting yourself because you were a woman?

LR: I was lucky to have always had very nice teachers and good contacts. At the conservatoire I was the youngest, but I never felt rejected at all because I was a woman. Today, on the other hand, I often notice sexist behaviour and inappropriate sexual innuendo. Maybe that’s because I appear more often in the media now, or because I can sometimes be seen on television.

You seem to cross all boundaries between genres and to feel just as comfortable in the world of classical music as in jazz: Is pigeonholing a thing of the past?

LR: I basically like all music genres. I need all styles, they stimulate and enrich me from all different kinds of directions. It would be impossible for me to decide on any of them. When I go from classical to jazz, I don’t even change my instrument or mouthpiece. Also, improvisation is not reserved for jazz alone: The interpretation of a classical trumpet concerto, for example, offers great freedom.