Greg Danner: Rhapsody
Brooke Joyce: Flash!
Roger Petersen: Song for Sarah
Neil Flory: Suite for Oboe and Trumpet
Lauren Bernofsky: Concerto for Trumpet
Nadje Noordhuis: Captain Anya

Back when I was a teenager (a very long time ago), I worked in a Musical Instrument service and retail shop for a couple of years, where we stocked a comprehensive collection of music method books, as well as a full array of equipment from guitars, to keyboards, to woodwind and brass instruments. Up until then my main personal instruments were, and still are, the piano and pipe organ. One day I decided that I would "attempt" a go at the trumpet. And tried and tried I did, when I was on my lunch break in the backroom, where I wasn't within earshot of staff or customers. Well, let me just say, that even after a week or two I found it very difficult to produce even one steady pitched note, let alone a complete melody, that could be considered musically pleasant to the ear.

Therefore I can understand the choice of the word Determination as the title of Scott Hagarty's debut recording. Associate Professor of Trumpet at Tennessee Tech University, he points out within the booklet notes that "this recording reflects the decades of determination that has led to the creation of this album." A determination which, although inaudible or intangible, is present behind each and every loud and proud, soft and muted, sharp and punchy, or lyrical and expressive note he plays.

Except for the Concerto for Trumpet by Lauren Bernofsky, presented here in its piano reduction by pianist Tomoko Kanamaru, all the pieces on this CD are world premiere recordings. And in their own individual ways, they showcase Scott Hagarty's versatile proficiency on the instrument. From the highly expressive solo trumpet Song for Sarah, to the powerful sci-fi inspired bursts of energy in the Overture to Flash!, to the muted and shadowy melody from the Cantilena movement of the Concerto for Trumpet, they all demonstrate Hagarty's musical proclivity. In other words, he makes producing musically pleasant sounds on the trumpet seem easy. Now that's what I call determination!