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He is one of the most notable trumpeters worldwide and will play this Friday at the Ángela Peralta Theater

On Friday, March 10th at eight o’clock at night, one of the most notable soloists in the world, Otto Sauter, will perform at the Ángela Peralta Theater in Mazatlán. He is Guest Trumpeter of the Camerata Mazatlán.

Concerts for Trumpet and Orchestra is the name of the program that will flow under the baton of guest conductor Sergio Freeman and will also feature a performance by trumpeter Jorge Mejía.

Otto Sauter studied trumpet since he was three and a half years old, has participated in more than a thousand concerts, travels more than forty-eight weeks a year, has performed in more than seventy-two countries performing classical, baroque and early classical periods, He has recorded forty CDs and is in charge of the World Brass Association, he also investigates anonymous authors whose works have great quality.

His performances have been at the Vatican, at the Watburg Festival Meets Castle Neuschwanstein Concerts, Dachstein Hohle Ice Cave Concert, the Italian Brass Week in Florence, at the Apollon Temple Side in Turkey, at the Cesky Krumlov International Music Festival and a tour of Japan under the name of Otto Sauter & Ten of the Best among others.

His life has led him to meet and live with characters such as Ray Charles and Pope John Paul II, as well as Roger Waters, Montserrat Caballé, Mikis Theodorakis composer of the Dance of Zorba the Greek, José Carreras, Bobby Mcferrin, Elena Bashkirova, Muhai Tang, Marcello Viotti, Zubin Metha, Daniel Baremboim, Edita Gruberová and more.

Before his presentation, Mr. Otto Sauter granted an interview to the Instituto de Cultura, Turismo y Artes de Mazatlán.

Maestro, there is knowledge, conscience and sharing in you, not every human being can transmit, interpret and sensitize having events with death and cruelty, you interpreted a song dedicated to the deceased wife of a good friend of yours… How do you sensitize to that?
As a musician, as a professional, that is what an interpreter, an instrumentalist does, to demonstrate or make others feel what they are feeling, and that is why I do this type of activity, to share what I am feeling, and join the grief of the person, for example after the war in the Balkans in Croatia, I was invited to play some concerts as part of the peace process, they asked me to play Mozart’s Requiem for all those who had died, and then play pieces for trumpet that they were a little more festive, so it was strange.
After this, I spent five days crying non-stop, due to the situation Croatia was going through. It was really strong performing that concert, I have played at my mother’s funeral, at my father’s funeral and it is something very painful, I have to be very focused and I have to be truly feeling it to be able to share it.
I have also played during my wedding…
Contrasting!
Yes, contrasting (laughs) I had to play very well for my wife to say yes and accept her ring, (she continues laughing and shows her wedding ring).

I admire your adaptability
It’s something we have to do, if everyone was a musician, we wouldn’t have wars. For example, what is happening between Russia and Ukraine, I have many friends in Ukraine and many friends in Russia, but what happens there, the reason for war all the time is power and money.

I see in you a disinterest in power and money, you share the method to learn to improve technique in the instrumentalist, in any instrumentalist, of any social level of musicians.
Completely agree, I teach and give concerts in about seventy-five countries, and I hear and see many things, and I am just a human, and only one such human in the world, well it is not much, so what I can do is be sure that around me there is a very good atmosphere.

However, I see that You are not just any human being, because I have seen you perform in the Vatican, and your notes touch the spirit, not everyone achieves that.
What can I tell you, for me playing the trumpet is my life, there is nothing more special in my life, if I can’t play I will die.
Every day, I start studying at two or two-thirty in the morning, I travel all over the world because I realize that people appreciate and feel the work that I do, for me money is not really something important, when I was a student in Paris sometimes at the end of the month I had no money, so I would take my trumpet and play in the metro station, and I would play and they would give me some money.
And do you know when I felt the worst? In never, there is no difference.

You are a messenger with your instrument..
People can take notice and really see that I love what I do

What secret elements and what highly guarded elements have you found in the works that you investigate and that are under anonymity
Basically I base it on, if it’s good, I play it.
I will tell you a story, I have made many recordings with organ and trumpet, I once played in the Church of Santo Tomas, Joan Sebastian Bach was the organist in this cathedral, Bach’s tombstone is in front of the altar and they have a new organ above the altar, Left side.
We only did rehearsals at night because there is a lot of tourism during the day, I had the light on my lectern, the organist had his music and his light, and I began to feel something in my body that made my skin crawl (he laughs), I knew that the great master Bach was there listening to me, his presence was felt, I will never forget that.

Felt like crying, of laughing?
I was very excited, I was very happy, very content.
I told my wife: If I had the opportunity to meet Bach, the great teacher Bach, for a second or two seconds, I would give everything for that, just remembering him makes my skin crawl.
When I played for the first time in the Sistine Chapel and I was in front of Michelangelo’s work, someone opened a small window upstairs, it entered like a light, I didn’t know what was there or what it was, when I found out, it was the Pope, it was the Pope who looked out that window, Pope John Paul II Can you believe that? It came in like a light when I was playing. Can you imagine? And after this, Pope John Paul II asked to be invited on several more occasions.
However, there are many people in the world who do not believe in this divinity, in this spirituality…
I am Catholic and I was raised as a Christian, in my opinion all religions are very similar, the problem is that when religions gain power it is not right, when the Christians arrived in South America they did a lot of evil, what happens with Islamism is… I was in Azerbaijan and they have three different religions, it’s fantastic, there’s no problem, they don’t have any problems because of their beliefs, when fanaticism starts, it starts to distort.

Let’s move on to the artistic part, seventy-five countries working and you continue to give to the World Brass Association
I love traveling, for example, I love coming to Mexico, if I don’t like a country, I don’t go back. And also if people don’t like my work they won’t invite me again.
My first orchestra was the Bremen Symphony Orchestra as principal trumpeter, I studied in Switzerland, France, Sweden, in Los Angeles and I have had many teachers, I started in the orchestra in 1988, and in 1989, I invited five very famous trumpet teachers, these five teachers had five different methods or systems to play the trumpet, so they wrote down all the good experiences of all the teachers and I tried to remove all the negative ones and we created a new academy, then the manager of the Bremen Orchestra told me that businessmen had listened to the idea and the project that I had, and that the businessmen were willing to grant resources, I founded a metal festival, first it was for trumpets and later all the other metals, and it was once the most important in the world. Great, because in 1994 the inaugural concert was at the soccer stadium and it cost 1.5 million dollars. The most important thing about the festival is that there were many masterclasses or courses for students, and the benefit was for the students, they had to learn.
The president of the Werder Bremen soccer team in Germany was my great friend, and thanks to him I obtained resources from the German government. We organized many things, for example, in 1986 Ray Charles went to Germany and many different projects and things were achieved, but In 2001 my friend died, and I decided to found small festivals after this, I realized that it was a different way from what I had thought, so the masterclasses had no relevance for the students.
Six years ago, I told my wife that I wanted to start over, the European Union supports projects and we founded the World Brass Association, and when we founded it and published it, many countries, not only in Europe but all over the world, began to locate us to associate, and that is why it was possible to found the World Brass Association.
I remember that once in Japan I received an email from the Chinese government to offer a five-year contract with three festivals a year, I went to Beijing, and they proposed a concert, I said yes, they said yes, I could give a masterclass, of course, tomorrow at six in the morning, it turned out that in the largest conservatory in Beijing they didn’t allow us to start in the morning, at six in the morning, so we went to a park, and every day at six in the morning I had 40 students in the park.
When the director of the conservatory accompanied by his wife took me to the airport, they invited me to be a guest teacher of the conservatory, I told them no. He had time, that is, he offered me eight weeks a year, I couldn’t, he also wanted a masterclass for his wife, I told them I didn’t have time, the director of the conservatory told me, how much do you want to charge? I replied that it sounded tempting, but I didn’t have time.
In China, the pianists and violinists are at the top, and the trumpet players, who by the way are many and very talented, they do not support them very much, and they go to the United States or Europe and never return to China, so they do not have many trumpet students, I would like to change that, they have told me that I can change that.
People can see how I am really doing a good job, I could also start at five in the morning, discipline is vital and important, in the summer in Paris there was a very talented fifteen-year-old Italian student and we started at six in the morning and the door closes at six and no one comes in, if this student arrived three minutes late I no longer would receive him, the next day they came to class early, Jon Faddis, a very famous North American jazz trumpeter, taught online, and the boy told him about the case, Jon told him, what’s wrong with you, are you crazy? You should be half an hour before class starts. The next day the boy arrived 10 minutes before six, and he told me, Maestro, have I been here fifteen minutes, why hadn’t he arrived? (bursts out laughing).
I always arrived early to my classes, I always wanted to take advantage of my teachers, if the students arrive late to class, they are incorrect students, they have to value the teacher.

In Mazatlán, Otto Sauter teaches a course and will offer concerts.
Do we have to take advantage of his presence, is he where he likes to be?
Of course yes (he shows me smiling his annual personal agenda full of events with the Flag of Mexico marked as a favorite).
I’ll be waiting for you this Friday at eight o’clock in the evening at the Ángela Peralta Theater next to the Camerata Mazatlán. Tickets available at the box office $300.00 $250.00 $200 and $150.00.

 

Éste artículo fue publicado en Press. .

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