Sabbatical Story, Part 2: France

The second week of November, I flew from Corfu, Greece, to France, for a week of recitals and residencies at three French conservatories, in Lyon, Tours, and Montluçon.

Historic Montluçon, France

On November 8, 2021, I was in residence at the Lyon Conservatory, as a guest of Arnaud Schotte, Professor of Trumpet at the Lyon Conservatory. The day before my residency at the conservatory, Arnaud took me to coffee, and I enjoyed catching up with him about our many mutual friends and contacts. (As it turns out, Arnaud went to school in the United States at the Purchase Conservatory in New York, where he was a classmate of my recent University of Kentucky student Jeff Barrington.)

In the French system, students of all ages can enroll in conservatory, and the Lyon Conservatory has a total of around 70 trumpet students! I began the day with a 9:30am master class. About an hour into the class, I asked Professor Schotte how much time we had left, to which he replied, "We should stop by 12:45pm." While at first that sounded like a very long class, this turned out to be the shortest teaching day I had in France!

Jason Dovel with Arnaud Schotte in Lyon, France

After the three-hour master class, we walked to a nearby restaurant for a delightful French lunch, where we were joined by Lyon trumpet artist Thierry Seneau and the conservatory's wonderful collaborative pianist. We then headed back to the conservatory for my afternoon recital. I played the same recital I had previously played in Greece in the United States.

Trumpet Recital at the Lyon Conservatory

View of Lyon, France, as seen from the hilltop Lyon Conservatory

On November 9, I was a guest artist at the Francis Poulenc Conservatoire in Tours, France, as a guest of professor Arnaud Juchault. (In planning this tour I had to be careful keeping straight my emails with Arnaud Schotte in Lyon and Arnaud Juchault in Tours!) I enjoyed meeting Professor's Juchault dear family as well as staying in their beautiful country home during my visit.

I started the day in Tours by teaching a warm-up class and then taught an afternoon master class in which most of the conservatory's students played a solo piece or etude for me for feedback. I was especially honored that many of the Tours students had prepared my original compositions to play for me! At the end of the day I coached a trumpet ensemble made up of some of the conservatory's youngest students.

Presenting a master class to students at the Poulenc Conservatory

With students at the Poulenc Conservatory

Arnaud Juchault with Jason Dovel

On November 10, I visited the Conservatoire André Messager in Montluçon, France, as a guest of professor Andre Bonnici. I had more free time in Montluçon, and Andre was kind enough to give me a wonderful tour of his charming town. Montluçon could be a Hollywood backlot for a movie set in the 1200s - only it's the real thing! In addition to enjoying the historic town, I also really enjoyed having meals in Andre's home with his dear family.

Andre really organized my visit well and a number of local educators and students from other conservatories attended the day's events, which was organized along the lines of an American "Trumpet Day" type festival.  I gave a master class from around 1pm - 6pm and then played a recital at 6:30pm.    It was a wonderful day!

View of Montluçon, France

Posing by Louie Armstrong at the Montluçon Music Museum (Museum of the Musiques Populaires)

Andre Bonnici and Jason Dovel

With some of the Montluçon students after my recital

A trumpet student performs during the day's festivities in the conservatory recital hall

It has been such a wonderful opportunity to live, perform, and teach in Europe for this sabbatical. In the upcoming blog post(s), I hope to share some tourist-y things I did apart from the trumpet, as well as share some insights on things I learned on this sabbatical.

Jason Dovel is associate professor of trumpet at the University of Kentucky and a Yamaha Performing Artist. He is host of the annual UK Summer Trumpet Institute held every June in Lexington, KY (USA).

Sabbatical Story, Part 1: Corfu and First Tour

In Fall 2021, I was granted sabbatical leave from the University of Kentucky to serve as Visiting Professor of Trumpet at Ionian University in Corfu, Greece. I am so grateful for this opportunity and thankful for UK administrators who support important professional development projects. (Thank you Dr. Pelkey and Dean Shanda.)

Corfu is a Greek island that lies west of mainland Greece and east of Italy. Ionian University is located in "Old Town" Corfu, and the Department of Music Studies itself is located on the historical Old Fortress grounds. I can not imagine a more scenic place for music study!

View of the Old Fortress in Old Town Corfu, with the Ionian University music building circled in red

Restaurants along Old Town Corfu's famous Spianáda Square

Harbor just a short walk northwest of the Old Fortress. Sea is the Ionian Sea, mountains in background are mountains of mainland Greece

Standing on the south side of the Old Fortress (music building on opposite site)

Ionian University did not begin courses until the first week of October. So, prior to departing for Greece, I played four solo recitals in the United States: at the University of Kentucky, Western Kentucky University, Arkansas State University, and University of North Texas. (If you'd like to take a listen, the livestream capture from the WKU recital is still available online here)

With my friend Dr. Sarah Herbert, Professor of Trumpet at Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY)

With University of North Texas professor Dr. Raquel Samayoa and UNT students (Denton, Texas)

With students at Arkansas State University (Jonesboro, Arkansas)

After my recital tour, I flew from Lexington to Athens, Greece. Prior to starting my service at Ionian University, I had a wonderful time catching up with my Greek friends that I had met in previous trips to Greece.

Lunch near Athens with Gerassimos Ioannidis, George & Mirto Babarakos

After a brief visit in Athens, I flew to the island of Corfu and got settled in my apartment, which is located near the New Fortress. (The music department is about a 10-minute walk away, by the Old Fortress)

View of Old Town Corfu from the perspective of the New Fortress

At Ionian University, I have enjoyed teaching weekly trumpet lessons to the ten trumpet students, weekly studio classes, and also guest lectures in other courses, especially music composition courses. In these other courses, have taught about extended techniques, early music, and how to compose and arrange for trumpet and other brass instruments.

Jason Dovel with trumpet students at Ionian University

Standing by the entrance to the Ionian University Department of Music Studies

Inside the Ionian University Music Dept

Ionian University trumpet studio class

Students Prodromos Vourliotis and Xristina Livana perform during studio class (by coincidence, they both in high school studied with George Babarakos, my longtime Greek friend who I met for lunch in Athens in the earlier picture above)

Dinner with the Ionian University trumpet studio

The students at Ionian University are very eager to learn and have been great to interact with.  The repertoire they bring to their lessons is largely the same materials you would find in an American trumpet studio: Long tones by Vincent Cichowicz and Bai Lin, Charlier etudes, Concerti by Haydn and Hummel, as well as sonatas by Hansen, Kennan, etc.

On Wednesday, November 3, 2021, at 7:30pm, I played a faculty trumpet recital at Ionian University. The university press release for this event can be found here. This was the first live concert in the Ionian Academy's Ceremonial Hall in 18 months!

With students following my IU trumpet recital.

I am really enjoying my sabbatical so far and plan to share "the rest of the story" on this blog in the near future. More coming soon, stay tuned!

Jason Dovel is associate professor of trumpet at the University of Kentucky and a Yamaha Performing Artist. He is host of the annual UK Summer Trumpet Institute held every June in Lexington, KY (USA).