77. A Trumpeter’s Tale
Photo by Lorena Cendón
Esteban Battalán was not yet 7 years old when he first picked up a trumpet. He already spoke two languages and was poised to not only learn but master a third—the one he describes in our episode as “the most international language.” Can you guess? (And no, not English.)
SOUND THE TRUMPET OF THE LEGENDARY CSO BRASS
Esteban is now principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass—popularly known as CSO Brass. If you google its YouTube entries, you’ll see you’re far from the first to enjoy their sound. In one case, 86,000 viewers have beat you to it.
But they probably haven’t heard Esteban talk about his music odyssey and his language odyssey, the two intersecting in Venn diagram-style to bring him to CSO Brass. He shares this and other stories in our episode.
After you’ve listened, be sure to watch Esteban perform a special piece that he talks about in the episode, “Mr. Batallan” by Arturo Sandoval. Find it here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajNJE-SuswE.
Photo by Todd Rosenberg
Photo by Todd Rosenberg
HEAR THE STORY
Listen on Apple Podcasts here: America the Bilingual by Steve Leveen; on Spotify; or wherever you tune in to your podcasts.
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TAKE OUR QUIZ ON AMERICA AND BILINGUALISM
You’ll find our very first quiz, “Test Your Knowledge of America’s Linguistic Landscape, in 10 Questions,” here in our new Quizzery. See how you do—and then let us know how we did in providing an entertaining and informative quiz, on the short survey that follows. Akshay was one of our beta testers, and he shares his thoughts on the quiz in the episode.
CREDITS
America the Bilingual is a project of the Levenger Foundation, which supports bilingualism and biliteracy in the Americas.
Thanks to members of the America the Bilingual Project team for this episode: Mim Harrison, editorial and brand director of the America the Bilingual Project, who wrote and directed this episode; Fernando Hernández Becerra and his production house in Guadalajara, Mexico, Esto No Es Radio, which provides sound design and mixing; and Jen Cavagnaro at Daruma Tech, who manages our website.
Music performed by Esteban in this episode is from these recordings: Haydn Trumpet Concerto in Eb; Nightfall; and Premiere, “Mr. Batallán.” Further details on estebanbatallan.com/videos. Plus this last-minute addition, from YouTube: J.N. Hummel Trumpet Concerto, 1st Movement.
Special thanks to Gene Pokorny, principal tuba of CSO, for introducing Steve to Esteban. That was Gene performing Schifrin Tuba Concerto that you heard during Steve’s opening monologue about his musical high school buddies. Find the concerto, written specifically for Gene, at https://cso.org/about/performers/cso-musicians/brass/tuba/gene-pokorny/. Then go back a long time ago to a summer far, far away (okay, maybe not that far), to hear Gene performing “Jabba the Hutt” from Return of the Jedi in the summer of 1983 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj5uDeDaLjE.
Additional music, in order of appearance: Koi-Discovery, Beer-Blues; Illinois Brass Band, Wright, Tam O’Shanter’s Ride; Kevin MacLeod, Quasi Motion; Frederic Lardon feat Laura Palmée, Dans la méditation transcendantale; and Monplaisir, Jam With Me.
America the Bilingual is a project of the Levenger Foundation, which supports bilingualism and biliteracy in the Americas.
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First, know that she has one of those glorious English accents (or what all of us who are not English would call an accent), which makes her a natural for the audio book narration that she does. Although U.S. born, Caroline grew up in England and studied literature at the University of Warwick (fyi for American ears: that second “w” is silent).
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