Jazz student encourages musicians to 'step out of the box'

This week’s student artist: Ethan Turner spends five or six hours perfecting his craft

Sophomore music major Ethan Turner spends his spare time practicing and rehearsing. He plays the saxophone, bassoon and piano and is involved with the Symphonic Band and Jazz Combo at CU.

Turner started when his mother taught him how to play the piano in first grade. Then when he inherited his grandfather’s saxophone in sixth grade, he wanted to learn how to play it, too.

“Ethan lives and breathes music and he works hard at it,” said his mother, Lisa Turner. “Ethan has always been musically inclined. He expressed an interest in music early on – it wasn’t something I made him learn. He wanted to do it.”

Balancing his studies, he says he practices at least two and a half hours every day on top of his two- to three-hour rehearsals. He also tries to get involved with small jazz groups so he can gain experience in local performances outside of school.

“The biggest performance I have had with a group was with the Longmont Youth Symphony. We played music for a children’s ballet performance, which was really fun,” Turner said.

Turner is especially interested in making jazz music diverse. He is applying for a grant to teach high school students about creating jazz music with less-traditional instruments.

“I think people need to step out of the box. Musicians should learn to be more diverse. Too many musicians feel that only certain types of instruments work for jazz music, and I would like to see non-jazz instruments utilized,” Turner said.

Although he especially loves jazz music and believes everyone should listen to classics like John Coltrane and Miles Davis, Turner says he likes to listen to everything because he appreciates a wide range of music and instruments.

After graduation, Turner hopes to turn his music major into a teaching career.

“I like the idea of teaching music to others as a university professor,” he said.

When asked what he thought was the best advice to people learning how to play musical instruments, Turner said, “Don’t ever give up. Learning something new is almost always really frustrating, but don’t give up.”