Renowned trumpet artist and co-founder of the Brass Institutes of America Dr. Buddy Deshler will join Dallas Collaborative Pianist Kristy Mezines for a concert benefiting Boys & Girls Homes of North Carolina at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 21 in the Leamon Rogers Memorial Chapel on the BGHNC campus at Lake Waccamaw. This will be Deshler’s third time performing at BGHNC and is the kickoff concert commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Chapel. His father once worked for Boys & Girls Homes, and past BGHNC president Gary Faircloth is his godfather. At the concert, he and Mezines will play a variety of trumpet and piano pieces from popular tunes to classical compositions.
Deshler is thrilled to conduct a trumpet teaching session with some BGHNC residents while he’s visiting campus.
“Even a small interaction can cause a positive difference whether that’s a joke or in providing some hope in some way or just being the right person saying the right thing at the right time for somebody else,” he said. “You never know what impact that can have on somebody.”
Deshler is currently an assistant professor of Music and teaches Applied Trumpet in the Furman Trumpet Studio at Furman University in Greenville, S.C.
As a student, Deshler was a casual musician until he discovered the magic of the band room in his Virginia high school where the band and the trumpet became “a fun and safe place where I made friends and felt special,” he said. “In 10th grade, I realized you could go to college for music, and I felt like that’s what I had to do. [The band room] was where you hung out with your friends before and after school and after lunch.”
Since those band room days, Deshler has traveled and taught widely in every state at more than 60 universities, especially during his five years playing with the respected Dallas Brass.
“I love connecting with audiences and communities everywhere,” he said. “BGHNC is a very special place to share music with people and kids and students in the area. I really like to travel to bring my friends and my music to as many places as I can.”
Deshler said he met Kristy Mezines at a music conference, and her ability to accompany complex brass compositions on piano impressed him. Mezines is also a widely traveled performing pianist with the Brass Institutes of America.
For his future projects, Deshler is joining the accompanists for an upcoming Broadway performance of SPAMALOT in Greenville. Later this summer, he will join the Greenville Symphony Orchestra, teach several upcoming master classes at area universities and travels to South Africa in March for trumpet workshops at colleges there.
In short, Deshler doesn’t sit still.
“I try to keep myself entertained,” he said, laughing. “I just feel like a professional band kid. I literally just still hang out in the music building with my music colleagues.”
Questions? Please call 910-646-3083. A love offering for Boys & Girls Homes will be collected during the concert.
