Musician Spotlights - Jack Farnham, Trumpet

We’re continuing our celebration of National Trumpet Day with Jack Farnham, who just joined the symphony this season as one of our acting principal trumpets!

I am a music student at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. I will complete my trumpet performance degree with a minor in music theory in December of this year. At Northwestern, I study with David Bilger, Thomas Rolfs, and Michael Sachs. I also freelance and teach in the Chicago and Evanston area.

My mom took piano lessons from when she was a kid all the way through college. She didn’t major in music but she is a very accomplished pianist so when my brothers and I entered second grade, she signed us up for piano lessons. I didn’t hate taking piano lessons, but I never found the instrument very exciting. At about the same time, my elementary school created an after school bongo program for first and second graders, which my mom also signed me up for. The instructor of the bongo class was named Robert Frasier and he made music super fun for all of us and it just so happened that his main instrument was the trumpet. I have memories of him setting all 20 or so of us up with a pattern on the bongos and he would improvise on his trumpet over the rhythmic groove that we had created. I was pretty much hooked from then. I thought the sound of the trumpet and the presence you have when playing it was super cool. Fast forward one more year (third grade) and we got to choose instruments to play in the school band. I immediately knew I’d go for the trumpet and am still enjoying playing it many years later.

This is my first year in the symphony, so I’m just excited to meet all the musicians and start making music.

I swam competitively from when I was 6 till the end of high school and I continued to swim (more recreationally) on the club team at Northwestern during my four years in school. I also like to golf and play poker.

I used to be super big into juggling and at my peak in high school I was able to juggle 6 balls. 5 is still pretty comfortable for me, but I’m definitely out of practice in comparison to my high school years.